Regime Change at the IMF: The Frame-Up of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - Global Research, May 19, 2011
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24866
The arrest of IMF Managing Director Dominique
Strauss-Kahn has all the appearances of a
frame-up ordered by powerful members of the
financial establishment, in liaison with France's
Nicolas Sarkozy, whose presidency has served the
interests of the US at the expense of those of
France and the European Union. While there is for
the moment no proof of a plot, the unusual
circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment require careful examination.
Immediately following Strauss Kahn's arrest,
pressures were exerted by Washington to speed up
his replacement as Managing Director of the IMF
preferably by a non-European, an American or a
handpicked candidate from an "emerging market
economy" or a developing country.
Since the founding of the Bretton Woods
institutions in 1945, the World Bank has been
headed by an American whereas the IMF has been
under the helm of a (Western) European.
Strauss-Kahn is a member of elite groups who meet
behind closed doors. He belongs to the
Bildeberger. Categorized as one of the world's
most influential persons, he is an academic and
politician rather than a banker. In contrast to
his predecessors at the IMF, he has no direct
affiliation to a banking or financial institution.
But at the same time he is the fall guy. His
"gaffe" was to confront the Washington-Wall
Street Consensus and push for reforms within the
IMF, which challenged America's overriding role within the organization.
The demise of Strauss-Kahn potentially serves to
strengthen the hegemony of the US and its control
over the IMF at the expense of what former
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "Old Europe".
Blocking Strauss-Kahn, the Presidential Candidate
In recent years, a major shift has occurred in
Europe's political landscape. Pro-American
governments have been elected in both France and
Germany. Social Democracy has been weakened.
Franco-American relations have been redefined,
with Washington playing a significant role in
grooming a new generation of European politicians.
The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy has, in many
regards, become a de facto US "client regime",
broadly supportive of US corporate interests in
the EU and closely aligned with US foreign policy.
There are two overlapping and interrelated issues
in the DSK frame-up hypothesis.
The first pertains to regime change at the IMF,
the second to Strauss-Kahn as a candidate in
France's forthcoming presidential elections.
Both these processes are tied into the clash
between competing US and European economic interests.
Strauss-Khan as a favorite of the Socialist
Party, would have won the presidential elections
leading to the demise of "Our Man in Paris" Nicolas Sarkozy.
As documented by Thierry Meyssan, the CIA played
a central undercover role in destabilizing the
Gaullist party and supporting the election of
Nicolas Sarkozy (See Operation Sarkozy: How the
CIA placed one of its agents at the presidency of
the French Republic, Reseau Voltaire, September 4, 2008)
A Strauss-Kahn presidency and a "Socialist"
government would have been a serious setback for
Washington, contributing to a major shift in
Franco-American relations. It would also have
contributed to weakening America's role on the
European political chessboard. It would also have
changed the balance of power between America and
"Old Europe" (namely the Franco-German
alliance). It would have had repercussions on
the internal structure of the Atlantic Alliance
and the hegemonic role of the US within NATO.
The Frame-Up?
Fifty-seven percent of France's population,
according to a May 17 poll, believe that
Strauss-Kahn was framed, victim of a set-up. He
was detained on alleged sexual assault and rape
charges based on scanty evidence. He was detained
based on a complaint filed by the Sofitel hotel
where he was staying, on behalf of the alleged
victim, an unnamed hotel chamber-maid:
The 32-year-old maid told authorities that she
entered his suite early Saturday afternoon and he
attacked her, New York Police Department
spokesman Paul J. Browne. She said she had been
told to clean the spacious $3,000-a-night suite, which she thought was empty.
According to an account the woman provided to
police, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom
naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her
into a bedroom, where he began to sexually
assault her. She said she fought him off, then he
dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced
her to perform oral sex on him and tried to
remove her underwear. The woman was able to break
free again and escaped the room and told hotel
staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7565485.html#ixzz1MfFWFlnY
Challenging the Washington Consensus
What is at stake in the immediate wake of Strauss
Kahn's demise is "regime change" at the IMF.
The Obama administration has demanded his
replacement by a more compliant individual. U.S.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former CEO
of the New York Federal Reserve Bank is pushing
for the replacement of Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
"suggesting he can no longer perform his duties" as IMF Managing director.
"Geithner called for greater formal recognition
by the IMF board that John Lipsky, the fund's
second-in-command, will continue serving as
temporary managing director for an interim
period. Although Strauss-Kahn has yet to resign,
sources say the IMF is in touch with his legal
counsel to discuss his future at the organization."
What lies behind the frame-up scenario? What
powerful interests are involved? Geithner had a
close personal relationship with Strauss-Kahn.
On the floor of the US Senate (May 18), Senator
Mark Kirk of Illinois, called for the resignation
of DSK while calling upon the IMF's deputy
managing director John Lipsky to "assume full
responsibility of the IMF" as interim managing
director. The process of "permanent replacement
should "commence at once," he said. John Lipsky
is a well connected Wall Street banker, a former
Vice Chairman at JPMorgan Investment Bank.
While the IMF is in theory an intergovernmental
organization, it has historically been controlled
by Wall Street and the US Treasury. The IMF's
"bitter economic medicine", the so-called
Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), imposed on
countless developing countries, essentially
serves the interests of creditor banks and multinational corporations.
The IMF is not the main architect of these
devastating economic reforms which have served to
impoverish millions of people, while creating a
"favorable environment" for foreign investors in
Third World low wage economies.
The creditor banks call the shots. The IMF is a
bureaucratic entity. Its role is to implement and
enforce those economic policies on behalf of dominant economic interests.
Strauss Kahn's proposed reforms while providing a
"human face" to the IMF did not constitute a
shift in direction. They were formulated within
the realm of neoliberalism. They modified but
they did not undermine the central role of IMF
"economic medicine". The socially devastating
impacts of IMF "shock treatment" under
Strauss-Kahn's leadership have largely prevailed.
Dominique Strauss Kahn arrived at the helm of the
IMF in November 2007, less than a year prior to
September-October 2008 financial meltdown on Wall
Street. The structural adjustment program (SAP)
was not modified. Under DSK, IMF "shock
treatment" which historically had been limited to
developing countries was imposed on Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Under the helm of DSK as Managing Director, the
IMF demanded that developing countries remove
food and fuel subsidies at a time of rising
commodity prices on the New York and Chicago Mercantile exchanges.
The hikes in food and fuel prices, which preceded
the September-October 2008 Wall Street crash,
were in large part the result of market
manipulation. Grain prices were boosted
artificially by large scale speculative
operations. Instead of taming the speculators and
containing the rise in food and fuel prices, the
IMF's role was to ensure that the governments of
indebted developing countries would not in any
way interfere in the "free market", by preventing these prices from going up.
These hikes in food prices, which are the result
of outright manipulation (rather than scarcity)
have served to impoverish people Worldwide. The
surge in food prices constitutes a new phase of
the process of global impoverishment.
DSK was complicit in this process of market
manipulation. The removal of food and fuel
subsidies in Tunisia and Egypt had been demanded
by the IMF. Food and fuel prices skyrocketed,
people were impoverished, paving the way towards
the January 2011 social protest movement:
Fiscal prudence remains an overarching priority
for the [Tunisian] authorities, who also see the
need for maintaining a supportive fiscal policy
in 2010 in the current international environment.
Efforts in the last decade to bring down the
public debt ratio significantly should not be
jeopardized by a too lax fiscal policy. The
authorities are committed to firmly control
current expenditure, including subsidies,... (IMF
Tunisia: 2010 Article IV Consultation - Staff
Report; Public Information Notice on the
Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the
Executive Director for Tunisia)
"[The IMF] encouraged the [Egyptian]
authorities to press further with food and fuel
subsidy reforms, and welcomed their intention to
improve the efficiency and targeting of food
subsidy programs. [meaning the selective elimination of food subsidies].
"Consideration should be given to introducing
automatic adjustment mechanisms for domestic fuel
prices to minimize distortions [meaning dramatic
increases in fuel prices without State
interference], while strengthening cash-based
social programs to protect vulnerable groups.
(IMF Executive Board Concludes 2008 Article IV
Consultation with the Arab Republic of Egypt
Public Information Notice, PIN No. 09/04, January 15, 2009)
Under the helm of DSK, the IMF also imposed
sweeping austerity measures on Egypt in 2008,
while supporting Hosni Mubarak's "efforts to
broaden the privatization program".(Ibid)
The Frank G. Wisner Nicolas Sarkozy Connection
Strauss-Kahn was refused bail by Judge Melissa
Jackson, an appointee and protégé of Michael
Bloomberg, who in addition to his role as Mayor
is a powerful figure on Wall Street.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
charged (using scanty evidence) Strauss-Kahn
"with seven crimes, including attempted rape,
sexual abuse, forcible touching and unlawful imprisonment".
Who is Cyrus Vance Jr.?
He is the son of the late Cyrus Vance who
served as Secretary of State in the Carter administration.
But there is more than meets the eye. Nicolas
Sarkozy's step father Frank G. Wisner II, a
prominent CIA official who married his step
mother Christine de Ganay in 1977 served as
Deputy Executive Secretary of State under the
helm of Cyrus Vance Senior, father of District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior.
Is it relevant?
The Vance and Wisner families had close personal
ties. In turn Nicolas Sarkozy had close family
ties with his step father Frank Wisner (and his
half brothers and sisters in the US and one
member of the Wisner was involved in Sarkozy's election campaign).
It is also worth noting that Frank G. Wisner II
was the son of one of America's most notorious
spies, the late Frank Gardiner Wisner (1909-
1965), the mastermind behind the CIA sponsored
coup which toppled the government of Mohammed
Mossadegh in Iran in 1953. Wisner Jr. is also
trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Trust.
While these various personal ties do not prove
that Strauss-Kahn was the object of a set-up, the
matter of Sarkozy's ties to the CIA via his step
father, not to mention the ties of Frank G.
Wisner II to the Cyrus Vance family are certainly
worth investigating. Frank G, Wisner also played
a key role as Obama's special intelligence envoy
to Egypt at the height of the January 2011 protest movement.
Did the CIA play a role?
Was Strauss-Kahn framed by people in his
immediate political entourage including President
Obama and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner?
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior, son of the
late Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State in the Carter administration
Sarkozy's Step Father Frank G Wisner II, Deputy
Executive Secretary of State (1976-79)
under Cyrus Vance Senior during the Carter administration
In this courtroom drawing, Dominique Strauss-Khan, next to his lawyer
Benjamin Brafman, in front of Criminal Court
Judge Melissa Jackson during his arraignment at
the Manhattan Criminal Court (AP)
DSK and Timothy Geithner
DSK and Timothy Geithner
Fair Trial?
Innocent before proven guilty? The US media has
already cast its verdict. Will the court procedures be manipulated?
One would expect that Strauss-Kahn be granted a
fair trial, namely the same treatment as that
granted to thousands of arrests on alleged sexual
aggression charges in New York City.
How many similar or comparable alleged sexual
aggressions occur on a monthly basis in New York
City? What is the underlying pattern? How many
of these are reported to the police? How many
are the object of police follow-up once a complaint has been filed?
What is the percent of complaints submitted to
police which are the object of police arrest? How
many of these arrests lead to a judicial
procedure? What are the delays in court procedures?
How many of these arrests lead to release without a judicial procedure?
How many of the cases submitted to a judicial
procedure are dismissed by the presiding judge?
How many of the cases which are not dismissed are
refused bail outright by the presiding judge?
What is the basis for refusing bail?
How many are granted bail? What is the average amount of bail?
How many are imprisoned without bail based on scanty and incomplete evidence?
How many of those who are refused bail are sent
to an infamous maximum security prison on Rikers
Island on the orders of Michael Bloomberg.
Diplomatic Immunity
Press reports state that full diplomatic immunity
does not apply to officials of the United Nations
and the Bretton Woods institutions, namely that
the US did not ratify the protocol.
"U.N. convention on privileges and immunities for
international agencies that most countries have
ratified. It gives the heads of U.N. agencies
broad immunity in the countries where they are
based. But the U.S. government never became a
party to that treaty. Employees of international
agencies are covered by a U.S. statute that gives only limited immunity."
The relevant question is how has this limited
immunity provision been applied in
practice? Namely how many people with limited
immunity (UN officials, officials of the Bretton
Woods institutions) have been arrested and sent to a high security prison?
Has Strauss Kahn been given the same treatment as
those arrested under the provisions of "limited immunity"?
Does the Strauss Kahn arrest fit the pattern? Or
is Strauss Kahn being treated in a way which does
not correspond to the normal (average) pattern of
police and judicial procedures applied in the
numerous cases of persons arrested on alleged sexual assault charges?
Without a frame-up instrumented by very powerful
people acting in the background, the head of the
IMF would have been treated in an entirely
different way. The mayor of New York Michael
Bloomberg and Timothy Geithner would have come to
his rescue. The matter would have been hushed up
with a view to protecting the reputation of a
powerful public figure. But that did not happen.
Rikers Island Prison where DSK was imprisoned.
+44 (0)7786 952037
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"Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
_________________
www.abolishwar.org.uk
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www.public-interest.co.uk
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<http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf>http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic
poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
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--
Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political power they wield?
There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony
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