Like three peas in a pod, Strauss Kahn, Anwar Ibrahim and Paul Wolfowitz, all seem to have issues that can cost them their political future, and all their problems relate to women (or in the case of Anwar, allegations of adultery with women and also men). Indeed, in a further parallel to Strauss-Kahn’s current predicament, it is worth noting that Anwar is not so much on trial for sodomy, as for sexual assault of an aide. The only difference is that Wolfowitz’s scandal was not of alleged sexual assault, but merely of a girlfriend-triggered conflict of interest.
by Christopher Badeaux at New Ledger
The news this weekend is that International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn had apparently been caught with his pants down:
Prosecutors have charged International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn with a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in New York City, police said.
Strauss-Kahn, a key player in the world’s response to the 2007-09 financial meltdown and in Europe’s ongoing debt crisis, was removed from an Air France plane 10 minutes before it was to take off for Paris from John F Kennedy International Airport, New York police spokesman Paul Browne said.
A lawyer representing Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told Reuters in an email that the IMF chief “will plead not guilty.” Mr Brafman made no further comment.
A 32-year-old maid filed a sexual assault complaint after fleeing the hotel suite at the Sofitel in Times Square where the alleged incident occurred, Mr Browne said.
The Greek tragedy that is now befalling Strauss-Kahn is the latest in a series of similar cases of sex-related scandal that over the past few years have also involved former World Bank boss Paul Wolfowitz and former Malaysian finance minister (and close friend of Wolfowitz) Anwar Ibrahim.
Like three peas in a pod, Strauss Kahn, Anwar Ibrahim and Paul Wolfowitz, all seem to have issues that can cost them their political future, and all their problems relate to women (or in the case of Anwar, allegations of adultery with women and also men). Indeed, in a further parallel to Strauss-Kahn’s current predicament, it is worth noting that Anwar is not so much on trial for sodomy, as for sexual assault of an aide. The only difference is that Wolfowitz’s scandal was not of alleged sexual assault, but merely of a girlfriend-triggered conflict of interest.
Take a look at these three and their recent histories:
Strauss-Kahn, 62, is the former French Finance Minister who widely believed to be within inches of announcing his candidacy as opposition candidate to challenge President Nicholas Sarkozy of France in the upcoming national elections. But his past indiscretion with a fellow IMF staffer in 2008 nearly cost him his job, and as of Monday he was facing sexual assault charges that very likely will end his career.
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| Anwar Ibrahim & Paul Wolfowitz |
Wolfowitz, 68, is the former Deputy Secretary of Defense and a close friend of Anwar whose career in public service essentially ended in 2007 when he was forced to resign as President of the World Bank over the lavish pay rise he arranged for his girlfriend, that in turn triggered the worst crisis in the institution’s history.
A 2010 report purports, based on documents released pursuant to FOIA requests, to document how Wolfowitz’s girlfriend Shaha Riza was paid a salary higher than that of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice by a foundation set up with $20 million of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Riza’s activities in this role were in apparent violation of conflict of interest regulations at the World Bank, and raised questions about tax, visa, and national security law violations as well.
But even more egregiously, according to the whistle blower report, Riza had helped get Anwar Ibrahim, a close friend of Wolfowitz, named as chairman of the same obscure State Department-funded Foundation for the Future. Wolfowitz meanwhile has continued to defend Anwar Ibrahim against his current sexual assault and sodomy charges in Malaysia.
So call it a coincidence, or call it a pattern. But when people of public stature, entrusted with political leadership or the stewardship of an institution such as the IMF or World Bank get into sex-related trouble, it can diminish the office, the person and the institution.
In Wolfowitz’s case, he has resigned. In Anwar’s case, he is on trial. In Strauss-Kahn’s case, he will likely go on trial.
Going forward, with Wolfowitz gone, and Strauss-Kahn a symbol of the respectable international Left now facing charges of criminal sexual assault, one wonders who in the international community will continue a defense of Anwar by inertia. After nearly sixty days of proceedings, Anwar has been ordered to present his defense by a court of law. The old defenses — stunted appeals to Anwar’s first sodomy trial, made by Wolfowitz no less — will ring increasingly hollow when the very men who once cried out that Anwar’s exceedingly-process-driven trial is a sham are themselves not so credible. The comparison has already become obvious in the French, German, and Spanish press.
For Anwar and Strauss-Kahn, both innocent until proven guilty but both accused of sexual peccadilloes for the second time, the ride through the criminal process is only beginning. For an international community too lazy to pay attention to the merits of Anwar’s alleged crimes, Strauss-Kahn’s troubles must serve as a wake-up call, and a reminder that even favored sons can stray.
