Following is a selection of recent letters to the World Socialist Web Site on “The serious questions raised by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair”, a perspective published May 19.
Dear WSWS,
David North and David Walsh’s article on the Strauss-Kahn affair is a mature piece of writing. You are right: “[H]e is also a human being who is entitled to democratic rights, which include legal due process and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.” Facts must be uncovered ahead of a verdict.
Sincerely yours,
AD
20 May 2011
***
I am impressed by this article by David North and David Walsh. It is wonderful that you follow your principles and beliefs even when it involves people like Strauss-Kahn. Thanks.
JDB
New Jersey, USA
19 May 2011
***
Thank you for your insightful article on the arrest and prosecution of Strauss-Kahn. The failure of otherwise well educated writers like Maureen Dowd to honor the presumption of innocence raises the specter that she either does not understand or will not abide by the rule of law. Either way she should not be writing for one of the United States’ “papers of record”. There is another element to the Strauss-Kahn story however. He was instrumental in both criticizing past policy of the IMF favoring a particular nation’s international creditors and domestic bankers at the expense of that nation’s taxpayers and in steering the IMF in a new direction. That new direction would have followed the teachings and methodologies of economists like Joseph Stiglitz as opposed to neoliberal doctrine. He also favored using the IMF’s “Special Drawing Rights” to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and to use SDR denominated bonds as alternatives to US Treasury notes.
One should ask whether certain persons or institutions are manipulating the justice system against Strauss-Kahn for these reasons. Compare Strauss-Kahn’s pretrial treatment to that of Bernard Madoff, Michael Milken, and Ivan Boesky.
Peter L
Connecticut, USA
19 May 2011
***
I completely agree with article’s contentions regarding Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
No sooner had the man been arrested and the airwaves were flooded with his alleged crimes. So much for “innocent until proven guilty” in the United States.
Nonetheless, a recent essay by Mike Whitney, a financial journalist, notes that Joseph Stiglitz has come to Strauss-Kahn’s defense in his handling of the IMF.
This is high praise from Stiglitz, an economist whom I admire. Stiglitz reveals in his own writings as noted by Whitney, that Strauss-Kahn has been working hard to try to reform the IMF and the way in which it deals with countries in financial straits.
In place of the neo-liberal model that has so long been the hallmark of this institution’s policies, Strauss-Kahn has been trying to bring stark reality to the actual needs of countries applying for loans and financial aid.
Unfortunately, his reforms fly in the face of how neo-liberals want this institution to continue functioning, which would be to force countries to sell off state assets at substantially reduced prices so individual investors can continue to economically rape such nations.
Steve N
New York, USA
19 May 2011
***
I am so proud of this publication right now! I have been for a decade, but now especially, because of its stand on both this case and the Bin Laden murder. The imperial US has again shown itself to be the world’s leading criminal—slaughtering people at will, assassinating the character of fellow human beings for political gain—without even the illusion of a trial. How anyone can still harbor the thought that the US is a “nation of laws” is beyond me, and beyond, I am convinced, the vast majority of the people in the US and the world who still long for freedom and justice. Thank you for taking this difficult, but honorably principled stand.
Charles D
Mexico
19 May 2011
***
“Dowd begins: ‘Oh, she wanted it. She wanted it bad. That’s what every hard-working, God-fearing, young widow who breaks her back doing menial labor at a Times Square hotel to support her teenage daughter, justify her immigration status and take advantage of the opportunities in America wants—a crazed, rutting, wrinkly old satyr charging naked out of a bathroom, lunging at her and dragging her around the room, caveman-style.’”
I think perhaps that it is Dowd who “wants it.” Either that, or its opposite: naked men in bathrooms terrify her. Some deep sexual disturbance there.
Carolyn
19 May 2011