DSK Probably Set Up, The War Machine Hits in Somalia, and Geithner's Cover Letter to Goldman Sachs?

It is becoming clearer and clearer that former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was most likely set up in his illicit sexual assault of a hotel maid last month.  First Nouriel Roubini tweets:

Our mid-May RGE note reported that a few intelligence sources were suggesting that DSK was likely set-up. The lame-media didnt do its homework.

It's now been revealed that the maid was also turning tricks as a side job, via New York Post:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser wasn't just a girl working at a hotel -- she was a working girl.

The Sofitel housekeeper who claims the former IMF boss sexually assaulted her in his room was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests, The Post has learned.

The woman was allegedly purposely assigned to the Midtown hotel by her union because it knew she would bring in big bucks.

"When you're a chambermaid at Local 6, when you first get to the US, you start at the motels at JFK [Airport]. You don't start at the Sofitel," the source said. "There's a whole squad of people who saw her as an earner."

William Anderson has an excellent article on the whole affair on LewRockwell.com:

Just as the NYT immediately jumped to the conclusion that Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans had raped Crystal Mangum, writers at the paper quickly assumed that the Strauss-Kahn accuser was telling the unvarnished truth. The letters that the paper saw fit to publish were full of the rush to judgment. This piece by Linda Martin Alcoff, a philosophy professor in New York, was pretty typical of the mindset of the NYT crowd.
In other words, it was assume guilt first and always believe the prosecutors, especially when prosecutors are prominent Democrats like Vance who have political ambitions. But, as in the Duke case, truth has carved a bit of a wedge in the NYT's narrative.
I have no doubt that the story that police and prosecutors fed the media – that this large, naked man jumped from the bathroom and forced this poor, African immigrant to give him oral sex – is utterly false. First, keep in mind that she is from Guinea, and is a French speaker. Second, I suspect that the encounter not only was mutual, but she planned it in advance, and most likely with some of the people with whom she is associated.

There you have it folks, French Prez Sarkozy is not someone to challenge for the throne.  Kudos to Anderson, Roubini, Robert Wenzel, Paul Craig Roberts, and anyone else who expressed suspicion since the charges were brought.

Despite our involvement in five Middle Eastern/North Africa countries, looks like we have a sixth now:

NAIROBI, Kenya — U.S. military forces landed in Somalia to retrieve the bodies of dead or wounded militants after a U.S. drone strike targeted a group of insurgents, Somalia's defense minister said Friday.
The operation is at least the second time U.S. troops have landed in Somalia after a targeted strike, though no forces have been stationed there since shortly after the "Black Hawk Down" battle that left 18 Americans dead in 1993.
Defense Minister Abdulhakim Mohamoud Haji Faqi called on the U.S. to carry out more airstrikes against the al-Qaida-linked militants, though he admitted that Somali officials appear not to have been informed about the June 23 operation near the southern coastal town of Kismayo beforehand.

The power struggle to implant a centralized government in Somalia continues.  The closer an Al-Qaida linked militant group (I am hesitant to believe this description from "top officials") comes to gaining power, the more other tribes and our intelligence agencies will fight to keep it at bay.  Robert P. Murphy had an excellent article on Somalia's better than expected economic growth as well as increased living standards a few days ago, definitely worth checking out.

Zerohedge has a wonderful satirical take on a possible cover letter Timothy Geithner might send to Goldman Sachs should he leave his post at the Treasury and go to where the big boys play (with the country that is).  Check it out:

Timothy F. Geithner

Department of The Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington DC 20220

(202) 622-2000

Moneyguy01@treas.gov

HR Department

Goldman Sachs & Co.

200 West Street

New York, NY 10282

Dear Mr./Ms. Last Name:

I am writing to apply for the position of Master Of The Universe at Goldman Sachs as advertised in The Bilderberg Group Daily News. I believe my experience in experimenting on the economy playing with other people’s money makes me an excellent candidate for this position. As requested, I am enclosing a completed job application, my certification, my resume and three references. (Please call Dr. Kissinger first. He’s not getting any younger.)

I have extensive experience working for with the rich and powerful. My most recent job was as secretary of the U.S. Treasury (a situation which put a premium on diversity awareness). Even before I took the job I was the center of attention in Washington. And despite not paying any income taxes for four years, my nomination was opposed by only a third of the Senate. As Treasury Secretary, I ended all those fluctuations in the unemployment rate and kept it at a nice steady level. Despite the job’s title, I did NOT answer phones or any filing. Although I can do both while typing 120 wpm. With one hand.

Among my many other accomplishments: Helping a large number of financial institutions avoid the consequences of their actions.  As many of the very large number of our mutual friends (hint, hint) will tell you, the quid pro quo on this — cutting executive salaries and perks while limiting dividends and corporate acquisitions — was strictly window dressing. Remember the bonuses AIG paid to executives in its Financial Services division after receiving $170 billion in bailout?

Prior to my current position I served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It was in that job, when I got Bear Stearns a $30 billion bailout, that I discovered my true vocation: Giving large amounts of other people’s money to down-on-their-luck wealthy institutions. This was very important to help the economy, no matter what Paul Krugman says. I mean really, what’s he ever done?

In closing I would just like to say how much I respect and admire your CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, whom everyone agrees is very spry for a man of his age.

Very Sincerely Yours,

Tim

P.S.: Don’t believe what you read in the press about me: I still want the job. Actually, just don’t believe anything about me you read in the press. Call me!

Update- Please see James Altucher's wonderful post "July 4th is a Scam"

The last time I visited my congressman (when I was 12 years old), he was both drunk and senile and I couldn’t understand a word he said. His administrative assistant had to translate everything he said. And then he got re-elected four more times before finally dying. Did he really represent my interests?
I’m the most apolitical person I know. But I do like to think of things that can improve the country. Let’s forget July 4^th for a second, which was a war fought mainly between the values of the East India Company and the values of colonial tea smugglers that cost the lives of the children of 35,000 mothers. Note we tried to invade Canada twice to get them to help us but they would have none of it. Now they are our biggest supplier of oil. Go Canada!
Most importantly, lets not view the Constitution as gospel. Countries, people, systems, technology evolves. As they do, its important to see what from the past is good and what can be discarded.
I’m talking about the Legislative Branch in our system of checks and balances. It costs us billions a year, its fully corrupt, and is taking perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars out of our economy through inefficient allocations.

I don't agree with his solution of majority rules internet voting replacing Congress (I don't want either), I love his description of the Civil War:

Well what about our “values”? England got rid of slavery in all of its colonies in 1833 and allocated money to directly buy the slaves from slaveowners in every colony. 620,000 people died in the Civil War 30 years later. A war that would’ve been totally avoided if we had no Revolutionary War. And the only reason Lincoln freed the slaves was because we (“the North”) were losing that war and needed help. That war was also fought over economics: the South wanted to control their own tariffs on the enormous amount of cotton being shipped abroad. So they seceded so the wealthier North wouldn’t get to play with that money. Again, Britain would’ve just freed the slaves 30 years earlier than they would’ve been if we were still a colony or, by then, a commonwealth. (I’m summarizing 50 history textbooks so I’m sure there’s room to criticize me but I’m largely correct here).

He left out the part of Lincoln's desire to preserve the union at whatever cost (over 600,000 lives apparently), but he is still spot on.