War won't break out between the French and Americans, but the French are not happy about the way their ally, the US, dealt with DSK, as he has become known. The French see themselves vindicated as the case against DSK seemingly collapses by the day.
The New York Times reports on how the French view things:
"The stunning reversals in the criminal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a putative French presidential candidate, have reawakened a dormant anti-Americanism here, fueled by a sense that the raw, media-driven culture of the United States has undermined justice and fair play.
There was shock in France after the arrest of Mr. Strauss-Kahn in May and intense criticism of the manner in which he was displayed in handcuffs, pulled unshaven into a televised court session and stuffed into a Rikers Island cell under suicide watch. There was confusion and criticism over the glee with which the New York tabloids in particular highlighted every humiliation and turned to clichés about the French — “Chez Perv” and “Frog Legs It” — in the coverage. And there was a sense that it was not just Mr. Strauss-Kahn who was being so jauntily humiliated, but France itself.
Now, with the case appearing to collapse over questions about the credibility of the hotel housekeeper from Guinea who accused him, and Mr. Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest, the French are feeling a kind of bitter jubilation of their own, and renewing their criticisms about the rush to judgment, the public relations concerns of elected prosecutors and the somehow uncivilized, brutal and carnival nature of American society, democracy and justice.
Former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said Friday that “he was thrown to the wolves” in the American system; a former justice minister, Robert Badinter, called Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s treatment “a lynching, a murder by media.”
Meanwhile, the Times in "Frenchwomen Weigh Impact and Fallout of Strauss-Kahn Case" evaluates the reaction of women in France to the whole DKS "business" - well, perhaps from an American perspective.
The New York Times reports on how the French view things:
"The stunning reversals in the criminal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a putative French presidential candidate, have reawakened a dormant anti-Americanism here, fueled by a sense that the raw, media-driven culture of the United States has undermined justice and fair play.
There was shock in France after the arrest of Mr. Strauss-Kahn in May and intense criticism of the manner in which he was displayed in handcuffs, pulled unshaven into a televised court session and stuffed into a Rikers Island cell under suicide watch. There was confusion and criticism over the glee with which the New York tabloids in particular highlighted every humiliation and turned to clichés about the French — “Chez Perv” and “Frog Legs It” — in the coverage. And there was a sense that it was not just Mr. Strauss-Kahn who was being so jauntily humiliated, but France itself.
Now, with the case appearing to collapse over questions about the credibility of the hotel housekeeper from Guinea who accused him, and Mr. Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest, the French are feeling a kind of bitter jubilation of their own, and renewing their criticisms about the rush to judgment, the public relations concerns of elected prosecutors and the somehow uncivilized, brutal and carnival nature of American society, democracy and justice.
Former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said Friday that “he was thrown to the wolves” in the American system; a former justice minister, Robert Badinter, called Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s treatment “a lynching, a murder by media.”
Meanwhile, the Times in "Frenchwomen Weigh Impact and Fallout of Strauss-Kahn Case" evaluates the reaction of women in France to the whole DKS "business" - well, perhaps from an American perspective.
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