Het einde van 2011 was geweldig, met een speciale aflevering van De Wereld van Beau, over De Oudejaarsconference. Er keken, met de herhaling erbij, ongeveer 600.000 mensen, en dat hadden er van mij wel wat meer mogen zijn, maar al met al was het een geweldige ervaring. Ik ben trots op de vorderingen die ik in zo’n korte tijd heb geboekt en ben de mensen die mij hebben geholpen zeer dankbaar. Voorop mijn medetekstschrijvers Bob Maclaren (tevens regisseur) en Bram van der Velde en natuurlijk mijn compagnon bij Park Lane, Willem Brom. Zonder hen was het helemaal niets geworden. Uiteraard kan ik niet tippen aan de grootmeesters zoals Youp en Freek, maar ik heb mijn best gedaan. Hier kun je de conference terugkijken (En als je geen zin hebt in de aanloop, dan kun je er natuurlijk ook doorheen spoelen tot de conference begint:

De Wereld van Beau: Oudejaarsconference

2012 is behoorlijk heftig begonnen, met een aanval van Verlinde, die een verzonnen stuk van een columnist van Metro over mijn oudejaarsconference napraatte. Verlinde was overigens niet de enige die het verhaal geloofde. Heel wat kranten en bladen hebben het nadien overgenomen en écht niet alleen de pulpbladen. Het bewijst maar weer wat een kul er allemaal in de media verschijnt. Met één telefoontje hadden ze kunnen checken dat het allemaal onzin was.

Hier het verhaal van Verlinde bij Q-music op 3 januari 2012…    Verlinde gaat er lekker tegenaan

En hier zijn excuses, een dag later (onder druk van de persdienst van SBS uiteraard)   En heeft weer spijt…

Tja, het leed is natuurlijk al gedaan en zo heeft de columnist van Metro behoorlijk wat schade aangericht, met de hulp van Verlinde. Maar wat moet ik ermee? Hij deed hetzelfde met mijn roman Pijn, in 2008. Op de dag dat het boek uitkwam, confronteerde hij mij met een Franse schrijver die zei dat ik zijn boek had overgeschreven. Ik vond dat behoorlijk knap, dat de man mijn boek had gelezen, in het Frans, een dag voordat het in Nederland uitkwam. Klopte allemaal geen moer van, was met één telefoontje te checken geweest. Verlinde heeft onder dreiging van mijn advocaat alles moeten intrekken etcetera, maar wat helpt het? Die man is onverbeterlijk. Het is water under the bridge en ik ga vrolijk verder. Natuurlijk ben ik ook niet de makkelijkste. En dat spijt mij echt niet. Ik kom op voor mijzelf en als mij een streek geleverd wordt, dan spring ik erop. Misschien dat ik soms wat te woest tekeer ga. Daar heb ik dan wel weer spijt van hahaha.

Het is nu zondag 8 januari en ik heb vandaag heerlijk de halve marathon van Egmond gelopen (1:46:35) en vanaf morgen ga ik weer vol aan de slag met de volgende zes afleveringen van De Wereld van Beau. Hier een klein voorproefje…

voorproefje DWVB seizoen 2

Toedeloe en o ja ik heb de reacties uitgezet, want ik kom er helaas niet aan toe om iets te beantwoorden. Sorry!

Beau

PS: Hier mijn laatste column voor Het Parool

Park

(Parool, zaterdag 7 januari 2012)

De sneeuw valt, de haard brandt, de drank vloeit; vakantie est. Ik zit op de bank in een Italiaanse berghut, het glas Grappa leunt wulps tegen mijn heup en ik lees Park, de nieuwe circulaire van de grachtengordel. ‘De journalistieke glossy’ luidt de ondertitel van het blad. Waarom zou je dat erbij zetten? Wat betekent het eigenlijk, journalistieke glossy? Febo meets Okura? Waarom moet ik daar als lezer over nadenken? Who gives a fuck?

Rustig. Slokje nemen.

In één oogopslag valt de gelijkenis met Vanity Fair op, de beste glossy op aarde. Het lettertype, het formaat, de opmaak en de inhoud, met eerst tientallen plakboekpagina’s vol hippe rommelstukjes en dan de lange reportages en interviews met veel aandacht voor de fotografie. Mag je die formule zo klakkeloos stelen? Van mij mag het. Als alle bladen moeten stoppen die van Linda. hebben gejat, dan zijn de schappen morgen leeg.

Op de cover Sophie Hilbrand en Theo Maassen. Als je het blad vanwege dit tweetal zou kopen, wat toch het idee van een cover is, kom je bedrogen uit, want zij figureren slechts in een fotoreportage. Je leert niets over ze. Waarom zet je ze dan zo prominent op je allereerste cover? Terwijl je in hetzelfde blad een schitterend en onthullend interview hebt van Wilfried de Jong met Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, Mister TV? Met fotografie van niemand minder dan Anton Corbijn? Hoe dom kun je zijn?

Rustig Beau. Slokje nemen. Wat hadden we nou afgesproken? Het is niet meer: ‘Zoek de fout.’ Zo Nederland anno 2011. Zie het licht!

Pieter Webeling maakte een heerlijk artikel over Monique van der Ven, een stuk waar je elke vezel van wil opnemen, met van die fotocollages die niet ophouden. Peter Buwalda zoekt judoka Willem Ruska op en dan dat interview van De Jong met Van Nieuwkerk. Drie stukken om van te smullen. Geen slechte oogst. Dat alle mensen in Park, medewerkers en geïnterviewden, uit hetzelfde ei komen, neem ik voor lief. Dit keer.

Goed zo Beau. Braaf.

13 december – Theater De Stoep, Spijkenisse

www.destoep.nu/programma1112_lang/show_entertainment_13december.html

15 december – Stadstheater De Bond, Oldenzaal

www.stadstheaterdebond.nl/Programma/december_11/Beau_van_Erven_Dorens

16 december – Posttheater, Arnhem

http://posttheater.nl/voorstelling?activity=230

19 december – Boom Chicago Amsterdam

www.boomchicago.nl

21 december – Schouwburg Almere

www.schouwburgalmere.nl

27 december - Le Bonbonniere, Maastricht

www.uitbaliemaastricht.nl/nl/zoeken/zoek-op-trefwoord.aspx

http://uitbaliemaastricht.nl/

De opnames voor de Oudejaarsconference vinden plaats op 28 december in Le Bonbonniere in Maastricht

Verder treedt ik dinsdag 20 december samen met de geweldige zanger Sjors van der Panne op in de Kleine zaal van Paradiso. Levensliederen voor in het haardvuur.

DSEXK (Parool, 3 december 2011)

‘Nafissatou Diallo draait zich om. Ze kijkt hem recht in de ogen. Daarna wendt ze haar blik nadrukkelijk naar zijn geslacht. Het vlees is zwak. Dominique Strauss-Kahn heeft een uitnodiging gezien.’ Aldus een passage in het boek van Michel Taubmann, een vriend van DSK, over de beruchtste daad van fellatio sinds Bill Clinton zijn sigaar in Monica Lewinksi doopte. Taubman en DSK spreken uit één mond, de waarheid hoeven we derhalve niet te verwachten, maar hun versie van de waarheid is al schrijnend genoeg. Twee dagen voor het incident in suite 2806 van het Sofitel in New York had DSK twee vrienden uit Lille op bezoek die twee meisjes hadden meegenomen. Het was een zakelijke bijeenkomst, maar ‘zoals zo vaak bij DSK worden het nuttige en het aangename verenigd,’ schrijft Taubman, waarna een impressie van de liederlijke avond volgt. DSK vertelt in het boek van zijn vriend openhartig over zijn losbandige seksleven. Het komt erop neer dat de voormalige topman van het IMF, de belangrijkste financiële instelling van de wereld, een neurotisch leven leidt waarin hij of totaal platgeneukt is, of uit elkaar barst van geilheid op zoek naar iets om plat te neuken. DSK is vrijgesproken van verkrachting van het kamermeisje en wil weer graag terug aan de macht in Frankrijk. Die wens doet mij denken aan voormalig wethouder Rob Oudkerk, die met zijn neus vol Colombiaanse poedersuiker minderjarige heroïnehoertjes aan de Thamesweg te grazen nam, maar zich daarna toch uitermate geschikt vond om burgemeester van Amsterdam te worden. Ik verdenk hem er nog steeds van dat-ie op de zolder van de Stopera nog een kilootje heeft liggen dat hij indertijd is vergeten weg te snurken.

DSK’s promiscue leven is wellicht niet schrijnend voor een rapper, crimineel of directeur van Ballast-Nedam, maar van mensen in een dergelijk maatschappelijk belanghebbende functie mag je verwachten dat al hun acties ontspringen uit een haast spirituele bron van morele welschapenheid. Afvoeren dus, die DSK, naar het bungabungahuis voor bejaarden. Les voor alle politici: hou je puddingbuks netjes thuis.

Hier een fascinerende theorie over de affaire DSK:

What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn?

DECEMBER 22, 2011

Edward Jay Epstein

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, in the courtyard of their Paris residence, September 2011

May 14, 2011, was a horrendous day for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund and leading contender to unseat Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France in the April 2012 elections. Waking up in the presidential suite of the Sofitel New York hotel that morning, he was supposed to be soon enroute to Paris and then to Berlin where he had a meeting the following day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He could not have known that by late afternoon he would, instead, be imprisoned in New York on a charge of sexual assault. He would then be indicted by a grand jury on seven counts of attempted rape, sexual assault, and unlawful imprisonment, placed under house arrest for over a month, and, two weeks before all the charges were dismissed by the prosecutor on August 23, 2011, sued for sexual abuse by the alleged victim.

He knew he had a serious problem with one of his BlackBerry cell phones—which he called his IMF BlackBerry. This was the phone he used to send and receive texts and e-

Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

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mails—including for both personal and IMF business. According to several sources who are close to DSK, he had received a text message that morning from Paris from a woman friend temporarily working as a researcher at the Paris offices of the UMP, Sarkozy’s center-right political party. She warned DSK, who was then pulling ahead of Sarkozy in the polls, that at least one private e-mail he had recently sent from his BlackBerry to his wife, Anne Sinclair, had been read at the UMP offices in Paris. 1 It is unclear how the UMP offices might have received this e-mail, but if it had come from his IMF BlackBerry, he had reason to suspect he might be under electronic surveillance in New York. He had already been warned by a friend in the French diplomatic corps that an effort would be made to embarrass him with a scandal. The warning that his BlackBerry might have been hacked was therefore all the more alarming.

At 10:07 AM he called his wife in Paris on his IMF BlackBerry, and in a conversation that lasted about six minutes told her he had a big problem. He asked her to contact a friend, Stéphane Fouks, who could come to his home on the Place des Vosges and who could arrange to have both his BlackBerry and iPad examined by an expert in such matters. He had no time to do anything about it that morning. He had scheduled an early lunch with his twenty-six-year-old daughter Camille, a graduate student at Columbia, who wanted to introduce him to her new boyfriend. After that, he had to get to JFK Airport in time to catch his 4:40 PM flight to Paris.

He had finished packing his suitcase just before noon, according to his own account, and then took a shower in the bathroom, which is connected to the bed in the suite by an interior corridor. According to the hotel’s electronic key records, which were provided to DSK’s lawyers, Nafissatou Diallo, a maid, had entered the presidential suite (room 2806) between 12:06 and 12:07 PM (such records are only accurate to the nearest minute). 2 Ordinarily, cleaning personnel do not enter a room to clean when a guest is still in it. According to DSK’s account, his bags were visible in the foyer when he emerged naked from the bathroom into the interior corridor. At this point, according to his account, he encountered the maid in the corridor by the bathroom. (The maid, for her part, says she encountered him coming out of the bedroom.) Phone records show that by 12:13 PM he was speaking to his daughter Camille on his BlackBerry. The call lasted for forty seconds.

What took place between DSK and the maid in those six to seven intervening minutes is a matter of dispute. DNA evidence found outside the bathroom door showed her saliva mixed with his semen. The New York prosecutor concluded that a “hurried sexual encounter” took place and DSK’s lawyers have admitted as much, while claiming that what happened was consensual. The maid has brought a civil suit claiming he used

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force. It is not clear when she left the room since key card records do not show times of exit. What is known is that DSK called his daughter on his IMF BlackBerry at 12:13 to tell her he would be late.

After DSK completed his call, he dressed and put on his light black topcoat. He carried with him only one small overnight bag and a briefcase (which contained his iPad and several spare phones) and took the elevator to the lobby. At 12:28 PM the hotel security cameras show him departing. He had to go eight blocks to the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant on Sixth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Street. He was delayed by heavy traffic on Sixth Avenue. The restaurant camera shows that he arrived at 12:54.

Camille was with her new boyfriend. They had a quick meal, and at 2:15 PM, according to the restaurant’s surveillance cameras, DSK got in another taxi to go to the airport. Almost immediately, he discovered that his IMF BlackBerry was missing. It was the phone he had arranged to have examined for bugs in Paris and it was the phone that contained the earlier text message warning him about the interception of his messages. At 2:16 PM he called Camille, who had also just left the restaurant, on his spare BlackBerry and had her go back to the restaurant to search for it. Camera footage at the restaurant shows her crawling under the table. At 2:28 PM she sent him a text message saying that she could not find it. So DSK continued on to the airport.

Back at the Sofitel, meanwhile, Nafissatou Diallo, the maid he had encountered in the presidential suite, had told hotel security that she had been sexually assaulted by a client in that suite. A thirty-two-year-old immigrant from Guinea, she had been working at the Sofitel for three years. At 2:30 PM she was shown a photograph of DSK by the hotel’s security people. According to the official bill of particulars—the statement of the basic facts of the case filed by the prosecutors—the police had apparently not yet fully taken over the case, even though the encounter between DSK and Diallo had occurred over two hours earlier.

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Mike King

A schematic drawing of the twenty-eighth floor of the Sofitel New York, with the presidential suite, room 2806, that was occupied by Dominique Strauss-Kahn on May 13 and 14. The nearby room 2820 was entered at least three times on May 14 by the Sofitel maid Nafissatou Diallo.

Part of the delay in bringing in the police may have been the result of Diallo’s not immediately voicing her complaint. After she had left DSK in the presidential suite around 12:13 PM—the time of his call to Camille—she remained on the VIP floor. The hotel’s electronic key records indicate that at 12:26 PM she entered 2820, another VIP suite on the same floor that she had already entered several times earlier that morning. Then, one to two minutes later, she went back to the now empty presidential suite. A few minutes after that, she encountered another housekeeper, her supervisor, in the corridor. In the course of their conversation, Diallo asked the supervisor what would happen if a hotel guest took advantage of a hotel employee. Initially, Diallo told her that this was only a hypothetical question; but then, when pressed further, she said that she had been assaulted by the guest in the presidential suite. The supervisor then brought her to the head of housekeeping, Renata Markozani, who reentered the presidential suite with Diallo at 12:42, according to the key records, and notified the hotel’s security and management personnel. At 12:52 PM, Diallo is seen arriving at the hotel’s security office on the ground floor, located near the 45th Street entrance. She is wearing a beige uniform, and is accompanied by Renata Markozani, whom she towers over. (She is five feet ten inches tall.)

Shortly thereafter the hotel’s own security team was augmented by John Sheehan, a security expert who is identified on LinkedIn as “director of safety and security” at Accor, a part of the French-based Accor Group, which owns the Sofitel. Sheehan, who

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was at home in Washingtonville, New York, that morning, received a call from the Sofitel at 1:03 PM. He then rushed to the hotel. While en route, according to his cell phone records, he called a number with a 646 prefix in the United States. But from these records neither the name nor the location of the person he called can be determined. When I called the number a man with a heavy French accent answered and asked whom I wanted to speak with at Accor. 3

The man I asked to talk to—and to whom I was not put through—was René-Georges Querry, Sheehan’s ultimate superior at Accor and a well-connected former chief of the French anti-gang brigades, who was now head of security for the Accor Group. Before joining Accor Group in 2003, he had worked closely in the police with Ange Mancini, who is now coordinator for intelligence for President Sarkozy. Querry, at the time that Sheehan was making his call to the 646 number, was arriving at a soccer match in Paris where he would be seated in the box of President Sarkozy. Querry denies receiving any information about the unfolding drama at the Sofitel until after DSK was taken into custody about four hours later.

Another person at the Accor Group whom Sheehan might have alerted was Xavier Graff, the duty officer at the Accor Group in Paris. Graff was responsible that weekend for handling emergencies at Accor Group hotels, including the Sofitel in New York. His name only emerged five weeks later when he sent a bizarre e-mail to his friend Colonel Thierry Bourret, the head of an environment and public health agency, claiming credit for “bringing down” DSK. After the e-mail was leaked to Le Figaro, Graff described it as a joke (it resulted, however, in his suspension as director of emergencies by the Accor Group). Even jokes can have a basis. In this case the joke was made by the person who was directly responsible for passing on information to his superiors, including the head of security at Accor, René-Georges Querry—information that, if acted on by informing the American authorities, could have helped destroy DSK’s career. But like Querry, Graff denied receiving any calls or messages from New York until later that evening, telling a French newspaper that the failure to inform him was an “incredible miss” (“loupé”).

By the time Sheehan was called by the hotel at 1:03 PM, Diallo was seated on a bench in the hotel’s ground floor service area, just off the service entrance on 45th Street. Behind her was a “Dutch door,” with the upper half opened, that led to the hotel’s security office. Surveillance camera footage shows her entering the area with a tall unidentified man at 12:52 PM. She remains there until 2:05 PM. At 12:56, she is joined there by Brian Yearwood, the large, heavy-set man who is the hotel’s chief engineer. Yearwood had just come down from the presidential suite on the twenty-eighth floor, which he had

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entered at 12:51, according to the key records. Yearwood remained close to Diallo as she spoke to Adrian Branch, the security chief for the hotel, who remained behind the half- shut door of the security office. She can be seen gesturing with her hands for about four minutes, pointing to different parts of her body over and over again, suggesting she was telling and retelling her story.

At 1:28, Sheehan, still on the way to the hotel, sent a text message to Yearwood. And then another text message to an unidentified recipient at 1:30. At 1:31—one hour after Diallo had first told a supervisor that she had been assaulted by the client in the presidential suite—Adrian Branch placed a 911 call to the police. Less than two minutes later, the footage from the two surveillance cameras shows Yearwood and an unidentified man walking from the security office to an adjacent area. This is the same unidentified man who had accompanied Diallo to the security office at 12:52 PM. There, the two men high-five each other, clap their hands, and do what looks like an extraordinary dance of celebration that lasts for three minutes. They are then shown standing by the service door leading to 45th Street—apparently waiting for the police to arrive—where they are joined at 2:04 PM by Florian Schutz, the hotel manager.

Mike King

A schematic drawing of the first floor of the Sofitel New York, based on plans registered with the New York City Department of Buildings

A minute later, at 2:05 PM, the footage shows two uniformed police officers arriving and then accompanying Diallo to an adjoining office. It is unclear if the police officially took

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over the case at this time or later. There is so far no explanation for why the security staff had delayed the call to the NYPD that would lead a scandal involving the possible future president of France. What is clear is that they did so just three minutes after receiving a message from Sheehan. Nor is it clear why the two men were celebrating.

The police arrived, according to the hotel’s security camera footage, at 2:05 PM. They then can be seen escorting Diallo to a room across from the security office. There is an unexplained discrepancy here concerning the information in the bill of particulars, which says that at approximately 2:30 PM, “a photograph of the defendant was shown to the witness [i.e., Diallo] by hotel security without police involvement.” If so, even after leaving the bench (and video surveillance) and going to a room with the police, she remained in the custody of Sofitel security. I asked both Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne and Deputy Inspector Kim Royster why, according to the bill of particulars, the police were not officially involved at this point, but they declined to comment.

More than an hour later, at 3:28 PM, the police took her to St. Luke’s Hospital, where she was medically examined and they then formally interviewed her. She described to them a brutal and sustained sexual attack in which DSK locked the suite door, dragged her into the bedroom, and then dragged her down the inner corridor to a spot close to the bathroom door—a distance of about forty feet—and, after attempting to assault her both anally and vaginally, forced her twice to perform fellatio. After that, she fled the suite. As has been seen, according to the electronic key information, and to the record of DSK’s call to his daughter showing him speaking to her at 12:13, we can reasonably conclude that any such actions could have taken place only within a period of six or seven minutes, between 12:06–07 and 12:13, when he called his daughter.

At 3:01 PM, as DSK was approaching the airport, he was still attempting to find his missing phone. He attempted to call it from his spare but received no answer. What he did not know was that at 12:51, according to the records of the BlackBerry company, it had been somehow disabled. At 3:29 PM, evidently unaware of what was happening at the Sofitel, he called the hotel from the taxi, saying, according to the police transcript, “I am Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I was a guest. I left my phone behind.” He then said he was in room “2806.” He was asked to give a phone number, so that he could be called back, after 2806 was searched for his phone.

When he was called back thirteen minutes later, he spoke to a hotel employee who was in the presence of police detective John Mongiello. The hotel employee falsely told him that his phone had been found and asked where it could be delivered. DSK told him that he was at JFK Airport and that “I have a problem because my flight leaves at 4:26 PM.”

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He was reassured that someone could bring it to the airport in time. “OK, I am at the Air France Terminal, Gate 4, Flight 23,” DSK responded. So the police rushed to the airport. At 4:45 PM, police called DSK off the plane and took him into custody.

DSK was then jailed and indicted by a grand jury on seven counts, including attempted rape, sexual abuse, and unlawful imprisonment. The court eventually dropped all the charges against him because the prosecutors found that the complainant, Diallo, had proven to be an untruthful witness. They wrote in the motion for dismissal that “the nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt.” They said that she “has given irreconcilable accounts of what happened,” and had lied not only to the prosecutors but under oath to the grand jury about her whereabouts after the encounter. She stated that she had hid in the hall after leaving the presidential suite, and entered no other room on the twenty- eighth floor until she told another maid about the attack (which was approximately fifteen minutes later).

When asked why she had not used her pass key to go into another room, she said they all had “Do Not Disturb” signs on the door. After her grand jury testimony, prosecutors discovered that this was false when the hotel belatedly provided them with the electronic key records showing that Diallo had entered room 2820 at 12:26 PM, after her encounter with DSK. The same record also showed that she had also entered room 2820 prior to her encounter with DSK at a time when the occupant had not checked out and may have been in the room. Why she concealed visiting 2820 was “inexplicable” to the prosecutors, who noted in their motion for dismissal that if she had mentioned her visits to 2820, it would have been declared part of the crime scene and searched by the police. But she did not do so.

Bryan Smith/ZUMA Press/Corbis

The Sofitel hotel, West 44th Street, New York, May 2011

Nor were DSK’s lawyers able to find an explanation. When they attempted to learn the identity of the occupant of 2820, Sofitel refused to release it on grounds of privacy. Given Diallo’s conflicting accounts, all that we really know about what happened in the nearby room 2820 is that Diallo went there both before and after her encounter with DSK and then omitted the latter visit from her sworn testimony to the grand jury. We still do not know if there was anyone in 2820 when she entered it again following the encounter with DSK or if, prior to the police arriving, anyone influenced her to omit mention of room 2820.

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The Sofitel electronic key record, which the hotel did not turn over to the prosecutors until the next week, contained another unexplained anomaly. Two individuals, not one, entered DSK’s suite between 12:05 and 12:06 PM while he was showering. Each used a different key card entry. The key card used at 12:06 belonged to Diallo; the key card used at 12:05 belonged to Syed Haque, a room service employee who, according to his account, came to pick up the breakfast dishes. If he did so, he would have turned left and gone to the dining room. But Haque has refused to be interviewed by DSK’s lawyers, so his precise movements have not been made public. Since the key cards do not register the time of exit, it cannot be determined from them if both parties were in the room at the same time or, for that matter, at the time of Diallo’s encounter with DSK.

DSK’s BlackBerry, with its messages, is still missing. Investigations by both the police and private investigators retained by DSK’s lawyers failed to find it. While DSK believed he had left it in the Sofitel, the records obtained from BlackBerry show that the missing phone’s GPS circuitry was disabled at 12:51. This stopped the phone from sending out signals identifying its location. Apart from the possibility of an accident, for a phone to be disabled in this way, according to a forensic expert, required technical knowledge about how the BlackBerry worked.

From electronic information that became available to investigators in November 2011, it appears the phone never left the Sofitel. If it was innocently lost, whoever found it never used it, raising the question of by whom and why it was disabled at 12:51. In any case, its absence made it impossible for DSK to check—as he had planned to do—to see if it had been compromised. Nor was it possible to verify from the phone itself the report he received on May 14 that his messages were being intercepted. So we cannot confirm the warning to DSK that he was under surveillance on that disastrous day.

One vexing mystery concerns the one-hour time gap in reporting the alleged attack on Diallo. After she said that she had been the victim of a brutal and sustained sexual assault, it is hard to understand how the security staff would have ruled out that she might require immediate medical attention. But as has been seen, until 1:31, several minutes after receiving a message from Sheehan, the security staff did not make the 911 call. She did not arrive at St. Luke’s Hospital until 3:57 PM, nearly four hours after the alleged attack. We do not know what decisions were made during that one-hour interval or how they influenced what was to later unfold with such dramatic impact.

By the time the 911 call was finally made, the hotel’s management was presumably aware of the political explosion and scandal DSK’s arrest would cause. DSK could no longer be a challenger to Sarkozy. Such considerations, and the opportunities they

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What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn? by Edward Jay Epstein | The New York Review of Books 28-11-11 08:59

presented, may have had no part whatever in the hotel’s handling of the situation, but without knowing the content of any messages between the hotel managers in New York and the security staffs in New York or Paris, among others, we cannot be sure. Meanwhile, several mysteries remain. Was there anyone in room 2820 besides Diallo during and after the encounter with DSK? If so, who were they and what were they doing there; and why, in any case, did Diallo deny that she’d gone to the room? Because she denied it, the police, according to the prosecutor’s recommendation for dismissal, did not search 2820 or declare it a crime scene. And where, if it still exists, is the BlackBerry that DSK lost and feared was hacked?

All we know for sure is that someone, or possibly an accident, abruptly disabled it from signaling its location at 12:51 PM. DSK himself has not explained why he was so concerned about the possible interception of his messages on this BlackBerry and its disappearance. According to stories in Libération and other French journals on November 11, 2011, DSK sent text messages on a borrowed cell phone to at least one person named in the still-unfolding affair involving the Carlton Hotel in Lille, a scandal in which corporations allegedly provided high-class escort women to government officials. (DSK denies that he was connected to the prostitution ring.) If DSK sent these messages, may he also have received embarrassing messages back on his own BlackBerry that could have been damaging to his reputation and political ambitions? Or his concern could also have proceeded from other matters, such as the sensitive negotiations he was conducting for the IMF to stave off the euro crises. Whatever happened to his phone, and the content on it, his political prospects were effectively ended by the events of that day.

1. 1 These statements, along with others in this article, were confirmed by sources who prefer to remain anonymous but are known to the author, who has shared his information with the editors. ↩

2. 2 For this article, along with court and other legal documents, I had access to Sofitel electronic key swipe records, time-stamped security camera videotapes, and records for a cell phone used on the day of May 14 by John Sheehan, a security employee of Accor, the company that owns the Sofitel hotel. ↩

3. 3 I had access to the record of only one cell phone used by the Accor Group’s security

http://media.nybooks.com/strauss.html Pagina 10 van 11

What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn? by Edward Jay Epstein | The New York Review of Books 28-11-11 08:59

man, John Sheehan. Neither Sheehan nor the hotel’s security director, Adrian Branch, returned my calls. Through an assistant Brian Yearwood, the hotel’s chief engineer, said he had no comment. ↩

Copyright © 1963-2011 NYREV, Inc. All rights reserved.

hhttp://media.nybooks.com/strauss.html Pagina 11 van 11

Vanaf 13 december sta ik in grotere zalen met try-outs van de Oudejaarsconference, waar ik grappen en liedjes ga proberen en hopen dat het werkt. Bram en Bob treden ook op en ik kan je verzekeren dat die gasten het dak er af blazen.

Hieronder zijn de data van de try-outs. Lijkt me leuk als je komt. Op 27 en 28 sta ik ’s middags en ’s avonds in le Bonbonniere in Maastricht. De 28e gaan we de show opnemen. Die wordt op de 31 op SBS6 uitgezonden.

grrrrrr Beau

Try-outs Oudejaarsconference Beau:

13 december – Theater De Stoep, Spijkenisse
www.destoep.nu/programma1112_lang/show_entertainment_13december.html

15 december – Stadstheater De Bond, Oldenzaal
www.stadstheaterdebond.nl/Programma/december_11/Beau_van_Erven_Dorens

16 december – Posttheater, Arnhem
http://posttheater.nl/voorstelling?activity=230

19 december – Boom Chicago Amsterdam
www.boomchicago.nl

21 december – Schouwburg Almere
www.schouwburgalmere.nl

27 december - Le Bonbonniere, Maastricht
28 december - Le Bonbonniere, Maastricht

]]> http://beauvanervendorens.com/2011/12/oudejaarsconference/feed/ http://beauvanervendorens.com/2011/11/wat-meer-vaart-in-de-zaak/ http://beauvanervendorens.com/2011/11/wat-meer-vaart-in-de-zaak/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:21:09 +0000 Beau van Erven Dorens http://beauvanervendorens.com/?p=167 Dag vrienden,

Ik zal mij eens wat vaker op deze site toeleggen. De chaoot in mij legt zich toe op alles, van dagboeken, tot krantenkantlijnen en servetten. Het zal nooit worden gezien, maar ik ben er nu, dit is het, zondagavond 13 november, en ik luister naar de nieuwe plaat van Julie Clerc. Vetrouwde muziek. Nog even tien keer luisteren en dan de cijfers uitdelen. Morgen de nieuwe van Spinvis halen!

De marathon van New York was weer geweldig. Ik heb er alles aan gedaan maar ik was dit jaar toch iets minder voorbereid dan vorig jaar. Dat had ook te maken met mijn schaatsavontuur… Vrijdag schaatste ik nog de 5 km in Thialf (9:36) en zondag liep ik de marathon (3:58:44) met mijn twee grote marathonvrienden Chris en Bas. Hierboven een verslag van dat avontuur.

En hieronder een column in het Parool

Mauro

Hai Mauro, hier Beau. Ik ben presentator van laagdrempelige televisieprogramma’s bij SBS6. We kennen elkaar niet, jij en ik, maar ik wou dat ik wat voor je kon doen man. Ik heb zelf vier jongens en als ik zie wat jou wordt aangedaan, schieten de tranen in mijn ogen. Daar zit je met je pleegouders lekker thuis in het Limburgse Oostrum. Negen jaar lang heb je daar mogen wonen en leren en leven en liefhebben en nu moet je terug naar Angola, waar je niemand kent en de taal niet spreekt en bang bent en niet wil zijn. Het is iets onwerkelijks dat de Nederlandse overheid jou negen jaar lang laat wachten op een oordeel. Een misdaad op zich. Het is onmenselijk. Negen jaar psychologische marteling. Welke advocaten en welke instanties zijn zo door en door rot en gemeen dat ze je zó lang tussen hoop en vrees laten leven. Wat een schande. Weg met ze! Verketter ze! Gooi hun ruiten in! Bespuug ze! Een crimineel systeem. Dat is nou een bezetting waard. Wat moeten jullie hebben geleden, al die jaren, in de wetenschap dat je misschien ooit weg zou moeten.

Nu is dat moment daar. Minister Leers wil je terugsturen naar Angola. Hij is ‘een instrument’, zegt-ie. Angola. Kijk op de kaart nog maar even waar het is. Volgens Buitenlandse zaken moet je daar ‘waakzaamheid betrachten’. De Belgische overheid is minder optimistisch, zij raden een reis af. Jij, gevluchte, verwesterde Mauro, jij gaat daar een hel tegemoet. Dus als het zo ver is, ga niet. Vlucht. Kom bij mij. Hier in huis zaten in de oorlog ook onderduikers. En toen had je ook al mensen die ‘een instrument’ waren. Maar dat kan niet. Een mens is geen instrument. Een piano is een instrument. Een mens is een mens, met een hart en een gevoel voor goed en kwaad. Laat Leers maar komen. De pianospeler. Dat varken met zijn schijnheilige CDA-vriendjes. De eerste krijgt een kopstoot, de tweede rijg ik aan mijn zwaard.

Ik vind dat kinderen alle liefde en aandacht in de wereld nodig hebben en helemaal de kinderen die de verschrikkelijke pech hebben om geboren te worden met zo’n vreselijke ziekte als kanker. Als vriend van de Stichting DEX (autistische kinderen) en vriend van de Stichting Opkikker (opkikkerdagen voor zieke kinderen en familie) probeer ik mijzelf al in te spannen voor kinderen die extra hulp en liefde verdienen. KIKA doet geweldig werk en is een organisatie die ik van harte steun. Ik hoop dat jullie via mij ook een paar euro/dollar bij willen dragen om deze arme kinderen te helpen. Dat kun je doen door op onderstaande link te klikken. Daar vind je weer een nieuwe link die je naar een pagina stuurt waar je een donatie-formulier aantreft (’sign-up form’). Het geld komt ten goede aan Nederlandse kankercentra. Je vindt er ook informatie over KIKA.

Ik weet nog niet zo goed hoe je m moet ‘linken’, maar als je m kopieert in je browser, moet het hopelijk goed komen…

http://www.thenaf.org/pages/events/?action=page&id=09442A01EC

Elke euro is welkom. Geef nu hij nog wat waard is!

Hartelijk dank,

Beau

Alleen het bericht over dichter Armando is positief. En de voorspelling van zonnig winterweer. Exemplarisch is de kop: ‘Federer verslagen’. Waarom niet: ‘Djokovic wint’? De twee tennissers staan tenslotte naast elkaar op de ATP-ranglijst.
Goed nieuws is dus mislukt, of, beter nog, staat op het punt te mislukken. In de anticipatie op het drama ligt de ware kracht van nieuws. Wordt Nathalie Holloway gevonden? Komen de Chileense mijnwerkers boven? Gaan we naar Kunduz? Gaan ze elkaar in Egypte het hoofd inslaan? Zuivere reality. Je staat er bij en je kijkt er naar. Geen ruimte voor manipulatie. Zodra het drama geconsumeerd is, verdwijnt het naar de achtergrond. Tunis zien we niet meer terug op de voorpagina, alsof ze daar nu allemaal hand in hand met een bord erwtensoep op de bank Studio Sport zitten te kijken.
Almaar op zoek naar slecht nieuws, om de naar negatieve reality hunkerende consument te voeren, geeft de journalistiek per definitie geen reëel beeld van de realiteit. Het nieuws is een verenging van de werkelijkheid, in meerdere opzichten. Je wordt bang gemaakt met een paar knoerten van dieptepunten, het liefst van het soort dat uiteindelijk op jouw hoofd kan vallen, zoals vloedgolven, verkrachters of een horde asielzoekers. De journalistiek laat het aan mensen zelf over te begrijpen dat het om een extreem verschrompelde en donkere afdruk van de werkelijkheid gaat.
Uiteindelijk is het onze eigen schuld. Wij laten ons bang maken, omdat we dat fijn vinden.
Net als op sigarettenpakjes, zouden kranten verplicht een waarschuwing moeten plaatsen: ‘Wij maken u expres bang.’ En: ‘Dit nieuws is puur en onversneden entertainment.’