Rape and the French elite

Bernard-Henri Levy begins his polemic on the alleged rape of a hotel chambermaid by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, with a priceless example of what a better French philosopher called “bad faith”.

‘I do not know what actually happened Saturday, the day before yesterday, in the room of the now famous Hotel Sofitel in New York. I do not know — no one knows, because there have been no leaks regarding the declarations of the man in question — if Dominique Strauss-Kahn was guilty of the acts he is accused of committing there, or if, at the time, as was stated, he was having lunch with his daughter.’

If a writer does not know, the best thing he or she can do is keep quiet and wait for a court to hear the facts of the case. But, of course Levy has no intention of holding his tongue. Although he does not know what he is talking about, the reader discovers that his declaration of ignorance was mere throat clearing.