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Article 2. The Daily Beast 5 Lessons of the DSK Affair Bernard-Henri Lévy July 2, 2011 -- The Strauss-Kahn affair is not over. For it to be over, the American system of justice must pursue its investigation and work to the very end. If it’s truly to be over, Dominique Strauss-Kahn must be granted not only his freedom, but—even more importantly—trestoration of his honor. In other words, “the Strauss-Kahn affair” will continue to be regarded as such as long as it hasn’t been clearly established that there never was any affair at all—and that the plaintiff, not content to have lied about this or that aspect of her past, also lied in accusing the former head of the IMF of having raped her. And yet, given recent revelations, we can already draw a few lessons from what will ultimately—no doubt very soon—be known as the Strauss-Kahn non-affair. 1. The cannibalisation of Justice by the Sideshow. This cannibalisation is not exclusively an American phenomenon, of course, and we have witnessed myriad examples of it in Europe and France. But it must be said that, with this affair, it has reached the heights of obscenity. The improvised press conference by the woman’s lawyer on the steps of a courthouse normally dedicated to the sober discernment of the truth was obscene. The “shame on you’s” that greeted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrived for the hearing on June 6th, shouted by battalions of hotel chambermaids who knew nothing of the actual case and whose protest had been orchestrated and scripted, were obscene. And so, too, though in another manner, was the famous “perp walk” which, I’m aware, is the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029937