There is probably nothing to this story other than a terribly sad death. But something here makes me go hmmm...

Another dead scientist?

Connection to Strauss-Kahn?

was dynamic, controversial figure
By Jethro Mullen, CNN
updated 4:36 PM EDT, Wed April 4, 2012

(CNN) -- A 54-year-old educator found dead in a midtown New York hotel room with blood coming out of his mouth was a dynamic and, at times, controversial figure in French academia.

There was "no evidence of a struggle" and no obvious trauma to Richard Descoings' body, New York police Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said Wednesday.

"We are awaiting the medical examiner's determination as to cause of death," Browne said.

Security personnel at the Michelangelo Hotel found Descoings dead in his bed Tuesday afternoon after he didn't check out of the hotel. He had blood coming out of his mouth, the city fire department said.

Descoings was the director of the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, a prestigious French school -- known popularly as Sciences Po -- that has groomed many prominent officials in government and business in France. He was also a member of the French Council of State, a top government advisory body.

snip

The death of Descoings is the second dramatic event involving a high profile figure associated with Sciences Po that the New York police have had to investigate in the past year.

In May, they arrested Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, on allegations that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room.

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/04/justice/new-york-academic-death/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

Richard Descoings was found naked (and dead). His cellphone and laptop were found on a landing several floors below his room, having apparently been thrown out his window. The autopsy has been completed, but no cause of death has been found. Results are pending toxicology tests (and microscopics, I would assume).

The initial article mentioned that there was blood coming out of his mouth. I remember another mysterious death a few years ago about which there was much discussion, and the cause of death was ricin, so I looked it up, and found this:


Descoings was a political scientist holding three prestigious positions. This is from wikipedia:


I was fascinated by the reference to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, so I looked up his relation to Sciences Po and found that he was a professor of economics at the Paris Institute for Political Studies ("Sciences Po"). Of course, we know that when he was the director of the IMF, he was arrested under charges of sexual assault, which were later dropped (of course), but following that he was arrested in France for suspicion of involvement in a prostitution ring.

Sciences-Po – otherwise known as the Insitute d’Etudes Politiques – has been a bastion of French elitism for decades, an obligatory “rite of passage” for anyone hoping to exercise a high function in the French government.

Sciences Po is also a member of an Alliance between Columbia University in NY (where Obama supposedly studied) and three French universities. On their website, they claim this Alliance as the "World (or Global) University of tomorrow". Descoings was in NY to speak at the Global Colloquium of University Presidents at Columbia on Tuesday, but did not arrive when the conference was scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning.

He was also seen as a controversial figure in France, partly because of his role in the school’s shift from a specialized to a more regular university, and because he pursued students from underrepresented (minority and poor, "lower-class" groups.

“Some people didn’t see that with a good eye,” Lagier said. “It’s such an elitist institution … opening it up for other realms of the population was not necessarily taken as a positive thing for those criticizers.”
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/0 ... conference

In 2010, Descoings was scheduled to give a lecture on "The Education of Elites" the Fight Against Inequality, along with John Coatsworth, but the lecture was postponed due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland. John Coatsworth, Dean, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Several of the main "Team" of Science Po are members of the European Council on Foreign Affairs, and yes it is an offshoot of the CFR, founded by key members of the CFR in 2007.

I don't know if this smattering of info has any meaning in relation to whatever led up to Descoings' death, but it is a starting point, and perhaps as the days go by and more is learned about the cause of his death, there will be some threads to pull together started here.

Wow, Rutsie! Great job!

I just had a gut feeling there was much more to this story.

Ricin, huh? Very, very interesting.

Well now he's being tarred with the gay brush.

Real or not real?

Sorry can't help the Hunger Games references lately.

‘Gay hookup’ link in French scholar’s Manhattan hotel room death: sources

By DOUG AUER and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

Last Updated: 9:34 AM, April 5, 2012

Cops found gay-hookup Web sites on the laptop computer of a married French scholar whose naked corpse was found in a posh Midtown hotel room, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

Richard Descoings, 53, director of the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies — and a friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy — was “really into men,” his widow told cops, according to the sources.

Nadia Marik-Descoings flew in from France yesterday and told cops she was aware of her husband’s homosexual interests “before she met and married him,” the sources added.

Detectives are looking to question two men who visited Descoings’ room Monday evening.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/gay_hookup_link_in_scholar_hotel_h4squLKHXuCdbWEUq7PlSJ#ixzz1rGNJRzZp