Israel Defying Sanctions Against Iran

U.S. officials demanding halt to indirect Israel imports of Iranian pistachio nuts

The International Herald Tribune reports:

It's not just Iran's nuclear program that's causing problems for Israel and the U.S. — it's also Iran's pistachio nuts.

The reddish nuts are landing in Israeli shops after funneling through Turkey, violating Israeli law that bans all Iranian imports and angering American officials who are urging Israel to crack down as part of their attempt to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Keenum said in a meeting with Israeli officials in Rome on Monday that the pistachio imports must stop, a U.S. official confirmed Wednesday. Both the U.S. and Israel have been pushing for new U.N. sanctions to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program. Iran insists its ambitions are peaceful.

"This causes great anger, especially since pistachios succeed in coming in through a third country," Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon told Israeli Radio. "This has to do with the sanctions but also with the competition between American farmers and Iranian farmers, and we are trying to deal with this."

Simchon said a recent meeting with a senior U.S. agriculture official focused on using technology to detect the origin of pistachios. He said that would involve chemical testing to determine the climate and soil of where the nuts were grown.

In the mid 1990s U.S. officials pressured Israel to block the import of Iranian nuts coming through E.U. member states and winding up in Israel.

The United States has had few diplomatic and economic ties with Iran since a group of Iranian students besieged the American embassy in Tehran in 1979, holding diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Tensions since Iran started pursuing nuclear technology have only heightened, with the U.S. pushing the U.N. to enact new economic sanctions against the country until it gives up the program.

California is the second largest producer of pistachios in the world, according to the former California Pistachio Coalition. Iran is first.

"As a proud native of the golden state (California), I think Israelis should eat American pistachios, not Iranian ones," said Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Republican Politicians Embracing Scandalized Senator David Vitter

From NOLA.com:

U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, the front-runner for governor and one of the state's best-known and most popular Republicans, broke his silence Friday over the call-girl scandal surrounding GOP Sen. David Vitter, issuing a cautious statement of support.

U.S. Congressman Bobby Jindal (R.-LA)

"While we are disappointed by Senator Vitter's actions, Supriya and I continue to keep David and his family in our prayers," Jindal said, referring to his wife. "This is a matter for the Senator to address, and it is our hope that this is not used by others for their own political gain."

Jindal had stayed mum Thursday as other Louisiana Republicans rallied to Vitter's defense. Jindal waited until late Friday afternoon before issuing the two-sentence release regarding the embattled congressional colleague whose 1st District seat he assumed when Vitter ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Pollster Bernie Pinsonat said that the Vitter scandal is unwelcome news to Jindal, who will officially launch his gubernatorial bid Monday and was expecting Vitter to play an active role campaigning, particularly in north Louisiana.

"It is the best you can expect out of Jindal because he is running for governor," Pinsonat said. "This is not something he wants to deal with right now. It couldn't come at a worse time for him."

Vitter rocked the Louisiana political establishment on Monday night when he acknowledged that his number appeared on the billing records of a Washington call girl service whose owner is charted with running a prostitution ring. Records show the number appeared at least five times between 1999 and 2001, a period during which he served in the U.S. House.

In his only public statement, Vitter acknowledged a "very serious sin," and in an e-mail to supporters sent out early this week, offered a separate apology. He assured his backers that he and his family "will be fine."

"I will live every day always striving to fully honor that friendship and those prayers," Vitter wrote.

The e-mail was sent before a former New Orleans brothel owner said Vitter had been a customer of her operation and a prostitute said then-state Rep. Vitter was a regular client of hers during the mid-1990s. Vitter has not addressed the most recent allegations, but denied them in 2004.

Louisiana Republicans said little at first as each day brought new revelations. In a concerted push Thursday to offer some support for the most prominent Republican statewide elected official, the state GOP organized the release of a flurry of supportive statements. Most urged personal support for Vitter and his family and focused on the legislative work Vitter has done in his eight years on Capitol Hill.

Few were as expansive as the statement released Friday by Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton, who not only defended Vitter's character but also warned the news media to tread carefully before it prints any more stories.
U.S. Representative Richard Baker (R.-LA)

Baker said Vitter's behavior was serious and disappointing, "but it does not define the whole of the man and it is not irredeemable." He urged the news media to "demonstrate some restraint and professionalism."

Baker took aim at critics who labeled Vitter a hypocrite for promoting conservative views, talking about family values and advocating sexual abstinence at a time when he was in a touch with an alleged call girl service.

"If a man has values and standards, but does not live up to them, it does nothing to discredit the validity or those values and standards, and he is far preferable to those timid souls who, without values and standards, cannot fall short of them nor ever run the risk of being charged with hypocrisy," Baker said.

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, by contrast, issued a statement more in keeping with the reserved tone of the one issued by Jindal.

"David and his family are going through a difficult time and my thoughts and prayers are with him," Boustany said.

U.S. Representative Charles Boustany (R.-LA)

As in the rest of the South, the Republican Party has been ascendant in Louisiana over the past 10 years. The loss of a senate seat, should Vitter resign or lose reelection in 2010, would be a major blow.

Pinsonat, the pollster, said most Republicans are offering guarded support for their standard bearer because they aren't sure of all the details surrounding the current allegations or what else might come out.

"They are sticking their toe in the water very carefully because they don't know how hot it will get," Pinsonat said.

Louisiana Democrats sought to turn up the heat Friday by launching a petition drive calling on Vitter to resign because of his "immoral, unlawful and hypocritical behavior."

"We really have been getting lots of phone calls from all over the country," said Julie Vezinot, spokeswoman for the party. "People are fed up with his hypocritical behavior and he is not doing his job in Washington."

Friend and colleague Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., told the Associated Press that he has been in touch with Vitter by e-mail and that Vitter plans to return to Capitol Hill next week for votes on Tuesday. He said Vitter was contrite in their exchange.

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R.-South Carolina)

"It's a huge moral failure that reflects on the whole body. And for that he's very sorry," DeMint told the AP. "Obviously he has a lot of remorse. He seems to want to address it head on and not try to hide it."

David Vitter, Hiding Out

At NOLA.com:

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter will probably emerge from seclusion soon and return to Washington to fight for his political career, a colleague of the first-term Republican said Friday.

When Vitter does, he is sure to be confronted with his past remarks about the sanctity of marriage, the importance of fidelity and the need for high ethical standards among office holders.

In a statement last Monday night, Vitter apologized for committing a "very serious sin in my past," acknowledging that his Washington phone number was among those called several years ago by an escort service that prosecutors say was a prostitution operation. Telephone records show that the service called Vitter's number five times from 1999 to 2001, while he was a U.S. House member.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., told reporters Friday that, based on e-mail exchanges with Vitter, he expects his colleague to return to the Capitol by Tuesday. Vitter, 46, missed votes on Iraq policy matters on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
DeMint said of Vitter's admission: "It's a huge moral failure that reflects on the whole body. And for that he's very sorry."

Several GOP colleagues in Washington and Louisiana have rallied to Vitter's side, saying politicians deserve forgiveness when they err and repent. Some opponents have accused him of hypocrisy, noting that his career is built largely on an image as someone more ethical than the average politician.

Vitter, a married father of four, last month urged colleagues to devote more federal spending to programs urging sexual abstinence among teens. The best way to avert teen pregnancy, he wrote, is "by teaching teenagers that saving sex until marriage and remaining faithful afterwards is the best choice for health and happiness."

In a June 2006 Senate speech supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, Vitter said it was "well overdue that we in the Senate focus on nurturing, upholding, preserving and protecting such a fundamental social institution as traditional marriage."

On Friday night, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who ran the escort service and whose phone records led to Vitter's problems, said she was "disgusted at the hypocrisy" of the senator's comments about gay marriage.

"How dare someone dictate one thing and practice another, and in the process deny so many in this country the opportunity for happiness," said Palfrey. "In particular, I'm talking about dictating what constitutes a family. What constitutes a family is love, pure and simple."

A lengthy 1999 profile of Vitter in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans was headlined, "Straight arrow aims for Congress."

Several lawmakers including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., publicly accused Vitter of hypocrisy this week. Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt reveled in his role in unearthing Vitter's phone records, saying, "I'm only exposing the hypocrisy."

Roger Villere, chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, said Friday he had tried to get in touch with Vitter without success. Villere said he'd been inundated with e-mails from Republicans, most of them supporting Vitter. A "vocal minority" is voicing opposition, he said.

Also Friday, people close to Vitter confirmed that he sent an e-mail to supporters earlier this week saying: "I ... deeply apologize again for letting you and others down. ... Our family will be fine, though we certainly appreciate your continuing thoughts and prayers."

Vitter, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar, moved rapidly from the Louisiana legislature to the U.S. House and then the Senate, thanks largely to his repeated attacks on what he portrayed as ethical shortcomings of his opponents. He assailed their junkets, ties to casino gambling and use of a tax-paid scholarship program.

The 1999 Times-Picayune profile called him "the boyish-looking, straight-laced freshman state representative" who was "sometimes lampooned as a Boy Scout in adult life." It said he hammered everyone "who didn't pass Vitter's ethical muster. Along the way, he made some powerful enemies. ... Even some of Vitter's fellow Republicans privately groused that he was a grandstander."

Vitter's allies say they will try to help him regain some of his luster.

"The past conduct that Sen. Vitter has acknowledged and taken responsibility for is serious and disappointing," Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., said in a statement Friday, "but it does not define the whole of the man, and it is not irredeemable."

Another Prostitute Comes Forward About Senator David Vitter

From NOLA.com:

Days after Senator David Vitter apologized for using an escort service in Washington, D.C., a woman who once worked as a prostitute in Louisiana said he was a regular client of hers several years ago while he was a state legislator.

The woman worked under the name Wendy Cortez. Her birth name is Wendy Yow, according to her ex-husband, who asked not to be named but said he has seen her birth certificate.

Yow, contacted through relatives, called The Times-Picayune Wednesday night and said Vitter was a regular customer of hers, but said the two did not have a personal romantic relationship. She claimed to have severed ties with him after she found out he was married. Yow said it was a part of her life she hoped to put behind her.

On Thursday, The Times-Picayune asked Vitter's office whether he had ever hired a prostitute or knew Wendy Cortez. In response, his office issued a statement that referenced his Monday apology regarding the Washington escort service and reiterated that he was not implicated in a federal investigation that led to the closing of a Canal Street brothel in 2001.

''Senator Vitter was very honest and direct in his statement on Monday. Unfortunately, that has resulted in political enemies and those looking to profit from the situation shopping all sorts of false stories. Four different lawyers in the Canal Street matter, including the lead defense attorney and the U.S. attorney, have confirmed Senator Vitter had nothing to do with the operation in any way. But sadly the media insists on being completely irresponsible and continues to report rumors and false accusations,'' said Joel DiGrado, a Vitter spokesperson.

DiGrado said that Vitter is spending important time with his family and soon will return to work in the U.S. Senate.

Two of the attorneys cited by DiGrado -- U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and defense attorney Vinny Mosca -- said Vitter's name did not surface or show up in documents during a federal investigation of the operation but did not go as far as to say that he had never been a client.

On Tuesday, Jeanette Maier, the ''Canal Street Madam,'' said Vitter was a customer at her Mid-City brothel but that his ties predated the investigation.

Confronted during his 2004 Senate race with a question about his relationship with Cortez, Vitter denied the liasions on a radio program.

''I think you know that that allegation is absolutely and completely untrue...I have said that on numerous occasions ... I'll say that in any forum,'' Vitter said during the broadcast on WSMB radio. ''Unfortunately, that's just crass Louisiana politics, now that I am running for the Senate. I have made that clear that it is all completely untrue...And, it's obviously politically motivated.''

Yow characterized the senator as a good man but said she was perturbed that he portrayed himself as a politician who would bring moral authority to his office when he was using her services on the side.

Her former boyfriend Tait Cortez, contacted by The Times-Picayune, said he has seen several photos of Wendy Cortez and Vitter together.

Tait Cortez, who works in construction and often travels to compete in weekend rodeos, said he dated Wendy Cortez for several years in the late 1990s and lived with her for more than a year. The couple never married. Her relationship with Vitter, which Tait Cortez claimed went beyond the brothel business, contributed to their breakup, he said.

''She said she gave exotic massages,'' Cortez, 40, said. ''That's when the trouble (between us) started.''

Towards the end of a waning relationship in the summer of 1998, Wendy told him she was an ''exotic masseause,'' Cortez said.

''She told me she had clients lined up; high-dollar people, lawyers, politicians, golfers,'' he said.

While unpacking boxes following the couple's move to Alabama in 1998, Tait Cortez said he found photos of a smiling Wendy at a formal affair, wearing an evening gown, alongside a man he described as a ''city slicker'' wearing a suit. In another photo, that same dark-haired man appeared with Wendy at a waterfront party, he said. The man was wearing shorts and a t-shirt next to Wendy in a bikini, Cortez said. ''She had his hand on his crotch,'' Cortez said. ''They were smiling.''



Cortez said the photo stung him. It was ''more sexual'' than any others, and he felt that Wendy and the man exhibited more than a business relationship, he said.

''She said it was a client of hers,'' Cortez said. ''She said it was David Vitter, a politician.''

Cortez said he and Wendy argued over the course of the next days during which he learned more about her line of work. ''She said it was all a job,'' he said.''I asked her what exactly she did. She said whatever they wanted. I asked her about sex. She said whatever it took.''

After returning home from work the next day, Cortez said he found a note on the refrigerator that said he should not look for her, because he wouldn't find her.

His truck also was missing, along with several items. Save for a few out-of-the-blue phone calls, Cortez said he hasn't spoken to Yow in several years.

Records show Yow has moved often, with addresses in at least five states over the past decade, including Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Iowa and Florida. She used the last names of Yow, Cortez, Williams, Shackelford, Ellis, Scavone and Bruhn, among others, according to cross-referenced public records and interviews.

Yow also has an extensive criminal record. Her legal trouble began in 1991 when she was arrested in Gretna and booked on warrants alleging two counts of forgery and parole violation, records show.

In 1995, she was arrested in Sanford, Fla., and charged as a felon fleeing from justice, and extradited to Arkansas, where she was wanted, according to police records.

A year later in Seminole County, Fla., sheriffs booked her on three counts of fraudulent use of credit cards. She was convicted and ordered to serve probation, but violated that sentence years later and was rearrested in 2001 in Longwood, Fla. Records show she served a jail sentence.

Yow was arrested in October 1997 in Orleans Parish and charged with theft over $500, according to court records. A handwriting specimen was scheduled and Yow failed to appear for a subsequent hearing. The case was dropped in 1998 under article 701.

Available records do not indicate Yow has been arrested for prostitution.

Cortez identified a photo of the woman who adopted his name and described the location of the Mid-City brothel where he said he'd been to pick her up when she worked there. A family member also confirmed the photo. Meier, the madam, said the photo was not the woman she knew as Wendy Cortez.

Tait Cortez has since married, burned photos of his former lover, and forgotten about her, he said, although he still feels deceived.

''She acts like she loves you, but in the end, she is just taking money from you,'' he said.