LG
04-29-2007, 06:47 PM
So a Bush official hired escorts. Nothing wrong with that. What was wrong was the hypocrisy and holier-than-thou attitude: A man publicly opposing prostitution but privately making more than a little use of prostitutes. He claims that the services rendered did not involve sex. Yeah, right. Pull the other one.
From the International Herald Tribune:
WASHINGTON: Deborah Jeane Palfrey has not been at all shy about it: For more than a decade she ran an escort service that catered to upscale clients in the nation's capital, sending college-educated women to men's homes or hotel rooms.
For about $300, she provided about 90 minutes of what she has described as a discreet "legal high-end erotic fantasy service." But the discreet part is over, after federal authorities charged her with operating a prostitution ring.
"The tentacles of this matter reach far, wide and high into the echelons of power in the United States," Palfrey wrote in a court filing last month, as she prepared to release a list of her clients' telephone numbers and vowed to subpoena her customers - some of whom she described as prominent Washington officials.
It is a defense strategy that had its first casualty Friday.
Randall Tobias, the top foreign aid adviser in the State Department, became the most prominent person on the list to be publicly identified when he resigned after acknowledging to ABC News that he was among Palfrey's clients. The State Department's statement on Tobias's resignation said simply, "He is returning to private life for personal reasons."
ABC News reported that Tobias told the network Thursday that he had called Pamela Martin and Associates - Palfrey's business - for massage services, not for sex.
Tobias, 65, is a former chairman and chief executive of Eli Lilly and of AT&T International. He was chairman of the board of Duke University from 1997 to 2000. He has been a major donor to various Republican campaigns.
Tobias, who was the director of foreign assistance and the administrator of the Agency for International Development, ran agencies that required foreign recipients of AIDS assistance to explicitly condemn prostitution, a policy that drew protests from some nations and relief organizations.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
RANDALL TOBIAS, the Bush Administration official responsible for foreign assistance who resigned because of his use of an escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, has been ridiculed as a hypocrite because he supported US policies that forced overseas organisations not to help prostitutes.
Others, who called Mr Tobias a strong manager, said he was so integral to US foreign aid that the Bush Administration may retreat from some projects rather than draw attention to the circumstances of his departure.
Mr Tobias, who is 65 and married, told American ABC News on Saturday that he had used the Pamela Martin & Associates escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage" and there had been no sex involved.
"I think it is somewhat ironic and hypocritical that he would patronise an escort service while he was denying funding to organisations who want to help prostitutes and supporting a policy that obviously forbids fraternising with prostitutes," said Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Centre for Health and Gender Equity.
The Bush Administration requires groups receiving US money to "have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking", she said.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Tobias_randall_l.jpg
From the International Herald Tribune:
WASHINGTON: Deborah Jeane Palfrey has not been at all shy about it: For more than a decade she ran an escort service that catered to upscale clients in the nation's capital, sending college-educated women to men's homes or hotel rooms.
For about $300, she provided about 90 minutes of what she has described as a discreet "legal high-end erotic fantasy service." But the discreet part is over, after federal authorities charged her with operating a prostitution ring.
"The tentacles of this matter reach far, wide and high into the echelons of power in the United States," Palfrey wrote in a court filing last month, as she prepared to release a list of her clients' telephone numbers and vowed to subpoena her customers - some of whom she described as prominent Washington officials.
It is a defense strategy that had its first casualty Friday.
Randall Tobias, the top foreign aid adviser in the State Department, became the most prominent person on the list to be publicly identified when he resigned after acknowledging to ABC News that he was among Palfrey's clients. The State Department's statement on Tobias's resignation said simply, "He is returning to private life for personal reasons."
ABC News reported that Tobias told the network Thursday that he had called Pamela Martin and Associates - Palfrey's business - for massage services, not for sex.
Tobias, 65, is a former chairman and chief executive of Eli Lilly and of AT&T International. He was chairman of the board of Duke University from 1997 to 2000. He has been a major donor to various Republican campaigns.
Tobias, who was the director of foreign assistance and the administrator of the Agency for International Development, ran agencies that required foreign recipients of AIDS assistance to explicitly condemn prostitution, a policy that drew protests from some nations and relief organizations.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
RANDALL TOBIAS, the Bush Administration official responsible for foreign assistance who resigned because of his use of an escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, has been ridiculed as a hypocrite because he supported US policies that forced overseas organisations not to help prostitutes.
Others, who called Mr Tobias a strong manager, said he was so integral to US foreign aid that the Bush Administration may retreat from some projects rather than draw attention to the circumstances of his departure.
Mr Tobias, who is 65 and married, told American ABC News on Saturday that he had used the Pamela Martin & Associates escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage" and there had been no sex involved.
"I think it is somewhat ironic and hypocritical that he would patronise an escort service while he was denying funding to organisations who want to help prostitutes and supporting a policy that obviously forbids fraternising with prostitutes," said Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Centre for Health and Gender Equity.
The Bush Administration requires groups receiving US money to "have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking", she said.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Tobias_randall_l.jpg