"Little Miss Tan Lines" identified?

Source of Sanford e-mails found?
Argentine man said to have sent copies of messages to S.C. newspaper
New York Times News Service

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The mystery of who revealed Governor Mark Sanford’s e-mail messages might finally be solved.

A business associate of Sanford’s Argentine mistress said Friday that private messages between the lovers had been sent anonymously to The State newspaper in December by an Argentine man the mistress briefly dated.

The associate, who asked not to be identified, is a Buenos Aires television executive involved in hiring the woman, whom he identified as Maria Belen Chapur, a producer at the television network America from 2001-02.

Maria Belan Chapur

Last December, the executive said, Chapur was dating a young Argentine a few months after her affair with Sanford began. The executive, who has direct knowledge of the situation, said the man happened to see the e-mails between Sanford and Chapur and hacked into her e-mail account to see the rest.

Infuriated, the man sent the messages to The State.

The executive said that when Chapur found out, she immediately ended the relationship with the man, whose identity has not been disclosed.

In one of the published messages, dated July 9, 2008, Chapur wrote Sanford she had seen another man.

“He is a very nice guy, great heart,” she wrote, “but unfortunately I am not in love with him. You are my love. Something hard to believe even for myself as it’s also a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation.”

In publishing the e-mail messages this week, The State said they had been sent anonymously. Asked Friday about the executive’s account of their source, managing editor Steve Brook said he had no comment, adding only, “That’s interesting.”

Joel Sawyer, Sanford’s spokesman, also had no comment.

Chapur did not respond to messages left on her cell phone.

The executive said Chapur monitored international press coverage of Argentina, preparing a summary each evening from the financial and European news media for the network.

“She was a follower of international news,” he said, “an avid reader of foreign news and regularly attended policy seminars.” He said she spoke English and French fluently.

She appeared on the air only once, reporting from New York in 2002 during the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A video of her appearance, now widely circulating on the Internet, first appeared Thursday afternoon on Argentine television.