Returning empty src

Yeah, similar issue with the bulk importer, and I believe the one-off importer as well.

The plugin is choking on the presence of any space in the img src URL like below:
http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Departments/Statistically-Significant/2012/Summer/~/media/Images/Commonwealth Magazine/2012 Summer/TravMed.ashx?h=375&w=300&as=1

When I correct the URLs before they go into the system, by replacing all spaces with %20 (like below), then the plugin still does not import properly — it actually wipes out the src attributes completely and the posts end up with dead img tags.

http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Departments/Statistically-Significant/2012/Summer/~/media/Images/Commonwealth%20Magazine/2012%20Summer/TravMed.ashx?h=375&w=300&as=1

Any fix coming?

OK, it is likely not the URL itself but the mime type or something associated with the headers served with the target image. media_handle_sideload() is throwing a security error.

I threw some debug code into the plugin here:

function bml_it_sideload ($file, $url, $post_id) {
	if(!empty($file)){
		/// lots of code ///

		$id = media_handle_sideload($file_array, $post_id, $desc);
		$src = $id;

		if(is_wp_error($id)) {
		   #### THIS IS TRIGGERED ####
			@unlink($file_array['tmp_name']);
			return $id;
		}

	}
	if (!empty($src)) return $src;
	else return false;
}

[Moderator Note: Please post code & markup between backticks or use the code button. Your posted code may now have been damaged by the forum’s parser.]

I’m printing out $pathparts here:
Array ( [dirname] => /tmp [basename] => TravMed4.tmp [extension] => tmp [filename] => TravMed4 )

Full URL:
http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Departments/Statistically-Significant/2012/Summer/~/media/Images/Commonwealth%20Magazine/2012%20Summer/TravMed.ashx

and the wp_error (which is NOT displaying to the WP admin UI): Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons.