The Justice Department has decided to drop charges against two former AIPAC officials accused of sharing classified information given to them by a government official with various individuals, including an Israeli government official. I expressed my skepticism regarding the case here and here. Given that anything about AIPAC tends to bring out the loons, and I have a busy day ahead of me, I'm leaving comments closed. And speaking of loons, I would have preferred that the case go to trial with a "Not Guilty" verdict, given that the loons are now going to console themselves by claiming that the case was dropped because of political pressure by you-know-who.

UPDATE: And I wrote in a comment to one of Orin's posts: From what I've read, this investigation involved long-term phone taps, surveillance, and a sting operation, and they only managed to catch the staffers in [arguably] illegal activities once Franklin told them that he had classified information that the lives of specific Israeli agents in Iran were in danger. This seems like rather thin gruel given the scope of the investigation, which could mean that (1) the hearsay [that AIPAC staffer were engaging in wrongdoing, leading to the investigation] was wrong or exaggerated; (2) as the commentator above suggests, someone was out to get AIPAC; or (3) that the staffers had become more careful about not stepping over the legal line than when the feds got their original information. We are left to wonder whether 1, 2, or 3, or some combination, is correct.