I’ve got a lot to say about AIPAC, but today is move in day so I really need to unpack. Suffice it to say that AIPAC’s influence is wide and deep, and that a Democrat has been sucked into this investigation surprises me none. Short version of what I think: it’s long past time for an open, honest, critical discussion about how much influence Israel has on the government of the United States. Being friends is one thing, dragging each other down the Neocon/Likudnik vortex of total disaster in the Middle East is another. Time:

The case is a spin-off of a probe that has already led to charges under the Espionage Act against two AIPAC lobbyists, whose case is still pending, and to a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Defense Intelligence Agency official Lawrence A. Franklin. Franklin pleaded guilty a year ago to three felony counts involving improper disclosure and handling of classified information about the Middle East and terrorism to the two lobbyists, who in turn are accused of passing it on to a journalist and a foreign government, widely believed to be Israel. The two lobbyists, who have denied any wrongdoing but were dismissed by AIPAC in April of 2005, were indicted on felony counts of conspiring with government officials to receive classified information they were not authorized to have access to and providing national defense information to people not entitled to receive it.  Read more