AIPAC Victory: Game, Set, Match

Jeff Stein in CQ, here

"...And what standards did they violate? Getting a Pentagon official to leak information about U.S. policy in the Middle East? Does anyone seriously think AIPAC prohibits its operatives from eliciting sensitive information from defense and intelligence officials?

Of course not.

The Justice Department’s big mistake was in not making clear its real intent: To show that AIPAC’s officials should be required to register as foreign agents, that is to say, that their activities in Washington are no different than lobbyists for, say, Turkey or any other foreign government. Their job is to find out about and influence U.S. policy......Now, have no doubt about it: Israeli agents are busy stealing American industrial, technical and military secrets — witness the spy Jonathan Pollard — and tapping into its telecommunications lines through myriad avenues.....“I am now convinced that an investigation of Israel’s [covert lobbying] operations here can never succeed,” said a veteran national security lawyer over the weekend. “It’s all political.”