US forgives Israeli spies amid AIPAC heat:
"A US court has formally dropped espionage charges against two pro-Israeli lobbyists amid a scandal that had threatened to expose the extent of Israeli grip on US politics.
US District Judge T. S. Ellis on Monday dismissed all charges against former AIPAC lobbyists Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, three days after Justice Department prosecutors announced that handling the case would require the release of top secret military intelligence and should therefore be shelved.
Rosen and Weissman were indicted in 2005 for conspiring to obtain and leak classified information regarding Iran to the Israeli government and journalists from The Washington Post and other media outlets.
Pentagon expert Larry Franklin — who pled guilty to passing restricted military intelligence to the two indicted lobbyists — was sentenced in April to 12 years and seven months in prison.
AIPAC, billed as the most powerful lobbying group in Washington, has strived to distance itself from the spy case to escape further controversy for the sake of its reputation.
The controversy, however, was further fueled by revelations of the involvement of California representative Jane Harman — a longtime member of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who has access to highly classified security information."
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