[Wall Street Journal] Dorothy Rabinowitz - The indictment of two AIPAC lobbyists for activities that go on every day in Washington, and that are clearly protected under the First Amendment, far exceeds any other in the now long list of non-crimes from which government attorneys have constructed major cases, or more precisely, show trials. The government could succeed in this prosecution of two non-government professionals doing what they had every reason to view as their jobs - talking to government officials and reporters, and transmitting information and opinions. If such activities can be charged, successfully, as a "conspiracy," every professional, every business, every quarter of society - not to mention members of the press - will have reason to understand that this is a bell that tolls not just for two AIPAC lobbyists, but also for countless others to face trials in the future, for newly invented crimes unearthed by willing prosecutors.
2007-04-02 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive