Former pro-Israel lobbyists indicted for disclosing classified US defense info News
Former pro-Israel lobbyists indicted for disclosing classified US defense info

[JURIST] Two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) [advocacy website] were indicted [PDF] Thursday for allegedly conspiring to receive and disclose classified US defense information over a five-year period dating back to 1999. The indictment indicates that the two ex-employees of AIPAC, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, had connections to Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, who was previously charged [JURIST report] with disclosing classified military information and who was also indicted today. The men are being charged with releasing information to the media and foreign government officials related to al-Qaida activity in Iran, the Khobar Towers bombing [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Saudi Arabia, and terrorism in Asia. Read the US Attorney's press release [PDF]. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.