Heritage’s ugly Benghazi panel

June 16 at 7:07 PM

Representatives of prominent conservative groups converged on the Heritage Foundation on Monday afternoon for the umpteenth in a series of gatherings to draw attention to the Benghazi controversy.

But this one took an unexpected turn. ... What began as a session purportedly about “unanswered questions” surrounding the September 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya deteriorated into the ugly taunting of a woman in the room who wore an Islamic head covering.
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Heritage hosted Monday’s gathering in conjunction with the Benghazi Accountability Coalition, a federation coordinated by Andrew McCarthy (prosecutor of the Blind Sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman) and including 15 groups such as Heritage, Judicial Watch and the Traditional Values Coalition. McCarthy’s talk to the gathering was titled “Just the Facts” — but the facts never had a chance against all the groups’ self-promotion (“Go to BenghaziCoalition.org” and “You need to be on our mailing list”) and anti-Islamist rhetoric that too often sounded just anti-Islam.

Panelist Frank Gaffney revived allegations that former Clinton aide Huma Abedin has “deep personal” ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and said she may have advocated for laws against “Sharia blasphemy.” Gaffney also said the president’s view that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” is “a statement you could have found on al-Qaeda’s Web site.”