Campus Watch has just released a bulletin
(http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1970) claiming that
Columbia's Middle East Institute "sent out invititations" to an event
honoring Amir Baraka,
a well-known antisemite.  Invitations are normally assumed to be sent by
sponsors, and so it is implied here that the Middle East Institute
sponsored this event.
Never mind that all of this takes place at an off-campus address.  Never
mind that the "invitation" was "sent out" on the very day of the event.

Did Columbia's Middle East Institute plan or sponsor this event?  Clearly
not.  Did the Middle East Institute even "send
out" invitations?  Since the person listed as issuing the invitation was
Astrid Benedek, I wrote her asking for clarification.  Here is her answer:

Dear Prof. Miller,

I assume you mean "Campus Watch" and MEI (Middle East Institute). I have
seen the posting on Campus Watch. All I did (and I'm sorry I did so now) is
forward a message I received about the event. The event description clearly
stated who the organizers were, and I can assure you that the Middle East
Institute at  Columbia had nothing to do with the event.

Best

Astrid Benedek

Now Daniel Pipes and crew could easily have learned this for themselves
(indeed I suspect they knew what they were doing), but then they would have
been depriving a certain group of 'scholars' and other loudmouths a chunk
of red meat.  That's what they call aggressive journalism.

I call it sleaze.

Norman Miller