Ben Shapiro, the editor of the right-wing news site Breitbart.Com, spread a false rumor about Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel giving a speech for the organization Friends of Hamas -- which does not exist. New York Daily News reported Dan Friedman said he was the unwitting source of the false rumor because of a hypothetical question he asked a Republican Congressional staffer. Friedman said he asked a staffer, "Had Hagel given a speech to, say, the 'Junior League of Hezbollah, in France?' And: What about 'Friends of Hamas?' The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East, that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically."