Inside the strange Hollywood scam that spread chaos across the Middle East A group of rightwing extremists aimed to destabilize post-Mubarak Egypt and roil US politicians. They got their wish

Inside the strange Hollywood scam that spread chaos across the Middle East
A group of rightwing extremists aimed to destabilize post-Mubarak Egypt and roil US politicians. They got their wish

Max Blumenthal

Palestinians protest
against The Innocence of Muslims. Officials confirmed 'Sam Bacile' was
an alias used by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Photograph: EPA
Did an inflammatory anti-Muslim film trailer that appeared
spontaneously on YouTube prompt the attack that left four US diplomats
dead, including US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens? American officials have suggested that the assault was pre-planned, allegedly by of one of the Jihadist
groups that emerged since the Nato-led overthrow of Libya's Gaddafi
regime. So even though the deadly scene in Benghazi may not have
resulted directly from the angry reaction to the Islamophobic video, the violence has helped realize the apocalyptic visions of the film's
backers.
Produced and promoted by a strange collection of
rightwing Christian evangelicals and exiled Egyptian Copts, the trailer
was created with the intention of both destabilizing post-Mubarak Egypt and roiling the US presidential election. As a consultant for the film
named Steve Klein said: "We went into this knowing this was probably
going to happen."
The Associated Press's initial report on the trailer – an amateurish, practically unwatchable production
called The Innocence of Muslims – identified a mysterious character,
"Sam Bacile", as its producer. Bacile told the Associated Press that he
was a Jewish Israeli real estate developer living in California. He said that he raised $5m for the production of the film from "100
Jewish donors", an unusual claim echoing Protocols of the Elders of
Zion-style fantasies. Unfortunately, the extensive history of Israeli
and ultra-Zionist funding and promotion of Islamophobic propaganda in the United States provided Bacile's remarkable statement with the ring of truth.
Who was Bacile? The Israeli government could not confirm his citizenship,
and for a full day, no journalist was able to determine whether he
existed or not. After being duped by Bacile, AP traced his address to the home of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a militant Coptic
separatist and felon convicted of check fraud. On September 13, US law
enforcement officials confirmed that "Sam Bacile" was an alias Nakoula used to advance his various
scams, which apparently included the production of The Innocence of
Muslims.
According to an actor in the film, the all-volunteer cast was deceived into believing they were acting in a benign biblical epic about "how
things were 2,000 years ago". The script was titled Desert Warrior, and
its contents made no mention of Muhammad – his name was dubbed into the
film during post-production. On the set, a gray-haired Egyptian man who
identified himself only as "Sam" (Nakoula) chatted aimlessly in Arabic
with a group of friends while posing as the director. A casting notice for Desert Warrior listed the film's real director as "Alan Roberts". This could likewise be a pseudonym, although there is a veteran
Hollywood hand responsible for such masterpieces as The Happy Hooker
Goes Hollywood and The Sexpert who goes by the same name.
Before
Nakoula was unmasked, the only person to publicly claim any role in the
film was Klein, an insurance salesman and Vietnam veteran from Hemet,
California, who emerged from the same Islamophobic movement that
produced the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Styling
themselves as "counter-Jihadists", anti-Muslim crusaders like Klein took their cues from top propagandists like Pamela Geller, the blogger who
once suggested that Barack Obama was the lovechild of Malcolm X, and Robert Spencer, a pseudo-academic expert on Muslim radicalization who claimed that Islam was no more than "a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers". Both Geller and Spencer were labeled hate group leaders by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Klein is an enthusiastic commenter on Geller's website, Atlas Shrugged, where he recently complained about Mitt Romney's "support for a Muslim state
in Israel's heartland". In July 2011, Spencer's website, Jihad Watch,
promoted a rally Klein organized to demand the firing of Los Angeles
County sheriff Lee Baca, whom he painted as a dupe for the Muslim
Brotherhood.
On his personal Facebook page, Altar or Abolish, Klein obsesses over the Muslim Brotherhood, describing the organization as "a global network of Muslims attacking to convert the world's 6
billion people to Islam or kill them". Klein urges a violent response to the perceived threat of Islam in the United States, posting an image to his website depicting a middle-American family with a mock tank turret
strapped to the roof of their car. "Can you direct us to the nearest
mosque?" read a caption Klein added to the photo.
In 2011, during his campaign to oust Sheriff Baca, Klein forged an alliance with Joseph Nasrallah, an extremist Coptic broadcaster who shared his fear and resentment of
the Muslim Brotherhood. Nasrallah appeared from out of nowhere at a
boisterous rally against the construction of an Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan on September 11, 2010, warning a few hundred riled-up Tea Party types that Muslims "came and conquered our country the same way they want to conquer America".
Organized by Geller and Spencer, the rally was carefully timed to coincide with
the peak of the midterm congressional election campaign, in which many
rightwing Republicans hoped to leverage rising anti-Muslim sentiment
into resentment against the presidency of Obama.
Through his
friendship with Nasrallah, Klein encountered another radical Coptic
separatist named Morris Sadek. Sadek has been banned from returning to
his Egypt, where he is widely hated for his outrageous anti-Muslim
displays. On the day of the Ground Zero rally, for instance, Sadek was
seen parading around the streets of Washington, DC, on September 11, 2010, with a
crucifix in one hand and a Bible implanted with the American flag in the other. "Islam is evil!" he shouted. "Islam is a cult religion!"
With another US election approaching, and the Egyptian government suddenly
under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, Klein and Sadek joined
Nakoula in preparing what would be their greatest propaganda stunt to
date: the Innocence of Muslims. As soon as the film appeared on YouTube, Sadek promoted it on his website, transforming the obscure clip into a viral source of outrage in the Middle East. And like clockwork, on September 11, crowds of Muslim protesters stormed the walls of the US embassy in Cairo,
demanding retribution for the insult to the prophet Muhammad. The
demonstrations ricocheted into Libya, where the deadly attack that may
have been only peripherally related to the film occurred.
For
Sadek, the chaos was an encouraging development. He and his allies had
been steadfastly opposed to the Egyptian revolution, fearing that it
would usher in the Muslim Brotherhood as the country's new leaders. Now
that their worst fears were realized, Coptic extremists and other
pro-Mubarak dead-enders were resorting to subterfuge to undermine the
ruling party, while pointing to the destabilizing impact of their
efforts as proof of the government's bankruptcy. As Sadek said, "the violence that [the film] caused in Egypt is further evidence of how violent the religion and people".
For far-right Christian right activists like Klein, the attacks on American interests abroad seemed likely to advance their ambitions back in the
US. With Americans confronted with shocking images of violent Muslims in Egypt and Libya on the evening news, their already negative attitudes toward their Muslim neighbors were likely to harden. In turn, the presidential candidates, Obama and Romney, would be forced to
compete for who could take the hardest line against Islamic "terror".
A patrician moderate constantly on the defensive against his own right flank, Romney fell for the bait, baselessly accusing Obama of "sympathiz[ing] with those who waged the attacks" and of
issuing "an apology for America's values". The clumsy broadside
backfired in dramatic fashion, opening Romney to strident criticism from across the spectrum, including from embarrassed Republican members of Congress. Obama wasted no time in authorizing a round of drone strikes on targets across Libya, which are likely to deepen regional hostility to the US.
A group of fringe extremists had proven that with a little bit of money
and an unbelievably cynical scam, they could shape history to fit their
apocalyptic vision. But in the end, they were not immune to the violence they incited.
According to Copts Today, an Arabic news outlet
focusing on Coptic affairs, Sadek was seen taking a leisurely stroll
down Washington's M Street on September 11, soaking in the sun on a
perfect autumn day. All of a sudden, he found himself surrounded by four angry Coptic women. Berating Sadek for fueling the flames of
sectarian violence, the women took off their heels and began beating him over the head.
"If anything happens to a Christian in Egypt," one of them shouted at him, "you'll be the reason!"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/13/egypt-libya-hollywood-film