Ambassador killed -- something tells me there is more to it

[solace]

‘It Makes Me Sick’: Actress in Muhammed Movie Says She Was Deceived, Had No Idea It Was About Islam
Adrian Chen

The story of the Muhammed movie which sparked deadly protests in Libya and Egypt gets weirder. The actors who appeared in it had no idea they were starring in anti-Islam propaganda which depicts Muhammed as a child molester and thug. They were deceived by the film's director, believing they were appearing in a film about the life of a generic Egyptian 2,000 years ago.

Cindy Lee Garcia, an actress from Bakersfield, Calif., has a small role in the Muhammed movie as a woman whose young daughter is given to Muhammed to marry. But in a phone interview this afternoon, Garcia told us she had no idea she was participating in an offensive spoof on the life of Muhammed when she answered a casting call through an agency last summer and got the part.

The script she was given was titled simply Desert Warriors.

"It was going to be a film based on how things were 2,000 years ago," Garcia said. "It wasn't based on anything to do with religion, it was just on how things were run in Egypt. There wasn't anything about Muhammed or Muslims or anything."

In the script and during the shooting, nothing indicated the controversial nature of the final product, now called Muslim Innocence. Muhammed wasn't even called Muhammed; he was "Master George," Garcia said. The words Muhammed were dubbed over in post-production, as were essentially all other offensive references to Islam and Muhammed.

For example, at 9:03 in the trailer, Garcia berates her husband, who wants to send their daughter to Muhammed: "Is your Muhammed a child molester?" she says in the final product. But the words are dubbed over what she actually said. The line in the script—and the line Garcia gave during filming—was, "is your God a child molester," Garcia told us today.

Garcia was horrified when she saw the end product, and when protesters in Libya killed four U.S. Embassy employee.

"I had nothing to do really with anything. Now we have people dead because of a movie I was in. It makes me sick."

According to Garica, her three days on set last July were unremarkable. The film's mysterious pseudonymous writer and director, "Sam Bacile," has claimed to be an Israeli real estate mogul. But Garcia said Bacile told her he was Egyptian on set. Bacile had white hair and spoke Arabic to a number of "dark-skinned" men who hung around the set, she said. (A Bacile associate also told The Atlantic he wasn't Israeli or Jewish.)

"He was just really mellow. He was just sitting there and he wanted certain points to be made."

Once, Garcia said, Bacile wanted a girl that "Master George" (aka Muhammed) was to sleep with to look seven years old, instead of 10, to heighten the outrage. But his Assistant Directors protested, saying that was too young.

After the protests erupted and Bacile appeared in the media, Garcia called him up today to express her outrage at his deception.

"I called Sam and said, 'Why did you do this?' and he said, 'I'm tired of radical Islamists killing each other. Let other actors know it's not their fault.'"

Garcia isn't satisfied simply knowing it wasn't her fault.

"I'm going to sue his butt off."

Update: The entire 80-member cast and crew of the film have released a statement saying they were misled. Via CNN:

The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.

Update II: Here's what appears to be the original casting call, posted in July 2011on craigslist:

NOW CASTING SAG and NON SAG ACTORS for "DESERT WARRIOR." Director Alan Roberts.
Historical desert drama set in Middle East. Indie Feature film shoots 18 days in L.A. in August. Studio and backlot locations.

Male Roles: DR. MATTHEW (Lead): Middle Eastern Pharmacist, 40-50, intelligent, family man; GEORGE (Lead); 40-50, Middle Eastern warrior leader, romantic, charismatic; YOUNG GEORGE (featured) 18-22; PRIEST (featured): 60-70, bearded; ABDO (featured), 60-70, Elder tribe leader; ISRAELI MEN 30-50 (featured); WARRIORS (featured) 18-50, Various Middle Eastern types, bearded.

Female Roles: CONDALISA (featured) 40, attractive, successful, strong willed; HILLARY (featured) 18 but must look younger, petite; innocent; YOUSTINA (featured) 16-18, Daughter of doctor; MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN (Various Featured Roles) 18-40, attractive, exotic; OLDER WOMAN (featured) 60-70, feisty.

Please place Role desired in SUBJECT: line of email.

Indicate SAG or NON-SAG

Require phone contact for immediate interview in Beverly/LaCienega area.

http://gawker.com/5942748

[Iamwhomiam]

Thanks for adding that bit, solace. Thanks, crikkett, phew!

[DrVolin]

Booster shot for the 9/11 vaccine, using the Bacile bacillus strain. It's been a while.

[solace]

http://reuters.livestation.com/demo

live feed outside Cairo US embassy where there have been clashes, tear gas, stone throwing. etc. Looks pretty calm now

[Wombaticus Rex]

Rove is playing a 2016 long game, I can see it in the Vermont local race -- his "Romney" ads are just talking points that test well, basically a Pepsi strategy, for my fellow marketing damned.

My sense so far is the name to watch is Ashley O'Connor. She is smart, hungry, and obviously willing to walk the firewalk of Lee Atwater. Be fascinated to know where she overlaps with Evangelicals. Suspect we will find out in the next 48 hours.

[8bitagent]

Several thoughts:

1. Gee, I thought Libya was our buddy? Oh nope, just like Syria crawling with the globalist's favorite proxie footsoldiers(al Kwayduhs!)

2. As you all note, there is INDEED a lot of these...emerging situations bubbling up all over that (at least sure seem like) point to a confrontation with Iran.
The weird small terror plots blamed on Iran around the globe. All the big financial firms being shut down for suspected Iranian money laundering. The Netanyahu/Obama fall out.
The Syria situation. The Romney/Netanyahu buddy buddy stuff.

3. Why do most of these deadly or violent protest(over quran burnings/mohamed cartoons/etc) ONLY happen in select areas of US warzones? If Muslims were really upset, wouldnt it be protests across the Islamic world?

[justdrew]

it's fairly clearly a psiop by definition. the only question is who's?

Let's look for James O'Keef's fingerprints... he's still on parole, so maybe it was filmed at his parents house.

---

for the record, this theoretically existing sam bacile has spoken to a reporter after going into hiding...

Sam Bacile, Anti-Islam Filmmaker, In Hiding After Protests
AP | By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER Posted: 09/12/2012 12:29 am Updated: 09/12/2012 10:25 am

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding after a YouTube trailer of his movie attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed.

Speaking by phone Tuesday from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob firing machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.

In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

"This is a political movie," said Bacile. "The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas."

Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world.

"Islam is a cancer, period," he said repeatedly, his solemn voice thickly accented.

The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.

The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. The14-minute trailer of the movie that reportedly set off the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons.

It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused outrage.

Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.

"I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it."

A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, said the filmmaker is concerned for family members who live in Egypt. Bacile declined to confirm.

Klein said he vowed to help Bacile make the movie but warned him that "you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh." Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam.

"We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen," Klein said.

Bacile's film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone he doesn't know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate. It was made in three months in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera.

The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.

Almost looks like an aryan supremacist move, certainly this AP reporter went out of their way to paint this "voice on the end of a phone" as a jewish jew-guy, they practically wrote him with a hook nose.

Anyway, HOW did the AP get his phone number?

and where were the marines that should have been guarding?

[Nordic]

Female Roles: CONDALISA (featured) 40, attractive, successful, strong
willed; HILLARY (featured) 18 but must look younger, petite; innocent

Condoleeza and Hillary. Cute.

[compared2what?]

It's worth adding Joe Cannon to the thread... he's attentive to the story.

Cannonfire's blog, The war conspiracy (updated)

He writes, in part (bold, mine):

I shook with rage -- literally -- as I read this:
Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus (@Reince) tweeted out the following before news of the murder of the U.S. ambassador in Libya, but after the sustained attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities there and in Egypt: "Obama sympathizes with attackers in Egypt. Sad and pathetic."
Also see here:
Bacile’s film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone he doesn’t know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate.
An unseen, unreleased, unavailable movie was dubbed without the film-maker's awareness or permission? Cah-MON. That just does not happen.

That might be why the article linked to doesn't say that it did.

Let's put it all together. What do we have?

You would have to be a child not to understand what's really going on here. This is the most obvious psyop conspiracy I've ever seen.

Yep. You're covering for your girl Hillary and promoting her interests, as you always do. But you're also throwing some red meat out there for the conspiracy crowd by calling it a psy-op cooked up by neocons and the Mossad to benefit Republicans.

That's disgusting. And I usually really like your work, although this isn't the first time I've wondered what you were up to.
__________________

^^That's addressed to Joe Cannon, not to anyone here. Unless he posts here.

Another, far less baroque explanation for the not-all-that-mindblowing-when-you're-not-blowing-smoke-on-them facts would be:

The movie's a piece of agitprop made by and for various crackpot extremist from the two Abrahamic faiths that have an interest in seeing Israel stay Israel. It was probably originally part of some more general scheme for fucking shit up in Egypt since that's where the protests started. As well as for the obvious reasons. It almost certainly wasn't done completely without the knowledge of American and Israeli intelligence officials. And it totally might have been done with their approval.

The Libya part of it wasn't planned. It might be blowback. Or it might be largely unrelated. However, either way, Hillary appears to be winning the spin war over it so far. Which is astonishing when you think about what it should mean for a Secretary of State when a U.S. Ambassador is killed by hostile nationals while at his post. But impressive, in its way.
__________________

I'm getting surer with every passing minute that the eight-ton gorilla nobody's mentioning is Hillary's husband, what's-his-name, looking to avenge his lost legacy as the Roadmapper of Middle East Peace. On behalf of the stakeholders he assembled back when that enterprise hadn't yet fallen through, whoever they are.

It's always hard to remember who and what he is, for some reason. He's so damn charming.

[Iamwhomiam]

Sorry to off topic here but just for a moment to reply to Mr. WRex's comment...

Horrors NO! Not that Ashley O'Connor! The owner and president of Red October Productions


If the evangelicals are successful in pushing their agenda, I do not see it possible for that crowd to elect a woman in '16.
(you know, because they're all tainted by Satan)

[solace]

"The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it."

Yep, yep.

[freemason9]

mossad, duh

[justdrew]

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula Claims Role In 'Innocence Of Muslims'

By STEPHEN BRAUN and GILLIAN FLACCUS 09/12/12 09:31 PM ET
OS ANGELES — The search for those behind the provocative, anti-Muslim film implicated in violent protests in Egypt and Libya led Wednesday to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes who acknowledged his role in managing and providing logistics for the production.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told The Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles that he was manager for the company that produced "Innocence of Muslims," which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad and may have caused inflamed mobs that attacked U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. He provided the first details about a shadowy production group behind the film.

Nakoula denied he directed the film and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cellphone number that AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Sam Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where AP found Nakoula. Federal court papers said Nakoula's aliases included Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh and others.

Nakoula told the AP that he was a Coptic Christian and said the film's director supported the concerns of Christian Copts about their treatment by Muslims.

Nakoula denied he had posed as Bacile. During a conversation outside his home, he offered his driver's license to show his identity but kept his thumb over his middle name, Basseley. Records checks by the AP subsequently found it and other connections to the Bacile persona.

The AP located Bacile after obtaining his cell phone number from Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who had promoted the anti-Muslim film in recent days on his website. Egypt's Christian Coptic population has long decried what they describe as a history of discrimination and occasional violence from the country's Arab majority.

Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., who burned Qurans on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, said he spoke with the movie's director on the phone Wednesday and prayed for him. He said he has not met the filmmaker in person, but the man contacted him a few weeks ago about promoting the movie.

"I have not met him. Sam Bacile, that is not his real name," Jones said. "I just talked to him on the phone. He is definitely in hiding and does not reveal his identity. He was quite honestly fairly shook up concerning the events and what is happening. A lot of people are not supporting him. He was generally a little shook up concerning this situation."

The film was implicated in protests that resulted in the burning of the U.S. consulate Tuesday in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other embassy employees were killed during the mob violence, but U.S. officials now say they are investigating whether the assault was a planned terrorist strike linked to Tuesday's 11-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Nakoula, who talked guardedly about his role, pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

The Youtube account, "Sam Bacile," which was used to publish excerpts of the provocative movie in July, was used to post comments online as recently as Tuesday, including this defense of the film written in Arabic: "It is a 100 percent American movie, you cows."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Leigh Williams said Nakoula set up fraudulent bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers, then checks from those accounts would be deposited into other bogus accounts from which Nakoula would withdraw money at ATM machines.

It was "basically a check-kiting scheme," the prosecutor told the AP. "You try to get the money out of the bank before the bank realizes they are drawn from a fraudulent account. There basically is no money."

The actors in the film issued a joint statement Wednesday saying they were misled about the project and said some of their dialogue was crudely dubbed during post-production.

In the English language version of the trailer, direct references to Muhammad appear to be the result of post-production changes to the movie. Either actors aren't seen when the name "Muhammad" is spoken in the over-dubbed sound, or they appear to be mouthing something else as the name of the prophet is spoken.

"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," said the statement, obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

The person who identified himself as Bacile and described himself as the film's writer and director told the AP on Tuesday that he has gone into hiding. But doubts rose about the man's identity amid a flurry of false claims about his background and role in the purported film.

Bacile told the AP he was an Israeli-born, 56-year-old, Jewish writer and director. But a Christian activist involved in the film project, Steve Klein, told The Atlantic on Wednesday that Bacile was a pseudonym, he was not Jewish or Israeli and a group of Americans of Mideast origin collaborated on the film. Klein had earlier told the AP that the filmmaker was an Israeli Jew who was concerned for family members who live in Egypt.

"Nobody is anything but an active American citizen," Klein told the Atlantic. "They're from Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, there are some that are from Egypt. Some are Copts but the vast majority are evangelical."

Klein did not return phone messages by the AP on Wednesday.

Officials in Israel also said there was no record of Bacile as an Israeli citizen.

When the AP initially left a message for Bacille, Klein contacted the AP from another number to confirm the interview request was legitimate then Bacille called back from his own cell phone.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said Klein is a former Marine and longtime religious-right activist who has helped train paramilitary militias at a California church. It described Klein as founder of Courageous Christians United, which conducts protests outside abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques.

It quoted Klein as saying he believes that California is riddled with Muslim Brotherhood sleeper cells "who are awaiting the trigger date and will begin randomly killing as many of us as they can."

In his brief interview with the AP, Bacile defiantly called Islam a cancer and said he intended the film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

But several key facts Bacile provided proved false or questionable. Bacile told AP he was 56 but identified himself on his YouTube profile as 74. Bacile said he is a real estate developer, but Bacile does not appear in searches of California state licenses, including the Department of Real Estate.

Hollywood and California film industry groups and permit agencies said they had no records of the project. A man who answered a phone listed for the Vine Theater, a faded Hollywood movie house, confirmed that the film had run for a least a day, and possibly longer, several months ago, arranged by a customer known as "Sam."

Google Inc., which owns YouTube, pulled down the video Wednesday in Egypt, citing a legal complaint. It was still accessible in the U.S. and other countries.

Klein told the AP that he vowed to help make the movie but warned the filmmaker that "you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh." Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam.

"We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen," Klein said.
___
Braun reported from Washington.
Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Michael Blood in Los Angeles, Tamara Lush in Tampa, Fla., and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

[solace]

mossad, duh

Larry, Curley and MOssad.

[compared2what?]

Rove is playing a 2016 long game, I can see it in the Vermont local race -- his "Romney" ads are just talking points that test well, basically a Pepsi strategy, for my fellow marketing damned.

My sense so far is the name to watch is Ashley O'Connor. She is smart, hungry, and obviously willing to walk the firewalk of Lee Atwater. Be fascinated to know where she overlaps with Evangelicals. Suspect we will find out in the next 48 hours.

Honestly, I'd be really, really surprised if anybody planned the Libya part of it. And I wouldn't take it on faith that it was a Republican/right-wing plot, given that the people saying/suggesting it are taking their cues from Hillary Clinton.

The non-denial-acountability part of the job appears to have been done by people with evangelical extreme-right tendencies. Israeli official involvement (if any, but probable-ish) would also have been extreme-right. But that's who's in charge there, atm. Here, it's more of a clusterfuck. But I doubt anybody did Stevens on purpose purely for political gain. Including the Israelis. It's too volatile to be a sure thing for pre-election purposes. Way too volatile.

I mean, it should really mean war. And if that happens, I guess it helps the incumbent more than the challenger. But it's a hell of a risk to take on a nation of people who are unlikely to forget it's broke and furiously dissatisfied just to rally round the flag in order to avenge a U.S. Ambassador they've never heard of and don't care about. Especially when an unknown, small but pretty significant percentage of them are convinced that Israel did it.

That doesn't sound like Rove to me. He goes straight for the opponent. Or...Not straight, exactly. Crooked, in fact. But you know what I mean.