The filmmaker told the Wall Street Journal Jewish donors contributed $5 million to make the film. Based on the trailer, however, the amateurish movie appears to have been produced on a low budget. Anti-Muslim activist Steve Klein, who said he was a script consultant for the movie, said the filmmaker told him his idea was to make a film that would reveal “facts, evidence and proof” about the Prophet Mohammed to people he perceived as radical Muslims. Klein said the movie was called “Innocence of Bin Laden.”
“Our intent was to reach out to the small minority of very dangerous people in California and try to shock them into understanding how dangerous Islam is,” Klein said. “We knew that it was going to cause some friction, if anybody paid attention to it,” he said. But when Klein went to the screening in the Los Angeles theater, no one was there. “It was a bust, a wash,” he said.
But a while later, the trailers were online. They were segments focusing on the Prophet Mohammed and posted under the title, “Innocence of Mohammed.” The trailers were translated into Egyptian dialects of Arabic, the New York Times reported. Egyptian television aired certain segments. And the fury erupted.
Klein told CNN Wednesday that the filmmaker, whom he called Sam Bacile, was in hiding. “He’s very depressed, and he’s upset,” Klein said. “I talked to him this morning, and he said that he was very concerned for what happened to the ambassador.” The Atlantic later quoted Klein as saying that Sam Bacile was a pseudonym. He said he did not know Bacile’s real name. Klein is known in Southern California for his vocal opposition to the construction of a mosque in Temecula, southeast of Los Angeles, in 2010. He heads up Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment, a group that contends Islam is a threat to American freedom. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, says Klein, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, helped train militant Christian fundamentalists prepare for war.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles County official denied a CNN’s request to view a copy of the film permit filed for the production of “Innocence of Muslims.”
“While these permits are typically made available to the public, online, this particular permit has been temporarily removed at the specific request of Federal authorities, who have cited public safety concerns,” county Assistant Chief Executive Officer Ryan J. Alsop told CNN in an e-mail. Alsop later revised his statement to say that the permit “is not being made available to the public at this time due to public safety concerns raised by the U.S. State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The Federal government has not issued an official request to the County of Los Angeles to remove the permit.” A permit is required when filming is done outside of a certified soundstage or studio backlot, which could involve cameras in public spaces, according to Film L.A. Inc., the private nonprofit group set up by the city and county of Los Angeles to process film permits.
The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin about how the film poses “security concerns to U.S. interests at home and abroad,” according to the bulletin obtained by CNN. “Although there has been no violent reaction to the film in the Homeland thus far, the risk of violence could increase both at home and abroad as the film continues to gain attention. Additionally, we judge that violent extremist groups in the United States could exploit anger over the film to advance their recruitment efforts,” the bulletin says.
The movie got even more notice after it was promoted by anti-Islam activists, including Egyptian-born Coptic Christian Morris Sadek and Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose Quran-burning last year sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan. Jones said he had been contacted to help distribute the film.“The film is not intended to insult the Muslim community, but it is intended to reveal truths about Mohammed that are possibly not widely known,” Jones said in a statement. “It is very clear that God did not influence him (Mohammed) in the writings of the Quran,” said Jones, who went on to blame Muslims’ fear of criticism for the protests, rather than the film.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Jones to ask him to withdraw his support for the film, said Col. David Lapan, Dempsey’s spokesman. “Jones’ support of the film risks causing more violence and death,” Lapan said. That fear mounted as anger raged in the Muslim world and especially as Friday, Islam’s day of religious observance, fast approached.
WATCH MOVIE HERE
CNN’s Jennifer Wolfe, Miguel Marquez, Brian Todd, Chelsea J. Carter, Tom Watkins, Jack Hannah, Carol Cratty and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/world/sam-bacile-or-nakoula-basseley-nakoula-federal-officials-consider-nakoula-as-man-behind-the-film#ixzz26fK0byTz
This Article Appeared in The Black Truth News Volume 3 Issue 9 September 2012