US investigating man linked to anti-Islam film

Los Angeles: A California man convicted of bank fraud is under investigation for possible probation violations stemming from the making of an anti-Islam video that triggered violent protests against the United States in the Muslim world, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The man, 55-year-old Nakoula Basseley Nakoula of the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, told his Coptic Christian bishop that he was not involved in the film, but media reports have widely linked his name to the video.

"The U.S. probation office in the central district of California is reviewing the case," said Karen Redmond, spokeswoman for the administrative office of the U.S. Courts in Washington, D.C., reached by phone from Los Angeles.

A source with knowledge of the case confirmed that the probation office was looking specifically into Nakoula's possible involvement in making the film for violations of the terms of his release.

The crudely made 13-minute English-language video, which was filmed in California and circulated on the Internet under several titles including "Innocence of Muslims," portrays the Prophet Mohammad engaged in crude and offensive behaviour.

The film sparked a violent protest at the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday. Protests have spread to other countries across the Arab and Muslim world.

For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures deemed insulting in the past have provoked protests and drawn condemnations from officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians in the Middle East.

Adding to the incendiary nature of the film was the fact that it had been promoted by a U.S.-based Egyptian Coptic Christian activist, Morris Sadek, who said his intent was to highlight discrimination against Egypt's Coptic minority. Copts have expressed fear the film could lead to retaliation.

Nakoula, whose home in Cerritos has been besieged by the news media and who could not be reached for comment, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2010 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison, to be followed by five years on supervised probation, court documents showed.

Nakoula was accused of fraudulently opening bank and credit card accounts using Social Security numbers that did not match the names on the applications, a criminal complaint showed. He was released in June 2011, and at least some production on the video was done later that summer.

NOT INVESTIGATING CONTENT

U.S. officials said authorities were not investigating the film project itself, and officials have said that even if it was inflammatory or led to violence, simply producing it cannot be considered a crime under U.S. law.

But the written terms of Nakoula's prison release contain behavior stipulations that bar him from accessing the Internet or assuming aliases without the approval of his probation officer.

A senior law enforcement official in Washington indicated the probation investigation relates to whether he broke either or both of these conditions. Violations could result in him being sent back to prison, court records show.

The film itself, posted on the Internet since July, has been attributed to a man whose name was given as Sam Bacile, which at least two people linked to the film have said was likely an alias.

A telephone number said to belong to Bacile and provided to Reuters by Sadek was later traced back to a person who shares the Nakoula residence.

Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School professor, said that whether Nakoula might be sent back to jail over potential probation violations linked to the film, such as accessing the Internet, was a subjective decision up to an individual judge.

"Federal judges are gods in their own courtrooms, it varies so much in who they are," he said, noting such a move would be based on his conduct not on the content of the film.

A pair of attorneys visited Nakoula's home on Friday in Cerritos.

"I've been asked to consult with Mr. Nakoula regarding matters that I'm not at liberty to discuss," Steve Seiden, one of the attorneys, told reporters. He also asked media to leave.

In addition to the bank fraud conviction, Nakoula also pleaded guilty in 1997 to possession with intent to manufacture methamphetamine and was sentenced to a year in jail, according to Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.

Nakoula told Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles that he was not involved in the film, the bishop told Reuters.

© Thomson Reuters 2012

The film that stoked Mid-East violence has murky parentage

Los Angeles: The film that set off violence across North Africa was made in obscurity somewhere in the sprawl of Southern California, and promoted by a network of right-wing Christians with a history of animosity directed toward Muslims. When a 14-minute trailer of it - all that may actually exist - was posted on YouTube in June, it was barely noticed.

But when the video, with its almost comically amateurish production values, was translated into Arabic and reposted twice on YouTube in the days before Sept. 11, and promoted by leaders of the Coptic diaspora in the United States, it drew nearly one million views and set off bloody demonstrations.

The history of the film - who financed it; how it was made; and perhaps most important, how it was translated into Arabic and posted on YouTube to Muslim viewers - was shrouded Wednesday in tales of a secret Hollywood screening; a director who may or may not exist, and used a false name if he did; and actors who appeared, thanks to computer technology, to be traipsing through Middle Eastern cities. One of its main producers, Steve Klein, a Vietnam veteran whose son was severely wounded in Iraq, is notorious across California for his involvement with anti-Muslim actions, from the courts to schoolyards to a weekly show broadcast on Christian radio in the Middle East.

Yet as much of the world was denouncing the violence that had spread across the Middle East, Mr. Klein - an insurance salesman in Hemet, Calif., a small town two hours east of here - proclaimed the video a success at portraying what he has long argued was the infamy of the Muslim world, even as he chuckled at the film's amateur production values.

"We have reached the people that we want to reach," he said in an interview. "And I'm sure that out of the emotion that comes out of this, a small fraction of those people will come to understand just how violent Muhammad was, and also for the people who didn't know that much about Islam. If you merely say anything that's derogatory about Islam, then they immediately go to violence, which I've experienced."

Mr. Klein has a long history of making controversial and erroneous claims about Islam. He said the film had been shown at a screening at a theater "100 yards or so" from Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood over the summer, drawing what he suggested was a depressingly small audience. He declined to specify what theater might have shown it, and theater owners in the vicinity of the busy strip said they had no record of any such showing.

The amateurish video opens with scenes of Egyptian security forces standing idle as Muslims pillage and burn the homes of Coptic Christians. Then it cuts to cartoonish scenes depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug.

Even as Mr. Klein described his role in the film as incidental, James Horn, a friend who has worked with Mr. Klein in anti-Muslim activities for several years, said he believed Mr. Klein was involved in providing technical assistance to the film and advice on the script. Mr. Horn said he called Mr. Klein on Wednesday. "I said, 'Steve, did you do this?' He said, 'Yep.' "

As the movie, "Innocence of Muslims," drew attention across the globe, it was unclear whether a full version exists. Executives at Hollywood agencies said they had never heard of it. Hollywood unions said they had no involvement. Casting directors said they did not recognize the actors in the 14-minute YouTube clip that purports to be a trailer for a longer film. Production offices had no records for a movie of that name. There was a 2009 casting call in BackStage, however, for a film called "Desert Warrior" whose producer is listed as Sam Bassiel.

That name is quite similar to the one that Mr. Klein, in the interview, said was the director of his film. He spelled it Sam Basile, though he added that was not the director's real name. Mr. Klein said he met Mr. Basile while scouting mosques in Southern California, "locating who I thought were terrorists."

An actress who played the role of a mother in the film said in an interview that the director had originally told cast members that the film was "Desert Warriors" and would depict ancient life. Now, she said, she feels duped, angry and sad. "When I looked at the trailer, it was nothing like what we had done. There was not even a character named Muhammad in what we originally put together," said the actress, who asked that her name not be used for fear of her safety.

She said she had spoken on Wednesday to the film's director, whose last name she said was spelled Basil. She said he told her that he made the film because he was upset with Muslims killing innocent people.

The original idea for the film, Mr. Klein said, was to lure hard-core Muslims into a screening of the film thinking they were seeing a movie celebrating Islam. "And when they came in they would see this movie and see the truth, the facts, the evidence and the proof," he said. "So I said, yeah, that's a good idea."

Among the film's promoters was Terry Jones, the Gainesville, Fla., preacher whose burning of the Koran led to widespread protests in Afghanistan. Mr. Jones said Wednesday that he has not seen the full video.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Mr. Jones on Wednesday and asked him to consider withdrawing his support for the video. Mr. Jones described the conversation as "cordial," but said he had not decided what he would do because he had yet to see the full film.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said Mr. Klein taught combat training to members of California's Church at Kaweah, which the center described as a "a combustible mix of guns, extreme antigovernment politics and religious extremism" and an institution that had an "obsession with Muslims."

Warren Campbell, the pastor of the church, said that Mr. Klein had come to the congregation twice to talk about Islam. He said the law center's report on his church was filled "with distortions and lies." The center also said that Mr. Klein was the founder of Courageous Christians United, which conducts demonstrations outside abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques. Mr. Klein also has ties to the Minuteman movement.

Mr. Horn said Mr. Klein was motivated by the near-death of his son, who Mr. Horn said had served in the United States Army in Iraq and was wounded in Falluja. "That cemented Steve's feelings about it," he said.

Although Mr. Horn described Mr. Klein as connected to the Coptic community in Los Angeles - and Morris Sadek, the leader of a Washington-based Coptic organization, had promoted the film on the Web - Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles said he did not know of Mr. Klein. "We condemn this film," he said. "Our Christian teaching is we have to respect people of other faiths." 

© 2012, The New York Times News Service

Anti-Obama documentary highlights weak Hollywood newcomers

Los Angeles: Hollywood may have run out of summer hits, but an anti-Obama documentary is helping to fill the gap.

Holdover movies easily topped the weekend box office again, led by Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables 2" at No. 1 for the second-straight weekend with $13.5 million.

The weekend's new wide releases were overshadowed by "2016: Obama's America," which expanded from limited to nationwide release and took in $6.2 million to finish at No. 8.

The documentary is a harsh conservative critique of what the country would look like four years from now if President Barack Obama is re-elected.

Released by Rocky Mountain Pictures, "Obama's America" nearly matched the $6.3 million debut of the No. 7 movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's action tale "Premium Rush," a Sony release that played in more than twice as many theaters as the Obama documentary.

The weekend's other new wide releases opened weakly. Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell's road-chase comedy "Hit & Run," released by Open Road Films, debuted at No. 10 with $4.7 million, and the Warner Bros. fright flick "The Apparition" opened at No. 12 with $3 million.

The weak openings are typical of late August, a dumping ground for movies without much audience appeal as the summer blockbuster season winds down and young viewers switch to back-to-school mode.

But with less competition from Hollywood releases, it also opens the door for surprise successes.

"It's extremely rare for a documentary to break into the top-10, but August can be a land of opportunity for smaller films," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Also, there's the fact that this is a very conservative film. Normally, it's Michael Moore-branded documentaries, the liberal documentaries that make all the money."

"Obama's America" opened in a handful of theaters in mid-July and did strong business as it gradually widened to more cities. It jumped into the top-10 this weekend as it expanded into 1,091 theaters, leading all other wide releases with an average of $5,717 a cinema.

That's a solid average, especially for a political documentary. But it pales next to the king of political documentaries, Moore's George W. Bush assault "Fahrenheit 9/11," which opened at No. 1 with $23.9 million in June 2004, averaging $27,558 in 868 theaters. "Fahrenheit 9/11" went on to become the top-grossing documentary ever with $119.1 million domestically.

"Obama's America" is based on the book "The Roots of Obama's Rage," written by Dinesh D'Souza, who co-directed the movie with John Sullivan.

The documentary now has climbed to a $9.1 million domestic total, with prospects for strong business as the Republican National Convention unfolds over the next few days.

Released by Lionsgate, "The Expendables 2" raised its domestic total to $52.3 million after two weekends.

In limited release, IFC Films' "Sleepwalk with Me" had a huge debut with $77,400 in a single New York City theater. Produced and co-written by Ira Glass of National Public Radio's "This American Life," ''Sleepwalk with Me" stars writer-director Mike Birbiglia in a semi-autobiographical story of a stand-up comic struggling with career and romance, along with bad bouts of sleepwalking.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Expendables 2," $13.5 million.

2. "The Bourne Legacy," $9.3 million.

3. "ParaNorman," $8.5 million.

4. "The Campaign," $7.4 million.

5. "The Dark Knight Rises," $7.2 million.

6. "The Odd Life of Timothy Green," $7.1 million.

7. "Premium Rush," $6.3 million.

8. "2016: Obama's America," $6.2 million.

9. "Hope Springs," $6 million.

10. "Hit & Run," $4.7 million.

From: NDTV