Actress Cindy Lee Garcia Sues Over Innocence of Muslims Schlock

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia sues over Innocence of Muslims

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has gone into hiding since his name was linked with the film

Anti-Islam film protests

A US actress who appeared in an amateur anti-Islam video that sparked protests across the Muslim world is suing the film’s suspected director.

Cindy Lee Garcia accused Nakoula Basseley Nakoula of duping her into a “hateful” film that she was led to believe was a desert adventure movie.

She is also asking a judge to order YouTube to remove the film.

A clip dubbed into Arabic provoked widespread anger for its mocking portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.

The film, Innocence of Muslims, which was made in the United States, has sparked protests across the Middle East, North Africa and as far away as Sri Lanka, with some demonstrations turning into destructive and violent riots.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stephens, were killed during an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

According to Ms Garcia, the script she received had made no mention of the Prophet Muhammad or made references to religion.

She claims she has received death threats since the video was posted to YouTube, and says her association with the film has harmed her reputation.

In a court filing lodged with Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, Ms Garcia alleged fraud, slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Dialogue dismay

Lawyers for Ms Garcia contend that changes in dialogue during post-production casts her in a false light.

Protests are continuing in the Muslim world, including in Pakistan

“[Garcia] had a legally protected interest in her privacy and the right to be free from having hateful words put in her mouth or being depicted as a bigot,” the lawsuit says.

“There was no mention of ‘Mohammed’ during filming or on set. There were no references made to religion nor was there any sexual content of which Ms Garcia was aware,” it adds.

Mr Nakoula denies being “Sam Bacile”, a pseudonym used by the person who posted the video online.

He has gone into hiding after telling US media he was the manager of a company that helped produce the film, but US officials believe him to be the director.

Mr Nakoula was convicted of fraud in 2010 and ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was released in June 2011 with the provision that he did not access the internet or use any aliases without permission.

Authorities questioned him last week over whether he had violated any of those conditions.

YouTube has so far refused Ms Garcia’s requests to remove the film, according to the lawsuit, although it has blocked it in Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt.

“This lawsuit is not an attack on the First Amendment nor on the right of Americans to say what they think, but does request that the offending content be removed from the Internet,” the complaint states.

Google, which owns YouTube, has blocked the film in Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt.

A spokesman for YouTube said they were reviewing the complaint and would be in court on Thursday.

Related articles

• Actress sues over anti-Islam film (bbc.co.uk)
• Actress in anti-Muslim film to ask for injunction (news.yahoo.com)
• Actress in Anti-Muslim Film Sues (abcnews.go.com)
• Actress wants judge to block anti-Muslim film clip (miamiherald.com)
• Actress wants judge to block anti-Muslim film clip (hosted.ap.org)

Right Wing Fox News Harpy Claims Jews Worst Enemies of the Country

Sandy Rios Says Secular Jews Have Been ‘The Worst Enemies of the Country’

      Submitted by Brian Tashman on Mon, 03/05/2012 – 3:55pm

The American Family Association recently hired Fox News contributor and former Concerned Women for America president Sandy Rios to host her own show on American Family Radio, and here’s what we get to look forward to: attacks on Jewish Americans for supporting President Obama. Earlier today she spoke with the AFA’s Tim Wildmon and Bryan Fischer, where she suggested that secular Jews are enemies of America. Rios bemoaned that “the Jewish vote in this country is so confused, so many of the Jews in this country are atheist and their hearts are with this President.” “They’re far-left,” Wildmon said, “Most of the Jews in this country are far left, unfortunately.”  Rios said that “a lot of Jewish atheists are some of the ones who have done, just like former Christians or quasi Christians, people who have some dealing with Judeo-Christian ethics, sometimes turn out to be the worst enemies of the country.”

Later on in the show, Rios said that “there are very few” religious people in Israel, “by and large Israel is an atheistic country, they don’t really believe in the God of their fathers, there’s no question about that,” and maintained that Christians must “evangelize and pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

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• Atheists placing Hebrew billboard near hasidic enclave (jta.org)
• Fox News Apologizes For ‘Jews Killed Jesus’ Poll (theroot.com)
• The Totalitarian Principle – a lie told often enough becomes the truth. (secularwales.wordpress.com)
• Livni, American Jews on Newsweek’s influential women list (jta.org)

Deceptive Israeli Firster Propagandist Pretends He’s From Canada’s CBC

Deceptive Israeli Firster Propagandist Pretends He’s From Canada’s CBC

By Ali Abunimah

VIDEO HERE:-

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-my-penn-bds-speech-and-how-zionist-filmmaker-pretended-be-canadas-cbc

After all the negativity and attacks by anti-Palestinian groups, prior to the Penn BDS conference, the event itself has been a real celebration of solidarity among an incredibly diverse group of people.

I had the honor to give the keynote lecture last night to a packed auditorium. Here’s the recording of the live stream for anyone who wants to watch. Hopefully a better quality recording will become available in a few days.

The Jewish Daily Forward reported:

A prominent Palestinian rights activist said Saturday night that the recent fury around the first national conference advocating a boycott of Israel, being held at the University of Pennsylvania, signifies that the Mideast conflict is at an “end game.”

“This insane hysteria about the conference tells us something about the moment we are in,” said Ali Abunimah, a co-founder of the Electronic Intifada news site, in his keynote speech at the conference. “In terms of the battle of ideas, we are in the end game.”

Also read Sarah Smith’s report in The Daily Pennsylvanian:

Ali Abunimah spoke to a full lecture hall in Meyerson Hall on Saturday night as the keynote speaker of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions conference. Abunimah is a Palestinian-American activist and the creator of The Electronic Intifada, an online publication focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I reiterate the spirit in which we came together: we stand against all forms of bigotry,” Abunimah said.

Anti-Palestinian filmmaker poses as CBC “journalist”

Benjamin Doherty’s Twitter

@bangpound Benjamin DohertyPropagandists at #PennBDS are misrepresenting themselves as journalists from the CBC.
http://t.co/TS2nFtBU
Feb 04 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

Mondoweiss also has featured great coverage of the conference including about Martin Himel an anti-Palestinian filmmaker whose crew misrepresented him as a journalist from Canada’s CBC and who briefly had me fooled.

Here’s what happened: on Saturday morning, I was approached by two women who presented themselves as producers from Canada who were there to cover the conference. One of them clearly told me they were from the CBC. I was a bit surprised that the CBC would send a team to cover the conference but I thought perhaps with all the publicity it didn’t seem unreasonable they might have sent a US-based team from New York or Washington.

I agreed to be interviewed but later on. After the morning breakout session, one of the women buttonholed me and asked if I minded doing the interview then. Since it was the lunch break I said that was fine. She took me to a room where they had a camera and lights set up. They miked me and sat me down, and then the interviewer appeared. I learned only later that it was Martin Himel.

But the moment the interview began, I smelled something fishy. It was more of an attempted set up rather than a professional interview. Himel presented me with what he claimed were anti-Semitic cartoons from Palestinian media and wanted to confront me with them. The only thing I could see is they were printed off from the anti-Palestinian website “Palestinian Media Watch.” Palestinian Media Watch, I told Himel, is notorious for anti-Palestinian propaganda and is funded principally by a man currently on the run for money laundering.

I answered that I had no idea where the cartoons came from and didn’t trust the source. He then started talking about alleged incidents of anti-Jewish statements from “Fatah TV.” I dismissed the questions saying I couldn’t comment on things I hadn’t seen and if he had wanted me to comment on them he ought to be able to show them to me.

Then strangely, he started asking me about what I thought about the Palestinian writer Mazin Qumsiyeh – I just laughed and said he should read Mazin’s brilliant books.

His other questions seemed to be about proving that the real reason for Palestinian hostility to Israel was Islamic religious fanaticism.

At this point Himel seemed nervous because I wasn’t taking the bait, and he said, “I’m just as tough on the Jews when I interview them.” I told him firmly I didn’t appreciate him making generalizations about “the Jews” because such language sounded anti-Semitic and I didn’t care to hear it.

I quickly cut the interview short and left the room. I never signed Himel’s release form. I immediately reported to conference organizers that Himel and his crew were misrepresenting themselves as CBC journalists in order to gain access to conference speakers with, I believe, the intent of setting them up and obtaining soundbites that could be distorted or used to defame them and the conference.

Another dirty trick foiled.

More coverage of the conference

Susan Abulhawa, author of Mornings in Jenin, opened the conference. From The Daily Pennsylvanian:

Comparing the Palestinian struggle to those of the civil rights activists, anti-Vietnam leaders and apartheid South Africa, Abulhawa condemned the United Nations for inactivity and called on Israel “to abandon their nation of superiority.”

“You will never break us,” she said as she neared the end of her speech. An overwhelming applause erupted from the crowd.

Related articles

• A controversial conference on Palestinians moves into its second day (philly.com)
• Palestinian activist opens conference at Penn (philly.com)
• Max Blumenthal: Torture, violence advocate to keynote anti-BDS event Alan Dershowitz, Supporter of bulldozing Palestinian towns and torturing criminal suspects, is coming to campus (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• The Growing Myth of Anti-semitism in Israel (desertpeace.wordpress.com)
• Leading Palestinians boycott UN head Ban Ki-moon in Gaza as rebuffed prisoners’ families greet him with shoes (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• Zionist fabrications, smears intensify ahead of Penn BDS conference (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• As anti-BDS attacks mount, students feel unsafe but U of Penn President maintains shameful silence (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• Right-wing attack group caught fabricating quotes in effort to smear critics of Israel (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• BDS conference sparks free-speech debate at Penn (philly.com)