Hot! Sam Bacile

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.

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A U.S. official says an elite Marine rapid response team is headed to Sudan in the wake of violence and protests against the embassy in Khartoum. AP video shows a group gathering to protest the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya: No specific group claimed responsibility for the attack, which was well orchestrated and involved heavy weapons. It is thought to be the work of an extremist faction who, like the Salafis, are willing to use force to exact their will. These groups have perpetrated other similar assaults in Benghazi and elsewhere in Libya. They are utlra-religious, authoritarian groups who justify their actions through selective, corrupt, and ultimately self-serving interpretations of Islam. Under Qaddafi, they kept quiet. In the early days of the revolution some of them claimed that fighting Qaddafi was un-Islamic and conveniently issued a fatwa demanding full obedience to the ruler. This is Libya s extreme right. And, while much is still uncertain, Tuesday s attack appears to have been their attempt to escalate a strategy they have employed ever since the Libyan revolution overthrew Colonel Qaddafi s dictatorship. They see in these days, in which the new Libya and its young institutions are still fragile, an opportunity to grab power. They want to exploit the impatient resentments of young people in particular in order to disrupt progress and the development of democratic institutions. Was the attack a premeditated act targeting the ambassador and carefully timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of 9/11? Or was it a hastily planned opportunistic assault by local Salafists using a protest of the anti-Islamic movie Innocence of Muslims as cover? The former would suggest a possible al Qaeda link or indicate that Libyan Salafists are becoming more ambitious and proficient in their tactical planning and could pose an even greater threat in the coming weeks. An Egyptian protester with covers his face during clashes with security forces, not shown, near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. The protests are part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Egyptian protesters run from the site of clashes with security forces, unseen, near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa) Some have compared its director (whoever he or she really is) to Theo van Gogh, the Dutch provocateur who was murdered in retaliation for a short film he made. Van Gogh s film was bad in many ways, but at least it strove for political and artistic merit. The Innocence of Muslims looks like a mere stunt. Watch any ten seconds of the trailer for it posted on YouTube (you can choose them at random; it won t make much difference) and if you are a certain type of media consumer one who frequents Buzzfeed, say, or Everything is Terrible you will identify it as part of a genre. It s a bad viral video, one of the innumerable pieces of flotsam that wash up daily on the Internet s endless shore. Sadly, when translated into Arabic and stripped from its cultural context, The Innocence of Muslims seems like more than the sophomoric trifle it is. he tragedy of Benghazi and riots in Yemen do not signal the end of the Arab Spring. Nor is it an indication of any "failed policies," any more than it is justification for the shameful practice of political candidates in the US attempting to make points from a US Ambassador's death. Tweet embed code The production that has been described as having been listed in casting notices as a "SAG Ultra Low Budget Pending" project "Desert Warrior" was not covered by a SAG-AFTRA Agreement. There is no "pending" category: Productions are either signed to an agreement or are not signatory productions. "If the United States and other Western powers release all Muslim prisoners, withdraw from Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf, and allow Muslims to establish governments based on sharia law, al Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist organizations will halt its attacks against the West and against what he described as "legitimate" Western interests in the Muslim world." President Barack Obama arrived at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday to lead a ceremony honoring the return of the remains of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed in an attack in Libya this week.