Whose Obsession?

Many American voters have received a copy of a DVD titled "Obsession" in the mail in the past few weeks. But there's no clear answer to who is behind the making of the 2006 movie about radical Islam or who has paid for its distribution.

Adam Shatz has done a little digging:

"The Clarion Fund is a front for neoconservative and Israeli pressure groups. It has an office, or at least an address, in Manhattan at Grace Corporate Park Executive Suites, which rents out ‘virtual office identity packages’ for $75 a month. Its website, clarionfund.org, provides neither a list of staff nor a board of directors, and the group still hasn’t disclosed where it gets its money, as required by the IRS. Who paid to make ‘Obsession’ isn’t clear – it cost $400,000. According to Rabbi Raphael Shore, the film’s Canadian-Israeli producer, 80 per cent of the money came from the executive producer ‘Peter Mier’, but that’s just an alias, as is the name of the film’s production manager, ‘Brett Halperin’. Shore claims ‘Mier’ and ‘Halperin’, whoever they are, are simply taking precautions, though it isn’t clear against what. The danger (whatever it is) hasn’t stopped Shore – or the director, Wayne Kopping, a South African neocon – from going on television to promote their work."

Read the full article here.

The article claims that it's been voters in swing states that have been getting copies of the DVD, but your "editor of the day", who lives in Arizona, received a copy a few weeks ago as well.

Posted by Nicholas Knisely on October 10, 2008 7:29 PM | |
Comments (3)

The lack of openness about Obsession’s producers and sponsors suggests that the film is less than trustworthy. Reputable scholars and responsible participants in public discourse rarely need to hide their identity in a country like the United States that respects free speech. Having watched Obsession, the film distorts the truth about Islam and exaggerates the threat a relative handful of extremists pose.

George Clifford

Posted by George Clifford [TypeKey Profile Page] | October 11, 2008 1:39 PM

I got one right here in Tucson. I snapped it in half and threw it in the trash.

Doug Sprulin

Posted by Doug [TypeKey Profile Page] | October 11, 2008 2:20 PM

wow, my spouse and I each received one, but I had no idea that it was anything but junk-mail...I guess it wasn't just junk, but trash (and hateful trash at that!)

Peter Carey

Posted by Peter Carey [TypeKey Profile Page] | October 12, 2008 8:45 PM

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