New hidden video snares Hollywood environmentalists in Mid-East oil money sting

James O'Keefe and Project Veritas are at it again. This time, they're using their hidden video skills to target famous left-wing Hollywood environmentalists. Posing as a wealthy Middle Eastern oil baron and his attorney, O'keefe's organization set up a meeting with a gaggle of movie-industry greenies. These included Ed Begley Jr., Mariel Hemmingway, and producer/director Joshua Tickell. The goal was to secure $9 million from an oil magnate named "Muhammad" so that they could finance a new anti-fracking documentary.

You probably know who Begley jr. and Hemmingway are, but the less famous Tickell is the more interesting "get" here. Joshua Tickell (along with his wife Rebecca) is the director and producer behind a series of documentaries about the evils of America's nefarious "addiction to oil." Among them are "The Big Fix," "Freedom," and "Fuel." Collectively, they've become a core component of the modern enviro movement and they've enjoyed some lofty accolades from the radical left. The celebs thought the phony "Muhammad" was interested in financing the project because, as he tells them in the video, “If Washington D.C. continues fracking, America will be energy independent and then they won’t need our oil anymore." It should be noted that Begley and Hemmingway - who are both hardcore environmentalists and biofuel proponents - had no stake in the project. They were only there to lend moral (and 'big name') support to Tickell. From the Hollywood Reporter:

Begley tells THR that if it looks like he’s agreeing with faux Muhammad about anything, it’s because the Tickells asked him to be polite so that they’d get their funding for a movie they’re making called Fracked, a film that will argue a technique for extracting natural gas called fracking is bad for the environment. Also, Begley says that he is hard of hearing and couldn’t understand everything Muhammad was saying. The video also includes some audio from phone conversations between the fake Muhammad’s representatives and the Tickells. “We’re confident that we can keep this zip-locked. You know, tight. Tight. Air-tight forever,” Josh Tickell is heard saying. “If we don’t protect who is kind of funding this thing … if we have to disclose that or that becomes a necessary part of it, the whole enterprise will not work.” Rebecca Tickell adds: “Because if people think the film is funded by Middle Eastern oil it will, it will not have that credibility,” and Josh Tickell says, “It’s money, so in that sense we have no moral issue.”

As always with these things, those caught on tape are complaining that comments were taken out-of-context and edited to make them look worse than they really were. According to Tickell:

"To be clear, we flat out deny any implication of impropriety," he says. "Had an offer been made, significant due diligence would have been conducted ... the sad part is, O'Keefe casts a bad light on Muslims at large as if they're a bad group of people."

Of course. It's racist. Gotcha. The best part might be that these people all met at the Beverly Hills Hotel. A month after the tape was shot, Hollywood began a boycott of the storied locale stemming from the fact that it's owned by the Sultan of Brunei. Brunei recently adopted severe sharia law penal codes which include the flogging and stoning of gays. But, even before the sharia controversy exploded, Brunei was already the thrid largest oil producer in Southeast Asia. If you're an "uber-concious" lefty whose whole life centers around breaking an "addiction to oil," shouldn't you already have been avoiding the place? Tickell has now turned to Indiegogo for financing, and says he was "royally punked." That's a cute claim, but if he wasn't willing to collude with an oil baron who wanted to make sure the U.S. remained dependent on foreign oil, he and his friends wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. Update (Dan): Anyone who wants to object to O'Keefe's methods here will first leap to the defense of Donald Sterling on the same grounds, yes?

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