Feinstein lauds US 'investigation' into maker of anti-Islam video

By Julian Pecquet - 09/13/12 06:19 PM ET

The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday applauded reports that federal authorities are looking into who's behind a U.S.-made anti-Islam video that has sparked protests across the Middle East.

“I'm very pleased to learn ... that people have been arrested” in conjunction with the murder of four State Department officials in Libya, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. “And I believe an investigation is going on in this country concerning the individual who did this very obnoxious, 12-minute preview of some very stupid movie and wrong-headed movie.

“He may well not be who he is claimed to be either. So we're going to have to find out a lot about what happened.”

Feinstein's office said her comments were in response to an Associated Press report that quoted a U.S. law enforcement official as identifying the maker of the “Innocence of Muslims” film as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a California-based Coptic Christian on probation for financial crimes. It's not clear if the federal government is looking into Nakoula's background as part of a Department of Justice probe into the American deaths.

“I can assure you — as the President has assured the world — that we are committed to working with the Libyan government to seek justice for the victims of this outrageous and unjustified attack,” Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday at an event in Qatar. “To that end, the FBI has opened an investigation into their deaths and the attack on the U.S. Consulate.”

Feinstein went on to rip the video, which claims to be a trailer for a longer movie and includes disparaging comments about Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad in its dubbed soundtrack.

“I think it's such a farce,” she told CNN. “It's so stupid. And the man who produced it certainly made no contribution to art or literature.”

She went on to say that the protection of the embassy in Cairo as protests continue is “in a sense" a test for Egyptian authorities.

On Wednesday Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs chairman, called Florida pastor Terry Jones to ask him to stop promoting the video. Jones has sparked outrage in the Middle East for his highly publicized anti-Islam stunts, such as calling for the burning of Korans.