Anyone watching the purported anti-Mohammad film should have smelled disinformation and fraud about 1.5 seconds into the “trailer.” The whole 14 minute trailer watched like something attempting to be so badly done as to telegraph that it was a fraud from the get-go.

Now we are seeing that it was indeed a fraud — actors were hired on the ruse that it was a history of Egypt 2,000 years ago and offensive dialogue was dubbed in after the fact. Crudely, as if the makers wanted it to be transparently fraudulent.

Those sniffing the air properly smell some sort of intelligence/influence operation in the whole situation. A purposely bad cover for what happened in Benghazi yesterday? A badly done attempted cover for what happened yesterday? Arabs — even Muslim Brotherhood — looking to score points by blaming “wealthy Jews” for making the film? A power struggle between Islamist factions in Egypt? Israelis attempting to make it look like Arabs made a crudely anti-Semitic cover story for a crude film?

Cui bono? Not sure. But something very heavy is in the air. Kony2012, Pussy Riot, the Mohammad Film. Why do these very strange and similar-feeling phenomena aimed to provoke mass, predictable reactions keep coming at us? Why does it feel like 1914?

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