oh, what a wicked web we weave...

Fake Mideast oilman traps Mariel Hemingway, Ed Begley in video sting

The man called “Mohammed” presented himself as the son of a Middle Eastern oil magnate, but he was an actor hired to embarrass two Hollywood celebrities.

He secretly recorded Mariel Hemingway and Ed Begley Jr. at a lunch meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel. They were there to support a friend making a documentary about the dangers of fracking, a controversial mining technique used to extract natural gas.

The purported oilman was working for James O’Keefe, the conservative activist with a track record of using deception and hidden cameras to discredit liberal targets.

This video was created to portray anti-frackers as working for mideast oil companies instead of being genuinely concerned with the the harm to health caused by fracking wells (and the recent revelation that for all the toxic side-effects, the recoverable oil and gas is just a tiny fraction of what was promised).

It would appear that Matt Damon's film about fracking, "Promised Land", was accurate in its portrayals of the deceptive tactics used by the fracking companies to promote their agenda. I am not going to give away the story line here. If you have not seen this film, make a point of watching it. This stunt by O'Keefe confirms that the film's portrayal of the fracking companies is indeed accurate.