According to the AP (via):
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities identified a Southern California man who is on federal probation for financial crimes as the key figure behind an anti-Muslim film that has spawned mob violence against American embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
There was no sign of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, at his family’s home Thursday in Cerritos outside Los Angeles, as details slowly began to emerge about his checkered past, his connections among Southern California’s right-wing Christian organizations and his central role in the production of the film….
Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed Thursday that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats killed during an attack on the American mission in Benghazi. It was not immediately clear whether authorities were focusing on Nakoula as part of that probe…
Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers, the Internet or online user or screen names for five years without approval from his probation officer. He is still on probation, according to court records.
The YouTube account under the username “Sam Bacile,” which was used to publish excerpts of the provocative movie in July, was used again as recently as this week….
Neocons and right-wing Christianists will mutter about stalking horses and Lee Harvey Oswald, if they haven’t already started. But if I were Morris Sadek or even Terry Jones, I’d write the name of the best civil-rights lawyer I could find on my hand with indelible ink.
beltane
More here, with bonus Pam Geller reply: http://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/coptic-christian-leader-of-organization-that-produced-anti-muslim-film-spoke-at-pamela-gellers-anti-mosque-rally.html
Punchy
Cant link, but article in KCStar. Now Kobach and his ilk are threatening to keep Obama off the ballot in KS. Insane shit yo.
gwangung
@Punchy: That’s just plain bullshit.
MikeBoyScout
Inciting a riot is a crime.
beltane
@Punchy: I thought Peak Wingnut wasn’t going to happen until after Obama’s reelection.
Steve
Holder is taking the heat for this “leak,” but if you read the AP story closely you realize it’s talking about two completely different things. Sounds like the name was revealed by some anonymous FBI agent.
I think it was wrong to leak the name, since the guy doesn’t seem to have committed any crime, but the way it looks right now is that this Coptic Christian tried to make an inflammatory anti-Muslim movie and frame a bunch of Jews for making it. It wouldn’t have been surprising if some Israelis or Jews had wound up dead. Slimy stuff.
karen marie
@Punchy: I hope they try, nasty motherfuckers all of them.
Cap'n Magic
At one point the alleged perp was registered as a Democrat.
SiubhanDuinne
@Punchy:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/13/3814060/kansas-panel-exploring-obamas.html
Honest to fuck, these people are fucking insane.
Roger Moore
Interesting. “Media for Christ” is based within easy walking distance of my work; I could go down and give these assholes their much deserved punch in the neck on my lunch break.
John Cole
How long until we learn that Sheldon Adelson was funding this douchebag?
Hob
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t think they’re insane. I think they’ll try anything that they think might work, and I hope they’re wrong.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Steve: Well it’s also not going to be surprising if some Copts don’t end up dead, too.
karen marie
@Roger Moore: I would not go near that place.
What a bunch of idiots though. Instead of helping Egyptian Copts, they just bought them a whole ‘nother world of hurt.
dr. bloor
@MikeBoyScout: the dots you’re trying to connect here are so far apart you’d need a warp drive to get from one to the other.
dr. bloor
@Punchy: As if Obama gave a rat’s ass. Do they really think his road to 270 goes through Krazyland?
Todd
FTFY
He should grow eyes in the back of his head..
If someone were to cap that fucker, the world would be a much better place.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@dr. bloor: Do you really think that if he dropped the challenge to Kansas that he wouldn’t be left off the ballot somewhere else?
Roger Moore
@John Cole:
When the forensic accountants get involved. It’s going to take some digging to prove he was funding it.
West of the Cascades
@SiubhanDuinne: from that link:
Good luck with that. Hawaii’s DOJ showed that they are masterful in politely delaying and telling these people to fuck off when they held up some idiot from Arizona’s DOJ for about two months with a run-around asking for proof (under Arizona law) that they were even entitled to be making the request.
I hope the Hawaii DOJ asks for Kobach to personally fly out to Honolulu with both of his parents and maternal grandparents to prove he really is the “Kris Kobach” sending the request, and bring along the Kansas Recorder of Elections to prove he actually is the same “Kris Kobach” who was duly elected Secretary of State in Kansas.
And bring a DNA sample, while you’re at it …
Roger Moore
@karen marie:
Even to go to Soyfoods of America just down the street? One of my coworkers swears by their tofu.
Todd
Kobach. There’s a white supremacist cocksucker that is determined to foment violence.
ChrisNYC
The best part of this was the Goldberg interview with one of these nutcases where he said, harummphh, “I think this standard ‘disinformation.'” Yeah, buddy, keep telling yourself that it’s all high stakes cloak and dagger and ooh is that guy Mossad! — maybe it’ll distract you from the fact that you’re plotting your grand coup with a piss ass real estate fraudster and the bored and vicious ex wife of a dentist from Long Island. Tinker tailor soldier spy.
Punchy
@Hob: the funny thing is, is that it doesnt matter in KS. Obama would get his 14% of the vote and lose by a mile if he were on the ballot. So why they think they need to exclude him is baffling. Its almost like they WANT and CRAVE the jokes, criticism, and infantilism that accompanies this bullshit.
Villago Delenda Est
@John Cole:
Would not surprise me at all.
dopey-o
i think ‘bacily’ is going to be a grifter who pocketed $5 mil of the investors’ money, shot a $500 k film, and hoped it would quietly sink below the sands of time. and when one of his pissed-off investors got a piece of the ‘final cut’, he posted it to You-tube in a effort to embarrass ‘bacily’.
Need i mention the Law of Unintended Consequences?
Folks, please please, if you see a mel brooks movie that seems too good to be true, don’t try it at home!
Ben Franklin
This operation was rank amateur. I suspect CIA (Jones has links despite his idiocy) but the Mossad had nothing to do with it.
dr. bloor
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace: Your snark-meter needs new batteries.
Spatula
Oh…so this incident will now be used to further erode civil rights in the U.S. perhaps? Interesting. The handoff from Bush to Obama in that regard has been damn near seamless.
“Be careful what you say…be careful what you do.”
No one is responsible for the deaths in Libya except the people who did the killing.
Jeez, you people are insane…
Omnes Omnibus
@dopey-o:
After all the time I spent building the lab and finding a assistant with a hump? I don’t think so.
ericblair
@Punchy:
Maybe, but this needs to be slapped down hard. This bullshit is insurrection and needs to stop before we start Civil War II. These fuckers are prepared to break every civil institution in this country in the death throes of their idiot fucking racist party.
I’m guessing that the feds need to open a criminal case as soon as possible to the FBI can legally investigate in the US, and that Nakoula Squared would be a witness and not a target, because I can’t see where he violated any laws. I’m also guessing that the FBI would be running the investigation in Libya as well, as the murders took place in a consulate, but don’t know for sure.
Chyron HR
@Spatula:
“Or you’ll be shot dead in the street and Spatula will insist that you had it coming.”
Spatula
@dopey-o:
This is wrong. Memnosyne has explained that the film is part of a vast conspiracy of some sort, even those things never happen now or in the past or in the future either.
Origuy
@dopey-o: That would make sense, but who dubbed it into Arabic? That’s when the trouble started.
Spatula
@Chyron HR:
Link please.
Rita R.
The U.S. didn’t out anyone, the Associated Press was reporting on this Nakoula idiot last night, all but saying he was “Bacile.” And I don’t feel one bit sorry for him and the life of hiding that will be his for a long time to come. Speech is free, but not free from consequence.
scav
My favorite little free-speech minor giggle involves the guy usually more accessible that Im Bacile, c’est à dire Steve Klein: TPM yesterday
I said it was a minor giggle.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Origuy: I can’t believe I’m still having to write this. It’s not just who dubbed it in arabic, but who thought it was a bright idea to show it on tv in Egypt. I know the film trailer is insulting. But the cause of the riot may actually be in Egypt.
ChrisNYC
@scav: I SAW that. And also, another missed opportunity for Romney yesterday. Joe Smith killed by a mob that pulled him out of fucking jail. That martyrdom thing is huge for Mormons. Romney is, for real and very uniquely, able to relate to all sides of this debate but will not, of course, do it.
SiubhanDuinne
A few anagrams for SAM BACILE:
Semi-cabal
Email scab
Camel bias
beltane
@ChrisNYC: Romney is also able to antagonize all sides of this debate, and that is something he seems very willing to do.
ChrisNYC
@beltane: true
Joel
@MikeBoyScout: Maybe civilly liable. I certainly would sue if I were related to one of the dead.
Just Some Fuckhead
@SiubhanDuinne: LIBEA SCAM
binkwithoutgolly
And there’s bound to be connections between these groups and at least some republican elected officials. As always, follow the money. Flies, dogshit and all that.
ChrisNYC
Ok so Romney is trying to say his lying yesterday was because he wasn’t yet privy to briefings.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/note_to_ap_dont_be_dupes.php?ref=fpblg
I SWEAR to you that I saw this argument IN A COMMENT yesterday afternoon. Dear Lord are they trolling comments for ideas?
Also IN CA PA BLE of taking responsiblity for anything. His slogan should be ‘not my fault, I wasn’t there, it wasn’t me.”
Mnemosyne
@ericblair:
Well, except for the part where he violated the stated terms of his probation where he was “ordered not to use computers, the Internet or online user or screen names for five years without approval from his probation officer.” If he is in fact the guy who posted this stuff to YouTube under a false username, he’ll be heading back to jail shortly, because judges tend to frown on felons who violate the terms of their probation.
Mnemosyne
@Spatula:
Bored now.
Just Some Fuckhead
@ChrisNYC: At least we know how Romney’s 3AM call will go. Except maybe with a scowl instead of a smirk.
LD50
Oh, and ‘Bacile’ was a meth cook, too:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/13/mohammed-movie-s-mystery-director.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_afternoon&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_afternoon&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
dogwood
I might be missing something here, but if the guy is in violation of probation by posting a video on Youtube, why is anyone here defending him?
Cacti
@dogwood:
Because of his constitutional right to violate his felony probation?
Jay in Oregon
@ChrisNYC:
The problem, as always, had nothing to do with his lack of access to presidential briefings.
His off-the-cuff reaction was a result of a mad rush to find anything to smear the President, regardless of the consequences. His doubling down on his comments speaks either to a desire to pander to his base, also regardless of the consequences, or to an childish, unruly ego that can’t stand the idea of being caught making a mistake.
And the two options are not mutually exclusive.
Jay in Oregon
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Indeed.
Sorry, Romney, but in the real world of being POTUS, you don’t get a do-over when that hypothetical 3 A.M. call comes.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jay in Oregon:
Luckily for Romney, actual Republican cockups pale in comparison to what-if Democratic scenarios.
karen marie
@Roger Moore: Well, in that case …
dogwood
@Cacti:
Thanks. It’s good to know I’m not crazy. I believe in free speech, but will relish the day this clown goes back to prison on a probation violation. At some point I’m beginning to wonder what we mean by “free speech” anymore. None of the speech that matters in a free society is “free”. We’re reinstating poll taxes for crissake.
Rp
So this guy’s is an egyptian christian but claimed to be an Israeli Jew with the backing of 100 jewish donors? That’s disgusting. And Sheldon adelson is still being blamed? He’s a scumbag, but that’s retarded.
ChrisNYC
@Jay in Oregon: Gotta love that he’s hanging William Kristol and Jen Rubin and the rest who have been furiously typing ‘Romney was right’ all day, out to dry. “What!? I did what?! Why, I did no such scurrilous thing! All a big misunderstanding! Who would blame the besieged embassy workers? That’s nuts!” No wonder they hate him.
Villago Delenda Est
@ChrisNYC:
“Governor Romney? A guy named Lionel Hutz on line two, claiming to represent a Bart Simpson, something about catch phrase infringement.”
Villago Delenda Est
@dogwood:
Because those defending him are total jackasses.
Rita R.
@ChrisNYC:
Hmmm…. was he privy to knowledge of the English language and the ability to tell time? Because the embassy statement was public — not classified intelligence — and clearly didn’t apologize for the American value of free speech or anything else for that matter, or sympathize with the attackers, and came out six hours before the embassy was breached.
yet another jeff
Government, out of my right to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater!
Plantsmantx
@beltane:
I’m assuming that Nasralla wasn’t the anti-Islam Egyptian Copt who was damn near lynched at that rally because of how he looks.
Edit: I was wrong:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/06/a-statement-from-the-copt-at-the-center-of-the-kerfuffle-during-last-sundays-sioa-rally.html
Villago Delenda Est
@Rita R.:
You see, here’s the problem. He was relying on sources that do not have knowledge of the English language and the ability to tell time. Apparently, as Josh Marshall has surmised, he’s relying on the ability of the wingnutosphere’s language and time telling competencies.
Rita R.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Or who do, but just lie anyway because it fits their worldview and/or political goals.
Anna in PDX
I am very upset that he turned out to be Coptic. Sectarian strife is endemic in Egypt and the new untested gov may not be able to handle mob violence. I hope the egyptians remember all that muslim-coptic solidarity during the protests last year and no one starts something.
I agree that it seems dumb to blame a Jewish neocon for this debacle that involves framing Israelis. That makes zero sense to me.
As for who dubbed it, anyone could have found it. Like others, extreme muslims are the kind of offenderati that troll you tube looking for outrage du jour. For that matter Bacily could have done it himself.
Anne Laurie
@Spatula:
If we’re going to fully re-create Karl Rove’s beloved Gilded Age, some grift-friendly immigrants and a few American-born cranks are essential for producing camera-friendly Threats to Our Way of Life. Don’t know if ‘Sam Bacile’ or his enablers appreciate the history, but I’m sure there are plenty of rightwingers ready to make them tools, willingly or not.
Villago Delenda Est
@Rita R.:
Aye, there definitely is that possibility, but I can’t imagine such paragons of intellectual honesty as Ewick son of Ewick or Rinse Priebus taking a risk of damaging their stirling reputations by doing such a thing.
Gosh, I crack myself up sometimes.
Roger Moore
@Anna in PDX:
You’re right. Besides, this whole thing seems like something thrown together on a shoestring, which is not Adelson’s MO. He’s proven himself willing to drop 8 figures on a second rate primary candidate, and has promised to spend an order of magnitude more to help Romney. There’s no way he’d put together something this amateurish and throw a trailer up on YouTube. If he were going to slander Mohamed, he’d do it with good production values.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
In part, to make it indistinguishable from authentic Hollywood studio product.
Remember, part of the reaction in the Arab world is to western cultural influences, and Hollywood is the greatest weapon in the arsenal.
Another Halocene Human
@karen marie: But are they trying to help? Or are they raising the blood soaked Fenian banner, a la Irish Catholic Americans who raised money to fund Sinn Fein?
Copts have suffered a lot lately, including for many loss of their livelihood in the cities due to hysteria over swine flu. The previous government practiced legal discrimination against Christians and other members of minority religions. Stupid response? Probably.
What’s sick are all the people who have just become collateral damage.
Another Halocene Human
@Todd:
I love all the Kobags showing out lately.
rachel
@dopey-o: Wait, I saw this movie just a few weeks ago! It starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, right?
RandyH
You know… It is not a crime to make a movie that pisses people off, in fact it should probably be encouraged. BUT that doesn’t mean someone who starts a shit storm like this particular movie has shouldn’t be taken aside privately and receive a severe ass-kicking (by concerned citizens, of course – not by the government.) Whoever intentionally does something like this most certainly has it coming.
bjacques
Here come the Copts
Here come the Copts
This is when the party stopts
@RandyH: I am a staunch defender of the First Amendment to the Constitution, local ordinance that may be, however stretched to include putting inflammatory words in the mouths of innocent actors.
Therefore, if Nakoula and his friends incur a serious beatdown (if they are lucky), I demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In the Netherlands a few years ago, the politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now Mrs. Niall Ferguson) demanded that taxpayers provide her with 24/7 protection after Theo van Gogh, the director of an anti-Islamic film in which she appeared naked, was killed by a depressed Moroccan guy. The taxpayers refused but promised her that anyone doing her harm would face swift justice. She didn’t like that answer, so instead she went to the US to work for the American Enterprise Institute.