From the New York Times' breaking news section:
California Man Linked to Anti-Islam Film Ordered Held Without Bond
California Man Linked to Anti-Islam Film in Custody-Court Spokesman
California Man Behind Anti-Muslim Film Jailed Over Probation
You can never have enough headlines about this guy getting what's coming to him.
After all, he profaned YouTube. YouTube. Is nothing sacred anymore? Besides, this blasphemer could have screwed up Obama's re-election.
After all, he profaned YouTube. YouTube. Is nothing sacred anymore? Besides, this blasphemer could have screwed up Obama's re-election.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled nonstop Free Pussy Riot coverage.
Posts
32 comments:
heh-heh -heh-heh -heh-heh; You said "Pussy."
Few things.
I'm assuming you understand that the attacks were planned and more likely had to deal with the 9/11 anniversary more than a video that prompted such an organized attack within a few hours. A video that most people in this part of the world probably never heard of. And if they did riot over the video, that would make no sense, as there are many more graphic videos that berate Muhammad.
I don't even know where the media got the video idea from, but I'm guessing the white house needed something to cover up the possibility they knew this attack on the embassy was coming and did nothing to stop it.
And most importantly...
The guy was on parole for fraud committed via the internet. I mean he violated his parole, don't make him out to be a martyr just because he posted something like this.
Kaz, the film was uploaded to YT over a year ago IIRC. the fact that the authorities are just now getting round to knock on this guy's door says an awful lot.
"The guy was on parole for fraud committed via the internet. I mean he violated his parole, don't make him out to be a martyr just because he posted something like this."
Right, a federal judge had ordered him not to use the internet for 5 years. I'm thinking he could have done a better job flying under the radar.
Also, it appears the President is cycling back from depression to mania at the right time.
"Mike McCurry, the former Clinton White House spokesman, says the “adrenaline rush” of campaigning is clearly changing Obama. A couple of months ago, “he didn’t look happy. He looked tense. Now he’s hit a stride.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/25/barack-obama-finds-his-voice-in-heat-of-the-2012-presidential-campaign.html
@Inkraven
They probably got to it when they noticed it was a parolee who uploaded it. He just attracted attention to himself, that's about it. Dumb move considering he always could have gotten someone else to upload it for him.
A guy can have a suspended license and drive around for months, until a cop 'gets around to it' by pulling him over and finding out it's a guy with a suspended license driving.
The fraud Nakoula Basseley Nakoula would have committed had he been a a big shot at AIG or Goldman Sachs would not have got him convicted and put under "no internet" parole, it would have entitled him to a hefty chunk of the Bush-Obama Big Bailout.
Can anyone remember more insanely stupid fad than the "Free Pussy Riot"? I can't think of anything.
There are frauds such as Nakoula's, and then there are enormous frauds such as Elizabeth Warren: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/092512-627038-warren-like-soulmate-obama-is-con-artist.htm?p=full
Nakoula goes to jail. Warren runs for the Senate. Justice is done. How much and what kind of justice you get depends on who you are and whom you know.
"The guy was on parole for fraud committed via the internet. I mean he violated his parole, don't make him out to be a martyr just because he posted something like this."
The key is differential enforcement.
Would the Feds have cared about him uploading a Youtube clip of cute kittens, had they found out? You can probably guess the answer.
http://paulweston101.blogspot.com/2012/08/mrc-tv-video-player.html
I am coming around to the conspiracy theory that he may not be a Copt, or the video thing was a set-up to rile people up, paid for by the people who took advantage of it.
Walid Shoebat proposed this due to Nakoula's partnership with Shoebat's Muslim terrorist cousin.
Also, his biography nicely hits on some themes Steve brings up on occasion:
Nakoula was born in Egypt,[1] and in an Arabic interview with Voice of America's Radio Sawa, he stated that he had graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt.[9] Nakoula later moved to Southern California where he once owned a gas station. He resided in Cerritos, in Los Angeles County, California[10][11][12] until September 2012.[2]
According to the Associated Press, "Nakoula struggled with a series of financial problems".[13] In 1996, a lien for $194,000 was filed against Nakoula's gas station for unpaid taxes, penalties, and interest dating from 1989 to 1992.[12] A $106,000 lien was filed against him in 1997.[13] He filed for bankruptcy protection in 2000,[12][14] owing several banks a total of $166,500, but later failing to make payments under the bankruptcy plan.[12][15] A $191,000 tax lien was filed against him in 2006.[13]
The Daily Beast reported that Nakoula was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1997 after being pulled over and found to be in possession of ephedrine, hydroiodic acid, and $45,000 in cash;[12] he was charged with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.[11] He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 1997 to one year in Los Angeles County Jail and three years probation. According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, he violated probation in 2002 and was re-sentenced to another year in county jail.[16]
In 2010, Nakoula pleaded no contest to federal charges of bank fraud in California. Nakoula had opened bank accounts using fake names and stolen Social Security numbers, including one belonging to a 6-year-old child,[3] and deposited checks from those accounts to withdraw at ATMs.[17] The prosecutor described the scheme as check kiting, "You try to get the money out of the bank before the bank realizes they are drawn from a fraudulent account. There basically is no money," she said.[4] Nakoula’s June 2010 sentencing transcript shows that after being arrested, he testified against an alleged ring leader of the fraud scheme, Eiad Salameh,[18] in exchange for a lighter sentence.[19][20][21] He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison, five years probation, and ordered to pay $794,701 in restitution.[4][22] He was sent to prison, then to a halfway house,[23] and was released from custody in June 2011. A few weeks later, he began working on Innocence of Muslims.[24][23] Conditions of Nakoula's probation include not using aliases and not using the Internet without prior approval from his probation officer.[25][26] On September 27, 2012, US federal authorities stated Nakoula was arrested in Los Angeles for suspicion of violating terms of his probation and he is being held without bail.[27] Prosecutors stated that some of the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and the use of the alias Sam Bacile.[28]
Oh, man ...
Men With Gold Chains: where would we be without them?
Very murky affair. He doesn't seem to have any background in the arts or filmmaking but rather seems to have been a freelance grifter, yet he suddenly jumps into producing a movie that's amateurish and low-budget. Having gotten out of jail recently it wouldn't be likely he would have much money laying around for making a film that wouldn't make any money but would be a money loser. Losing money doesn't seem to be what he was about. It appears that he would be the perfect person to pick up and use as a front and co-conspirator for any crooked scheme; his Arab language skills would come in handy for ventures such as this. So who really was behind this obscure film that inexplicably became so prominent? Mossad? An Arab country? CIA? To what purpose? This whole affair looks less and less spontaneous the more one looks at it.
No one cares about the technical violations of his parole conditions, he's been incarcerated for inciting Muslims.
When we start jailing people for insulting Islam, the terrorists have won.
They needed an arrest for their overseas propaganda effort. BTW, what happened to the 100 XXXish financiers that the obviously lying producer claimed financed the thing. I want it proved once an for all that no XXXs were involved.
Yes he did use a pseudonym (to avoid death threats) and apparently the internet (The intent of the internet ban was to prevent him from scamming people, posting his 'art' on youtube is probably not the intention), but his is being arrested so that the US can say he was arrested.
And whatever happened to George Zimmerman anyway?
wren said... Also, his biography nicely hits on some themes Steve brings up on occasion
Like why wasn't this immigrant deported a long time ago? And why is the fact that we're flooded with the world's con artists never mentioned as a problem?
"In 1996, a lien for $194,000 was filed against Nakoula's gas station for unpaid taxes, penalties, and interest dating from 1989 to 1992."
Sometimes it does feel like we're all living in that novel Steve never bothered to write down. :o)
"My experience having been on the jury in what should have been an open-and-shut tax fraud case is that 9 out of 12 jurors were too dimwitted to grasp what had happened even after I had explained it to them."
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2011/07/casey-anthony.html
"The Daily Beast reported that Nakoula was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1997 after being pulled over and found to be in possession of ephedrine, hydroiodic acid, and $45,000 in cash;[12] he was charged with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.[11] He pleaded guilty and was...."
....deported back to Egypt, and never caused trouble in the United States again.
Oh wait....silly me.
At least he was allowed to wear a hat, glasses, turned-up collar and pulled-up scarf. Not quite the Sherman McCoy perp walk. Also, he'll allegedly be placed in protective custody away from other prisoners.
Also, for some reason I keep mentally parsing that slogan as '"Free Pussy" Riot'.
WMarkW:
I'd guess his main offense is Annoying The Powerful. Obviously, he ought not to be arrested for speech of any kind. It's an especially bad idea to have him arrested in this way, though, because it undermines what needs to be a consistent message of the US government toward anyone offended by free speech in our country: Sorry, but we simply do not have the power to stop people inside the US saying things that offend you.
The next time someone says something that stirs up riots and protests in the Muslim world, won't many of the protesters remember that hey, that filmmaker guy wound up in jail for that last offensive film, so clearly the Americans *will* jail people who offend the prophet, if only we kill some Americans, burn down some consulates, and have big enough protests and riots. This is rewarding exactly what we do not want more of.
Of course, maybe Obama should have simply used the provisions of the NDAA to have "Sam Bacile" indefinitely detained as an enemy of the US government. No doubt, both the Democrats and Republicans who support those powers would find some way to swallow this, and the MSM would reassure us that the questions wasn't whether or not the president should have this power, but rather why the people complaining hated America and Islam so much.
"And whatever happened to George Zimmerman anyway?"
And Emma West?
Ken at Popehat talking about the case
Nakoula was somewhere near Barstow on the edge of the desert when the Middle East began to explode.
His former life as a gas station operator makes me think a modern version of Melvin & Howard would be in order.
Obviously, we need to have some white, Christian, pro-gun, anti-abortion protesters burn down some buildings because they're offended by a video. Then the feds would remember the First Amendment in a big hurry.
he is very obviously being arrested for video, the parole is an excuse the left is silent or quietly condoning it.
BTW, if you think it can't happen to you - just about every US citizen commits a felony in some way (usually unintetionally) there are simply too many byzantine obscure laws that are often contradictory and impossible to abide by.
obama finally found an immigrant he doesn't like
"Besides, this blasphemer could have screwed up Obama's re-election."
We should give him a medal for that.
Free Pussy Riot has Tom Wolfe written all over it. (Why doesn't that man have a blog?! It's criminal.) You wish he was forty years younger because the 21st century is providing 20 times more material that is right up his alley than the 70s and 80s ever did.
Also, for some reason I keep mentally parsing that slogan as '"Free Pussy" Riot'.
Hehe, me too. Mind you, pulchritude pending, a free pussy riot is something I could probably get into.
"Also, for some reason I keep mentally parsing that slogan as '"Free Pussy" Riot'.
Hehe, me too. Mind you, pulchritude pending, a free pussy riot is something I could probably get into."
-Isn't that a pretty good description of the internet?
>He doesn't seem to have any background in the arts or filmmaking but rather seems to have been a freelance grifter, yet he suddenly jumps into producing a movie that's amateurish and low-budget.<
Freelance grifter is the new economy, man.
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