"Sam Bacile" -- an added note

I have to add one quick note to the post below. It turns out that "Sam Bacile" hired an actual director -- a fellow named Alan Roberts, who has been in the film business since the early '70s. I've never seen any of the movies he directed previously, although I was quite aware of Panorama Blue, a soft-core porno in wide screen and stereo released in 70mm at the old Paramount theater (now the El Capitan) in Hollywood. Believe it or not, my primary interest was in the 70mm format. Alas, I was too young to buy a ticket.

Roberts -- who has compiled a fairly impressive resume as an editor -- appears to be non-political, and may not have known that the movie was intended to slur Mohammed. In the original script, the prophet was called George. I still can't get over that: George.

This Los Angeles Times article on the men behind this affair has some interesting tidbits. But the piece is almost perverse in its refusal to note the existence of Jimmy Israel, who may have played the most important role.

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Why I believe that Mossad was behind "Sam Bacile"

Added note: If you came here from Facebook or some other site, please see my most recent post: "Nakoula made a notorious anti-Islam film -- yet he had worked for an Islamic terrorist." The Eiad Salameh connection nails the theory that Nakoula worked for spooks. Nails it with a hammer.

The film that started the current turmoil in the Middle East was credited to someone called Sam Bacile, who claimed to be an Israeli-American real estate developer backed by Israeli money. Everyone (including me) quickly became convinced that "Bacile" is a pseudonym used by Coptic con man Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a crook jailed for ripping off various banks to the tune of some $800,000.

Nakoula definitely is involved in this affair; it is quite probable that he was on the set. Unfortunately, most reporters are happy to leave the matter there. They would rather think that Nakoula's motives were religious. They would prefer not to think that Israeli money really is behind this movie, as "Bacile" originally stated.

But "Sam Bacile" may be a name used by two men. At any rate, good evidence indicates that the film was not Nakoula's brainchild.

Moreover, nothing we have learned about Nakoula indicates that he was motivated by religion or by his concern for the oppressed Christians in Egypt. Nakoula is a con artist; he's all about the money. He fits a classic pattern we've seen many times before -- the jailbird who makes a deal with spooks in order to have the blemishes on his record cleared up.

In our previous post on this topic, we noted that actors involved with this production answered an ad with this email address: desertwarrior@jimmyisrael.com. (The film was called Desert Warrior while in production.) Permit a bit of self-quotation:

Believe it or not, there really is a person in Hollywood who calls himself Jimmy Israel. You can write to him at jimmy@jimmyisrael.com and literaryscreenplays@jimmyisrael.com. Here's his webpage.

Even though he's trolling for screenplays, he advertises himself as running -- you guessed it -- a real estate company. Actually, he refers to his company as a group of "financer/investors."

As you may recall, "Sam Bacile" originally claimed to be in the real estate business. So now I'm wondering: Is "Sam Bacile" a pseudonym for Nakoula Nakoula or Jimmy Israel -- or both? Perhaps Nakoula worked with Jimmy in the same office...

Jimmy also runs a seminar program/multi-level marketing scheme called Nouveau Riche. Here's his spiel. To my eyes, this thing has scam written all over it. In fact, nothing about this guy's web site feels legit.

The format of the email address insures that we are dealing with the same guy. What's more, the actress who provided this info says that she took direction from a white-haired man. Both Jimmy Israel and Nakoula fit that description.

Whoever gave the actual orders on the set is irrelevant -- unless you're on a committee trying to figure out who deserves the award for Worst Directing Job Ever. One thing is clear: Jimmy Israel was a mover and shaker in this production. I suspect that he was the person who got this thing going.

It's impossible to accept that this exercise in cinema was entirely Nakoula's idea. The guy was fresh out of jail in the summer of 2011. A man in his situation would normally have more prosaic ambitions, like finding a place to sleep.

That's the part that gets to me. Why would Nakoula, recently released from the slammer, suddenly decide to make a movie? He had no money -- in fact, he owed money. Given his record, he was hardly in a position to borrow money. Moreover, he had no previous interest in the film business.

Jimmy, on the other hand, did have film-making ambitions.

So why did Jimmy decide to make a film denigrating Muhammed? I cannot believe that this wheeler-dealer was motivated by a fanatical love of all things Coptic, or even by hatred of Islam. Jimmy's website and his associations convey the impression that he, like Nakoula, has had a long-standing love affair with cash.

The film itself testifies to the truth of "Bacile's" original statement that the movie was backed by Israeli funders. If you watch the segment uploaded to YouTube, you'll see that much of its 13 minute running time is devoted to demonstrating the superiority of Jews to Muslims.

We also know that a man named Morris Sadek translated the film into Arabic and used it to inflame passions in the Middle East. The deaths and other outrages are, to a large extent, his doing.

Sadek claims to represent diaspora Coptics; he even runs a two-man organization devoted to Coptic causes. His American operation seems to be backed by a great deal of money -- god only knows from where. Various websites convey the impression that his is a voice which commands respect in the Coptic community.

But this is all a lie.

Sadek is not admired by Egyptian Copts, who consider him a dangerous rabble-rouser. They feel -- correctly -- that his anti-Islamic zealotry has placed the Coptic community in a very precarious situation. Sadek's true loyalties go toward people like Pamela Geller, not to the Coptic Pope.

A moment's thought will tell you that everything Sadek has done was designed to endanger Copts, not to secure their freedom from oppression. This man knows that the Egyptian revolution will be discredited if members of the Muslim Brotherhood can be riled up to take Coptic lives.

Why does Sadek seek to inflame a war of religion, a war which the Copts can never win? Because Sadek's true loyalty is to the war-loving neocons in both the American Republican Party and the Israeli Likud Party. These people oppose the Arab spring; they wish Mubarak had never fallen.

Sadek makes no secret of his loyalty to Israel. Take, for example, this statement:

"Israel is the liberation of the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinians and the liberation of Jerusalem from the Arab invaders, to be the united capital of the State of Israel Hebrew!"

He goes on and on like that, singing the praises of Eretz Israel and Zionism.

In Egypt, the real leaders of the Coptic Church have mounted protests against the film which Sadek foisted on the Middle East.

Coptic activists in Egypt are to stage a vigil on Wednesday in protest against a film deemed offensive to Islam that sparked violence outside US missions in Egypt and Libya, they said in a statement.

The Maspero Youth Union (MYU) and the Coalition of Coptic Egypt condemned “all sorts of contempt or disdain against any religion, as well as to the sowing of sedition between people who embrace different religions,” the statement said.

The MYU said it would be “holding a vigil tonight (Wednesday) in front of the US embassy in Cairo to protest against the film that insults Islam and the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).”

I've read a great many articles about the struggles of the Coptic community in Egypt. All of those articles indicate that the Copic leadership has always -- wisely -- sought peaceful and cordial relations with the Muslim majority.

Many Americans may not understand that Sadek's fanatical love of all things Israeli is not mirrored by most Copts. This article in an Israeli cyber-periodical decribes how a Coptic leader had a map of the Middle East hanging in his office -- a map with Israel blacked out. Even Pamela Geller has documented how a Coptic rally in Milan took an anti-Israeli turn.

Copts, I am sorry to report, have often been accused of anti-Semitism. See, for example, this article:

One would have thought that given this long history of persecution and oppression, the Copts should sympathise better than most in the Middle East with the Jewish people’s own oppression and travails over the centuries. Unfortunately, this is not so. Copts have a dark and long history of the crudest anti-Semitism sanctioned at the highest levels of the Church – and it continues to this day.

The immensely courageous, dissident Coptic blogger, Samuel Tadros points out that

Some people might think that ongoing Anti Semitism in Egypt is a phenomena that is restricted to Muslims. That is not really the case. Statements by Muslim religious leaders have been covered by the press, but little attention has been given to the Coptic Church, which has had its share of Anti Semitism.

Christian books are filled with Anti Semitic remarks and stories especially the “Sineksar”, the official Church book of Saints in which you can find stories that include Blood Libel.

Is not just that the Coptic Church continues to peddle ancient Christian anti-Semitism as the God’s Honest Truth in some sort of haphazard manner, the Coptic Church actively promotes such vileness even to this day. Samuel Tadros comments:

Pope Shenouda III, the leader of the Coptic Church has made statements in the past that included many Anti Semitic views. In an interview on the Egyptian Television on the 8th of April 2007 he said: “the Western Churches were wrong to exonerate Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and criticized recent statements apologizing for Christian anti-Semitism.”

“Asked whether Jews were “Christ-killers”, responsible for the crucifixion, Shenouda stated, “The New Testament says that they are,” and asked rhetorically whether the Vatican was “against the teachings of the New Testament?”

I hope it is obvious to all that my point here is not to excuse Coptic (or Islamic) anti-Semitism. Neither would I ever argue that Coptic prejudices against Jews can be used to excuse Islamic persecution of the Copts. Any objective reading of history will tell you that the victims of intolerance are not necessarily free of their own bigotries. (I don't know how Alfred Dreyfuss would have reacted if his sister had expressed a desire to marry a black man, but I can guess.)

My point is this: The quasi-worshipful attitude toward Jews demonstrated by Sadek -- and by the film Innocence of Muslims -- is not congruent with the feelings of many within the larger Coptic community. The things that Sadek says are not what most Copts would say.

And yet all of the "Copts" involved with that movie are pro-Israel, pro-GOP, pro-neoconservatism.

Given the extremely positive portrayal of Jews in the film, it is impossible to believe that "Sam Bacile" spoke about Israeli funders because he wanted to smear the Jews. I think that money did come from Israeli sources, although not from 100 private donors. (It is more likely that the funding scheme resembled the one seen in the film Munich. I'm also pretty sure that most of the money went to Nakoula and Jimmy, not into the costs of production.)

Take another look at the Jimmy Israel website. Do you really think that guy gives even half a damn about the plight of the oppressed Copts in Egypt?

I've written to Jimmy Israel, asking if he is Sam Bacile, and if he directed the film in question. I also asked about his relationship with Nakoula. So far, no response.

The lack of a response is, in and of itself, revelatory -- at least to a degree.

I maintain that this incident was engineered to push Mitt Romney into the oval office. I believe that the people behind this operation are motivated by Romney's oft-stated desire to go to war with Iran -- a war that can benefit no-one outside of Israel. (Except for American military contractors!)

Romney's foreign policy advisers are all neocons. If you liked Dubya's invasion of Iraq, you'll love what that crew has in mind.

I do not believe that most Israelis approve of the neocon goal of war with Iran. Only the fanatics and the fundamentalists want war.

The most obvious precedent for this operation would be the storming of the American embassy in Tehran in November of 1979. (People now forget that embassies in other countries also came under attack.) On that occasion, the public rallied around Jimmy Carter -- at first. As the crisis deepened, Ronald Reagan reaped the political benefits.

In the years since, some evidence has emerged indicating that the attack on the Iranian embassy was engineered by American operatives who wanted to put a far-right Republican in office. Some researchers have argued that the CIA gave Carter false assurances that there would be no insurmountable political consequences if the deposed Shah of Iran were allowed into the U.S., and that CIA-funded provocateurs in Iran then did everything they could to spur the students into taking action against the embassy.

That reading of the '79 event is, I confess, very controversial. I can't say that I find this scenario wholly persuasive. Still, you may want to consider the points raised by this article, as well as this one. Those pieces may offer an interesting perspective on our current imbroglio.

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"Me, I'm a Lincoln cat"

This looks good. Daniel Day Lewis and Steven Spielberg did the research and finally got the great man's voice right. In all previous film incarnations (except Young Mr. Lincoln, starring Henry Fonda), Abraham Lincoln speaks in deep, basso-profundo, Olympian tones. Wrong. Those who knew him said that his voice was high and reedy.

Dummies are already pronouncing the film a falsification of history, because the script (or at least the trailer) suggests that the Civil War was fought over slavery instead of tarrifs or states' rights or some such nonsense. Of course the Civil War was fought over slavery; those who say otherwise are historical revisionists.

The revisers set to work in the 19th century, and I am sorry to report that they have bamboozled many students. For the truth, see James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, the relevant section of which is summarized here and here. You may also want to check out -- oh, I dunno, pretty much any major American newspaper published during the 1860-65 period.

The kids who parrot revisionist claims think they're hip, but they're really dupes. (Bonus points to any reader who can name the fellow quoted in this post's headline.)

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I don't want to talk politics right now...

I probably should continue to write about the turmoil in the Middle East, but my heart isn't in it. Today, I spent several hours in one of the most magnificent structures I've ever visited -- St Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. We're talking about impressive art, incredibly long hallways, a statue of the Virgin that looks really spooky at night, and an exquisite chapel (which I admired from the entrance.)

I had gone to St. Mary's to consult some rare books about my favorite girl. What a wonderful library! Y'know those massive, over-stuffed, ultra-ultra-ultra-soft leather chairs -- the kind you might see in some veddy exclusive British club where a waiter hands you port and the Sunday Times? My capacious hindquarters spent the day parked in one of those.

All in all, this was a very civilized way to spend the day. St. Mary's had me thinking that I'd make a good priest -- if I could just, y'know, get past the bit about having to believe in the supernatural. 

Then I came back home, turned on the 'puter -- and guess what? The world keeps finding new routes to Hell. 

Must we always think about such things?

No. Not always. Instead, think about this.

That story will make your eyes moisten. It may even have you believing in the supernatural.

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Weird connections galore!

The more you look into the background of the people behind the inflammatory pseudo-film "Innocence of Muslims," the stranger they seem. I'm not sure what all these links mean, but they deserve note.

"Sam Bacile" has been identified as Nakoula B. Nakoula, a Coptic American convicted of defrauding banks to the tune of nearly $800,000. He was released from the joint in June of 2011 after doing less than a year (even though many people have served longer terms for robbing convenience stores) and immediately started work on the film. Supposedly, Israeli backers gave five million bucks to this crook.

Here's Nakoula's plea agreement. His lawyer is listed as James Henderson. He's a very well-known attorney -- "high powered," as they say. In the 1980s, Henderson headed up an organized crime strike force in Los Angeles. 

In 1983, this lawyer became the target of explosive allegations leveled by one "Jerry Vann" -- a.k.a. Gerald Van Hoorelbeke, a federal informant. Vann/Hoorelbeke said that Henderson himself had ties to organized crime, and had covered up bribery of public officials by "Arabs." After an investigation, Henderson was cleared in 1985.

Nevertheless, the FBI continued to use Hoorelbeke as a jailhouse informant. Here's a letter he (allegedly) wrote to FBI head Louis Freeh in February of 2001. In this letter, he says that he learned from Ramsey Yousef that "Bin Laden will use your own planes to take down the W.T.C." Yousef had masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; apparently, he shared a cell with Hoorelbeke. (Also see here.) 

So how does this link up to Nakoula? Perhaps there is no real link. Perhaps this is all just a coincidence.

On the other hand, Hoorelbeke's prediction about Bin Laden and the WTC attack proved to be quite accurate. Maybe his information about James Henderson was accurate as well. So the question becomes: Why did Mr. Nakoula choose Mr. Henderson, and how did Nakoula afford his services? (Much of the foregoing derives from an insightful bit of research here.) 

Come to think of it, nobody has answered another very basic question. What did Mr. Nakoula do for bread and cheese money? When not defrauding banks, that is...

When Nakoula's anti-Muslim movie was filmed, the script did not mention Muhammed and bore the title "Desert Warrior." An actress involved with the production, Cindy Lee Garcia, has come forward to denounce the thirteen minute segment of the film that appeared on YouTube. She also provided a copy of the original casting call, which offers a clue as to another shady individual involved with this bizarre production. Interested parties were directed to contact this email address: desertwarrior@jimmyisrael.com.

Believe it or not, there really is a person in Hollywood who calls himself Jimmy Israel. You can write to him at jimmy@jimmyisrael.com and literaryscreenplays@jimmyisrael.com. Here's his webpage.

Even though he's trolling for screenplays, he advertises himself as running -- you guessed it -- a real estate company. Actually, he refers to his company as a group of "financer/investors."

As you may recall, "Sam Bacile" originally claimed to be in the real estate business. So now I'm wondering: Is "Sam Bacile" a pseudonym for Nakoula Nakoula or Jimmy Israel -- or both? Perhaps Nakoula worked with Jimmy in the same office...

Jimmy also runs a seminar program/multi-level marketing scheme called Nouveau Riche. Here's his spiel. To my eyes, this thing has scam written all over it. In fact, nothing about this guy's web site feels legit. I'm getting a definite "Brent Wilkes" vibe from this guy.

Israel's partner in the Nouveau Riche scheme -- which has apparently given rise to a lawsuit -- is a fellow named Jim Piccolo. (I'm not making up these names, honest!) The guy apparently makes his living selling various get-rich-quick "opportunities."

Everything about this crew reeks of con-artistry and possible criminality -- well, actual criminality in the case of Nakoula. Nothing about these guys suggests that they are motivated by religion or a sincere desire to help the Copts of Egypt. 

Steve Klein, on the other hand, is the real deal -- a genuine zealot and a right-wing "patriot." As you may recall, this former marine partnered up with Nakoula for the production of this film. Klein, who has given paramilitary training to his "church" group, is a vocal opponent of Islam, Mormonism, the Jehovah's Witnesses and any other form of religion that does not tally with his own preconceptions.

Perhaps we should not be surprised to learn that Klein considers Cromwell his hero!

Klein's partner in anti-Islamic action is a man named James Horn, who calls himself a former CIA operative. In a blurb for his book Experiencing Islam ("Censored by the CIA!"), Horn says:

Experiencing Islam is an insightful realpolitik text by a career Foreign Service Officer who has served in Moslem countries, worked as a Security Professional, and wore other hats during his 25-years of service abroad. His vision is 20-20.

Prior to publication, the manuscript for Experiencing Islam was submitted to federal agencies for review. The text was censored (redacted) by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of State, with input from DHS, the FBI, and the White House. This censored version retains 99% of its integrity and character.

I don't know if Horn has any association with Nakoula's film, although I wouldn't discount the possibility, given his close association with Klein. (Many thanks to this Kos diarist for bringing our attention to the Horn connection.) 

For some reason, Horn frequently mentions that his eyesight is 20-20, which is why I've reproduced his photo on the right. Notice anything interesting...?

I should also note that the after-hours screening of Muslim Innocence at the dumpy Vine Theater in Hollywood appears to have been a provocation of some sort designed to entice -- or excuse -- a terrorist reaction. Klein even wore a disguise for the occasion. 

Steve Klein, who said he served as a script consultant, said that he and the producers originally called the movie "Innocence of Bin Laden" in hopes of drawing underground Islamic extremists in the Los Angeles area.

"The movie was only supposed to show in Hollywood," said Klein, who described himself as "an unsophisticated James Bond."

He added, "We passed out fliers at mosques around California where we knew there was a small percentage of terrorists. And the idea was to locate … those folks who believed Osama bin Laden was a great guy and to try to get them to come to the movie."

I've seen no evidence that those fliers actually were passed out. The Islamic community in Los Angeles would undoubtedly have taken note of a film allegedly praising Bin Laden, and would have notified the authorities. It seems more likely to me that the film-makers had planned to stage some sort of terror event. 

Incidentally, the version screened on that occasion had not yet been overdubbed with slurs against Mohammed. In the original, the evil "prophet" was named George. George of Egypt. A name that Jay Ward would have adored.

According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a filming permit for Nakoula's production was taken out by a firm called Media For Christ. They filmed at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in Santa Clarita (which I've passed by on numerous occasions). Oddly, Media For Christ  -- based in Duarte, California -- has denied any link to the production. However, Steve Klein runs something called "The Way TV" out of the same Duarte offices. 

Both Media for Christ and The Way TV are run by Joseph Abdelmasih of Arcadia, who is listed as chief executive officer for both entities, and president of Media for Christ, public records show.

This same person, Joseph Nasrallah Abdelmasih, is a well-known Coptic fanatic whose views are not shared by the Coptic patriarchy in Egypt. Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugged invited Abdelmasih to speak at an anti-Muslim event. Max Blumenthal reveals that Steve Klein frequently participates in Geller's online activities. As you will recall, the anti-Islamic and pro-Nazi Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik cited Geller as an inspiration. Geller, for her part, justified the murders on the grounds that the victims were of mixed race. 

Finally, we come to Morris Sadek, the person apparently responsible for dubbing the movie into Arabic and insuring that it received notice in Egypt and Libya. Sadek is a Coptic and an anti-Islam fanatic who claims to speak for the community, even though his views are very much at odds with those of the leaders of his church.

Sadek is a supporter of ACT! for America, which believes that President Obama has embraced the Muslim Brotherhood. The group rallied its supporters last month behind Michelle Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witch hunt against Huma Abedin and others. Here’s Sadek with ACT! For America president Brigitte Gabriel at one of the group’s 2010 events.

Sadek is a man of many interests. He’s a member of these groups, among many others: Islam is of the Devil, Warriors of Christ, and OBAMA IS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER! Agree?. Sadek is also a fan of the Republican Party, George Bush, Allen West (for president no less!), and number of other Islamophobic, conservative and/or Republican institutions and leaders.

Needless to say, Sadek's actions have endangered the lives of Copts. The Egyptian government stripped Sadek of his citizenship some time ago. Nevertheless, he says that he managed to promote the film on Egyptian television. 

Many people are now saying that "Bacile's" claim of Israeli sponsorship must be false, even though the film itself (what we have of it) is filled with thuddingly obvious Israeli propaganda. Moreover, all of the individuals listed here have strong pro-Israel records. Sedak has made no secret of his own views: 

Issued an international lawyer Maurice Sadek National Assembly President Coptic America, new policy statement congratulating Israel on the occasion of "Eid independence", and declares his wishes to be able to "Israel is the liberation of the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinians and the liberation of Jerusalem from the Arab invaders, to be the united capital of the State of Israel Hebrew!" The statement added, who won the seventh day a copy of it, that "the struggle of Israel is a lesson to the peoples of the oppressed and occupied, so I join the people of Israel the joy and victory, the Arab invaders, and we hope in the continuing struggle in glorious establishment of the State of Israel, and to preserve the existence and continuity, you Jews and the sons of God's chosen people .. you set an example that should be looked at by the people, and your struggle should be a lesson to the oppressed peoples. " The statement condemned the Palestinians, accusing them of killing Christians in Gaza, said: "The Islamists emptied the Arab Christian population in the land of Israel, including, especially after the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas) of killing Christians in Gaza."

He goes on and on like that. Lovely, innit?

Incidentally, his National American Coptic Assembly is not so grand as it may seem: It has a staff of two. (Amusingly, it is located not far from CIA HQ.) Sadek now claims to be very, very sorry that the film he promoted led to deadly riots -- as if that was not his only intent all along.

It now seems that Anders Breivik offered our initial glimpse into a very strange world. Within that world, you'll find several crooks and opportunists, motivated only by money -- and, perhaps, the threat of prison. But you will also find plenty of zealots motivated by racial and religious hatred. Willingly or otherwise, these people all serve a bloody agenda. These people want war.

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The GOP sticks to the script

For more evidence that Nakoula's film was a deliberate Mossad/neocon ploy to incite a riot and propel Romney into office, look at John Podhoretz' column in the New York Post, Donald Rumsfeld's disgusting tweet, vile editorials like this one -- and, of course, Mitt Romney's continuing attacks. Despite the criticism they have faced, the Republicans have doubled down on the propaganda. All of the GOP's luminaries -- and all of their obedient wingnut bloggers -- have received the script. And they refuse to deviate from it.

Believe me, that script was written weeks ago, maybe months ago. This whole thing is an operation.

I mean, what the hell could Nakoula (freshly released from the joint) have hoped to gain for his co-religionists in Egypt? Did he really think that his inane film would cause all the Muslims in Egypt to slap their heads and shout: "Oh no! We've been following the wrong religion! Time to switch!"?

Anyone with any sense could have foreseen that this cinematic stunt would incite outrage, riots and persecution of the Copts. Nakoula -- or rather, his funders -- wanted to get people killed.

Incidentally, a friend of mine "in the industry" has seen the YouTube material and estimates the budget of Nakoula's film at around $30,000. I'd go higher, but not much higher. The rest of the $5 million budget was Nakoula's payoff. It's blood money. People like Nakoula make me wish that I believed in Hell, because that's where he belongs.

I'm watching the YouTube video right now. What dialogue! Shit like this is hard to watch without Rifftrax. The lunacy-filled script was obviously written by an Israeli fundamentalist -- either that, or it was written to please an Israeli fundamentalist backer. Even though the dialogue is often impenetrably weird, one message comes through clearly: "Jews good; Muslims bad." This movie ain't just a Coptic thing.

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Does Pastor Terry Jones have a big, big secret? (Updated)

In our previous two posts, we focused on Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the creepy Coptic who produced the religiously intolerant film "Muslim Innocence," which led to riots in the Middle East and the death of the American ambassador in Libya. I believe that this film was produced as a deliberate provocation, designed to propel Mitt Romney into the White House.

It is quite telling that Romney smirked as he launched his scripted attacks against Obama. Fortunately, those attacks seem to have backfired. So far.

Nakoula isn't in this alone in this enterprise. One of his partners is Pastor Terry Jones, who gained international notoriety in 2010, when he burned copies of the Koran in a deliberate attempt to incite Muslims to violence.

*  *  *

Update: Jones now claims that, contrary to report, he did not promote Nakoula's poorly-made incitement to riot. In fact, Jones says that his account was hacked. Most people will classify that claim under the heading "A likely story" -- although if there is any truth to what Jones says, we've entered very murky waters. And now, back to our original post...

*  *  *

Until today, I had presumed Jones to be a simple bigot. However, an interesting -- albeit rather questionable -- journalist named Gordon Duff offers quite a different take on Jones.

We've discussed Duff in a previous post. To be frank, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the guy. And I'm quite flabbergasted by this:

Jones, to most, is an uneducated and lower class figure in a backward area of the American south. His congregation is largely made of weak minded people on the fringe of society, easily coerced and influenced. He has few followers.

However, Jones has another following, one not so easy to detect. Jones moved to Germany in 1981 and established a religious cult in Cologne. Thus, his ties while there were with Israeli intelligence and the P2 Masonic lodge, better known as “Operation Gladio,” the group responsible for the murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro and terror bombings that went on into the 90s.

Jones real background is that of an intelligence asset. His personal weakness is narcissism. His strength is his ability to hide behind what appears to be backward and ignorant exterior while actively working as an intelligence agent for a combination of rogue CIA elements, extremists in the former Stasi German group now called the DVD who partner with Israel’s Mossad.

Jones is a spy, CIA trained, run by rogue handlers, and heavily promoted by Mossad elements throughout the Middle East and able to garner national news attention in the US when anyone else of his minor following and total lack of credibility would be ignored.

Instead, his every obscene move, his every blasphemy, from his tiny and forgotten church, reaches, not just the front page of every paper but is announced and spread throughout the Islamic world by the hundreds of Israeli agents that infiltrate every Mosque.

The relationship between the Mossad and DVD is now well known. German built submarines armed with Russian built nuclear weapons patrol of Iran as we speak, their Israeli crews ready to start World War III.

Inside the US, rogue elements of Bush era intelligence privatization, initially under Blackwater Corporation and its various successors, still actively run agents, manage narcotics processing and distribution and intimidate world leaders through threats against their families.

Jones is part of this operation, tasked with destabilizing Egypt and Libya, tasked with providing an Islamophobic backdrop for Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to the United Nations and providing support for extremist elements in Europe and the US who see President Obama too “morally flexible” in his dealings with Iran.

Whew! How much of this is true?

Duff's bottom line -- that this incident is ultimately about Iran -- mirrors my own previously-expressed views. But his claims about Jones, although fascinating, should be approached with great caution.

For one thing, Duff writes for a website friendly to the 9/11 "Truthers," whom I despise with a passion more purple than Pilate's toga. I would also note that Duff seems to have phobic attitude toward hyperlinks. He disdains the tradition of citation of sources. He refuses to give us any hint as to how we might verify his very large claims.

Incidentally, the P2 Lodge and Operation Gladio were two very different things. One was a group of people and the other was a plan. So right there we have an example of Duff's sloppiness.

All of this is not very promising. Nevertheless, I decided to check out Duff's allegations, to the extent that they can be checked out.

Many will be surprised to learn that Jones did, in fact, run a surprisingly popular church in Cologne, Germany. His former congregation "fired" him when the pastor began burning Korans. In 2010, Der Spiegel published a disturbing profile of Pastor Terry Jones:

What is less well known is that the pastor led a charismatic evangelical church, the Christian Community of Cologne, in the western German city up until 2009. Last year, however, the members of the congregation kicked founder Jones out, because of his radicalism. One of the church's current leaders, Stephan Baar, also told the German news agency DPA that there had been suspicions of financial irregularities in the church surrounding Jones.

A "climate of fear and control" had previously prevailed in the congregation, says one former member of the church who does not want to be named. Instead of free expression, "blind obedience" was demanded, he says.

Various witnesses gave SPIEGEL ONLINE consistent accounts of the Jones' behavior. The pastor and his wife apparently regarded themselves as having been appointed by God, meaning opposition was a crime against the Lord. Terry and Sylvia Jones allegedly used these methods to ask for money in an increasingly insistent manner, as well as making members of the congregation carry out work.

Terry Jones is starting to look an awful lot like Jim Jones, who was pretty damned spooky in his own right. Let's continue with the Spiegel piece:

Former church members are still undergoing therapy as a result of "spiritual abuse," Schäfer said. According to Schäfer, Jones urged church members to beat their children with a rod and also taught "a distinctive demonology" and conducted brainwashing.

"Terry Jones appears to have a delusional personality," speculates Schäfer. When he came to Germany in the 1980s, Jones apparently considered Cologne "a city of Hell that was founded by Nero's mother," while he thought Germany was "a key country for the supposed Christian revival of Europe," Schäfer says.

As I said earlier: Disturbing. But so far, I have found no hint of a relationship between Jones and the P2 Lodge, an Italian pseudo-Masonic secret society which came to an end in 1981. (Some say it continues in another form, but that's a discussion for another day.) Neither do I see any proof that Jones has ever worked with spies in the service of Israel, Germany, America or any other government.

Many will find it hard to believe that any intelligence agency would recruit someone as bizarre as Jones. Of course, his eccentricities may be part of an act -- and in truth, there is a long, weird history of spooks who have recruited mondo-wacko religious figures into various schemes. (If you want some interesting reading, look up the hidden history of something called the Old Catholic Church. One might also mention a fella named Moon who died recently...)

I attempted to verify Duff's claim that Pastor Jones has allied himself with former members of the Stasi, the notorious East German intelligence service. Duff claims that the Stasi lives on, and that it is now called the DVD. According to other sites, those initials stand for Deutsche Verteidigungs Dienst (German Defense Service).

Question: Does this organization actually exist? Or is it an intelligence myth -- a fictitious "bad guy" group modeled after Ian Fleming's SPECTRE?

Gale's authoritative Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security mentions nothing about a German group called DVD. Nevertheless, Duff's website, Veteran's Today, offers an alleged history of the formation of this group; the piece is written by one Michael Shrimpton, who claims to be an intelligence analyst. In this rather difficult-to-follow article, we learn that the DVD began life in the 1940s as an arm of Nazi intelligence. If you scroll down that page, you'll see some sarcastic comments from spook-watchers who think that Shrimpton is full of it.

Various anti-Semitic conspiracy sites make reference to the DVD.  Example.

This article from 2007 gets very weird very quickly:

Deutsche Verteidigungs Dienst (DVD), Dachau, like the criminal Central Intelligence Agency, is self-financed. It is not funded by the German Government and taxpayer. It operates entirely separately from the Government and the rest of the German intelligence community (although there is some interpenetration, of course), and merely reports what it sees fit to the Chancellor. It does not take instructions from the German Chancellor, as its agenda does not always coincide with that of the overt German Government.

This is because, as the Nazi Pan-German global hegemony strategic continuum, DVD is in charge of Nazi long-range deception strategy and counterintelligence – the purpose of which is to monitor and promote the pan-German ideology of regional and ultimately global Nazi control. 

Well. That's over-the-top even by my lenient standards.

Yet it's downright sedate when compared to the stuff you see on other sites that talk about the Deutsche Verteidigungs Dienst. See, for example, here and here and here. The last link goes to a page which claims that the DVD is involved with Satanism and child abduction.

(If this group is real, why hasn't Dave Emory talked about it? This kind of thing is right up his alley.)

So far, I'm not convinced that the DVD exists. I've certainly seen no proof that Pastor Terry Jones is a member of it.

Since the Stasi was very anti-Israel, it's a little hard to believe that former Stasi agents have teamed up with Mossad. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

Is Duff wrong about Terry Jones and his alleged intelligence connections? I can't say that he is and I can't say that he isn't. At this time, we have no choice but to put a big question mark over everything Duff has to say.

Yet nobody can deny that Pastor Terry Jones is an interesting fellow.

I wonder: What drew him to Germany? Why did he fixate on Cologne? (I've heard that it's not a very religious city, even by modern German standards.) Why did the German government look the other way when Jones mistreated his employees and followers? His former German congregation appears to have been larger than his current American following: How did that happen? When did this good ol' boy learn the language? And where did he get the money for an international experiment of that sort?

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