Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
CBS News reports:
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the man behind a crudely produced anti-Islamic video that inflamed parts of the Middle East to be detained because he is a flight risk.
Citing a lengthy pattern of deception, U.S. Central District Chief Magistrate Judge Suzanne Segal said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula should be held after officials said he violated his probation from a 2010 check fraud conviction.
"The court has a lack of trust in this defendant at this time," Segal said. Nakoula, 55, was arrested Thursday.
He had eight probation violations, including lying to his probation officers and using aliases, and he might face new charges that carry a maximum two-year prison term, authorities said. Nakoula will remain behind bars until another hearing where a judge will rule if he broke the terms of his probation.
Obviously this guy isn't a model citizen. And I don't even doubt that he violated his probation. So why does this jailing, and being held without bail, make me so queasy?
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Jun '12
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Obviously this guy isn't a model citizen. And I don't even doubt that he violated his probation. So why does this jailing, and being held without bail, make me so queasy? · · 0 minutes ago
Because it smacks of The Ministry of Love punishing someone for a thoughtcrime.
Orwell would be so proud of the Obamacrats.
Edited on September 28, 2012 at 3:13pmNov '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
So why does this jailing, and being held without bail, make me so queasy? · · 2 minutes ago
Because its a boot stamping on a human face.
Oct '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Because Egypt demanded that he be arrested and then Obama complied.
May '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Where would he flee to? Back home to Egypt?
Aug '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said . . .
'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first - verdict afterwards.'
May '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Boy, they sure couldn't wait to have an excuse to release his real identity, could they?
May '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Before we rush to judgement, it would be helpful to hear from the attorneys among us. Anyone with an informed opinion as to how big a deal these parole violations seems to be? I still believe we have an independent judiciary in this country and I'm pretty sure the Egyptian government doesn't hold sway over our courts.
Sep '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
It was Yom Kippur this week. If anyone is wondering what common phrase we get from Yom Kippur, this arrest should give you a hint.
Jul '12
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Agreed; while I have nothing but sympathy for the plight of Coptic Christians, this guy has likely violated parole terms and managed to force the head of Media for Christ into hiding by lying about the film he was trying to make. And yet I've known plenty of parole violators who were not treated this way, certainly not hauled out of the house in the dead of night. Looks very, very political.
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
I tend to agree. I also know that, as Silvergate puts it, we commit three felonies a day. One can jail and hold this guy without bail for completely legit reasons. And yet ... there's just something troubling about it.
Aug '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Sounds to me like we need a "wise Egyptian" on our Court. Y'know, for diversity's sake.
Jan '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Because they didn't come after him until he was fingered as the man behind the video. Which means that the probation wasn't the reason they came after him.
Because that, in turn, means that someone used the law for political purposes.
Because that, in turn, meant that an American citizen was arrested to appease foreign protesters.
Because that, in turn, means that the people who enforce our laws (OK, let's say it, the Obama Administration, who surely had nothing to do with this, right?) see the law as something they use when they want to use it, not as a law that applies equally.
Nov '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Agreement with the consensus here; the parole violations are not nothing, but the timing is awfully convenient.
Mar '11
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
So why does this jailing, and being held without bail, make me so queasy? · · 2 minutes ago
Because even though it is probably a completely legitimate court ruling on a felon who violated his parole numerous times, the eerie patina of late night arrest and international "outrage" around the case makes it seem as though our rights are contingent upon the administration's whimsy and good graces--and that therefore because of these circumstances, no matter how legitimate the ruling may be, it is impossible to dismiss the ugly, nagging possibility that political motivations played some significant part in the whole affair.
Jul '12
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
Something is wrong here. I'm willing to bet he did violate his probation. But it's a pretext. He was arrested to appease the Islamists.
Probationers are rarely, if ever, sought out for their violations. Normally a probationer is "violated" by the probation officer when they have a scheduled appointment. Or the probationer skips an appointment or doesn't pay and they are found in violation by the officer and the court in absentia. The violator might then be picked up on another charge and also held on the probation violation. A probationer might be sought out if they owe the Court a large sum of money and the Court is looking for cash. That doesn't seem to be the case here.
He was singled out for the film.
Edited on September 28, 2012 at 4:08pmApr '12
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
"They had a legal reason" doesn't outweigh the "they went, in the middle of the night, to haul a guy in for questioning about possibly making a non-violent parole violation" when it takes heaven and earth to get someone caught in the act of a violent crime set up for the same thing when it's an obvious parole violation?
Heck, even with possible violent violations the process is more along the lines of either calling the parole officer or asking at the next meetup with him.
Something I'm having trouble getting through to some friends and family; there may be places where they have enough money to send out whole groups of officers in the middle of the night to bring someone in and ask about possible non-violent parole violations, but does anyone thing LA-- heck, any of California-- is that flush?
Oct '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
I'm a criminal prosecutor who revokes probation all the time. Technically, any violation of the conditions of your probation is legally sufficient to initiate revocation proceedings -- which involves re-arrest and setting of a bond. It's a very low bar to re-arrest someone for probation violations. Using aliases and lying to your PO aren't huge violations, but since the underlying offense was check fraud, I certainly would have hauled any other defendant back into court for a scolding.
The unusual thing about this case is the Judge's decision to hold him without bond until his hearing. That usually only happens when someone is a danger to the community or is a major flight risk. The court seemed to think the defendant's use of aliases and dishonesty make him such a large flight risk that not even a large bond would be sufficient. That's iffy, but the defendant may actually feel safer in jail right now.
Dec '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
"O" is for Outrage-a-Day. You all are much more self-restrained than I am. I smacked the table when I read this headline.
The very kindest motivation that can be attributed to this arrest is that it's "for his own good (protection)." From there, it slides right down into "F" words. "F" is for Feckless-Foreign-Policy. "F" is for Fascism. "Welcome to America, Mr. Nakoula. Enjoy your stay."
Oct '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
RightinChicago:
Probationers are rarely, if ever, sought out for their violations.
I completely disagree with this. Every probationer is assigned a probation officer, whose job it is to seek out probation violations. That's the point of probation -- you're monitored. It isn't just a sword of Damocles hanging over your head should you pick up a new criminal charge.
And his probation officers didn't really go searching him out, did they? He was the subject of a widely publicized national news story. Just because your violation is brought to the attention of your PO is a unfair way doesn't mean the PO should ignore it.
I also have a big problem with this claim:
RightinChicago: Something is wrong here. I'm willing to bet he did violate his probation. But it's a pretext. He was arrested to appease the Islamists.
He was singled out for the film.
And every arrest of a minority is racism, and any alleged violation of law is just pretext for the officer's bigotry, right? That's emotion-driven nonsense.
By saying this, you're baselessly slandering lots of people you don't know. That's not our game.
Edited on September 28, 2012 at 4:57pmAug '10
Re: Man Behind "Innocence Of Muslims" Ordered Jailed
The CBS article is yet another example of journalistic incompetence. The author doesn't even get into the specifics of the parole violations, which is the question of most interest. There will be similar incuriosity about the involvement of the White House in the jailing of Nakoula.
"Using the internet" is one of his alleged parole violations. Does anyone think he would have been jailed for checking Weather.com?
If I were president, I would have used my influence to deliberately avoid jailing Nakoula. It's constitutionally troublesome, and it makes us look weak.