WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities have
identified a Coptic Christian in southern California who is on
probation after his conviction for financial crimes as the key figure
behind the anti-Muslim film that ignited mob violence against U.S.
embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official told The
Associated Press on Thursday.
The official
said authorities had concluded that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was
behind "Innocence of Muslims," a film that denigrated Islam and the
prophet Muhammad and sparked protests earlier this week in Egypt, Libya
and most recently in Yemen. It was not immediately clear whether Nakoula
was the target of a criminal investigation or part of the broader
investigation into the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three
other Americans in Libya during a terrorist attack.
Attorney
General Eric Holder confirmed Thursday that Justice Department
officials were investigating the deaths, which occurred during an attack
on the American mission in Benghazi.
The
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Nakoula was
connected to the persona of Sam Bacile, a man who initially told the AP
he was the film's writer and director. But Bacile turned out to be a
false identity, and the AP traced a cellphone number Bacile used to a
southern California house where it located and interviewed Nakoula.
Bacile
initially told AP he was Jewish and Israeli, although Israeli officials
said they had no records of such a citizen. Others involved in the film
said his statements were contrived, as evidence mounted that the film's
key player was a Coptic Christian with a checkered past.
Nakoula
told the AP in an interview outside Los Angeles on Wednesday that he
managed logistics for the company that produced the film. Nakoula denied
he was Bacile and said he did not direct the film, though he said he
knew Bacile.
Federal court papers filed
against Nakoula in a 2010 criminal prosecution noted that he had used
numerous aliases, including Nicola Bacily, Robert Bacily, Erwin Salameh
and others.
During a conversation outside his
home, Nakoula offered his driver's license to show his identity but kept
his thumb over his middle name, Basseley. Records checks by the AP
subsequently found that middle name as well as other connections to the
Bacile persona.
The AP located the man calling
himself Bacile after obtaining his cellphone number from Morris Sadek, a
conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who has promoted the
anti-Muslim film in recent days on his website. Egypt's Christian Coptic
populace has long decried what they describe as a history of
discrimination and occasional violence from the country's Muslim
majority.
Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville,
Fla., who sparked outrage in the Arab world when he burned Qurans on the
ninth anniversary of 9/11, said he spoke with the movie's director on
the phone Wednesday and prayed for him. Jones said he has not met the
filmmaker in person but added that the man contacted him a few weeks ago
about promoting the movie. Jones and others who have dealt with the
filmmaker said Wednesday that Bacile was hiding his real identity.
"I
have not met him. Sam Bacile, that is not his real name," Jones said.
"He is definitely in hiding and does not reveal his identity."
The
YouTube account under the username "Sam Bacile" was used to publish
excerpts of the provocative movie in July and was used to post comments
online as recently as Tuesday, including this defense of the film
written in Arabic: "It is a 100 percent American movie, you cows."
Nakoula,
who talked guardedly with AP about his role, 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 also sentenced to 21 months in
federal prison and was ordered not to use computers or the Internet for
five years without approval from his probation officer.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Jennifer Leigh Williams said Nakoula set up fraudulent
bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers; then,
checks from those accounts would be deposited into other bogus accounts
from which Nakoula would withdraw money at ATM machines.
It
was "basically a check-kiting scheme," the prosecutor told the AP. "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."
Prior
to his bank fraud conviction, Nakoula struggled with a series of
financial problems in recent years, according to California state tax
and bankruptcy records. In June 2006, a $191,000 tax lien was filed
against him in the Los Angeles County Recorder of Deeds office. In 1997,
a $106,000 lien was filed against him in Orange County.
American
actors and actresses who appeared in "Innocence of Muslims" issued a
joint statement Wednesday saying they were misled about the project and
alleged that some of their dialogue was crudely dubbed during
post-production.
In the English-language
version of the trailer, direct references to Muhammad appear to be the
result of post-production changes to the movie. Either actors aren't
seen when the name "Muhammad" is spoken in the overdubbed sound, or they
appear to be mouthing something else as the name of the prophet is
spoken.
"The entire cast and crew are
extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," said the
statement, obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "We are 100 percent not
behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose.
We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were
told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have
occurred."
One of the actresses, Cindy Lee
Garcia, told KERO-TV in Bakersfield that the film was originally titled
"Desert Warriors" and the script did not contain offensive references to
Islam.
"When I found out this movie had
caused all this havoc, I called Sam and asked him why, what happened,
why did he do this? I said, 'Why did you do this to us, to me and to
us?' And he said, 'Tell the world that it wasn't you that did it, it was
me, the one who wrote the script, because I'm tired of the radical
Muslims running around killing everyone,'" she said.
Garcia said the director, who called himself Sam Bacile, told her then that he was Egyptian.
The
man identifying himself as Bacile told the AP he was an Israeli-born,
56-year-old Jewish writer and director. But a Christian activist
involved in the film project, Steve Klein, told the AP on Wednesday that
Bacile was a pseudonym and that the man was Christian. Klein had told
the AP on Tuesday that the filmmaker was an Israeli Jew who was
concerned for family members who live in Egypt.
About
15 key players from the Middle East â?? people from Syria, Iraq,
Turkey, Pakistan and Iran, and a couple of Coptic Christians from Egypt
â?? worked on the film, Klein said.
"Most of them won't tell me their real names because they're terrified," Klein said.
An
official of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Los Angeles said in a
statement Thursday that the church's adherents had no involvement in the
"inflammatory movie about the prophet of Islam." An official identified
as Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Orthodox of Los Angeles, said that
"the producers of this movie should be responsible for their actions.
The name of our blessed parishioners should not be associated with the
efforts of individuals who have ulterior motives."
The
Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said Klein is a
former Marine and longtime religious-right activist who has helped
train paramilitary militias at a California church. It described Klein
as founder of Courageous Christians United, which conducts protests
outside abortion clinics, Mormon temples and mosques.
Google
Inc., which owns YouTube, pulled down the video Wednesday in Egypt,
citing a legal complaint. It was still accessible in the U.S. and other
countries.
Associated Press