Yesterday, I posted an update on the stranger-by-the-day story of “Innocence of Muslims”—the craptacular film trailer (the actual feature may or may not even exist) is blamed for a string of violent attacks by ultra-conservative Muslims, including one in Libya that led to the death of a US ambassador and other US agents at an embassy.
The trailer is sort of like Birth of a Nation meets Bed Intruder meets Team America: World Police.
The story got weirder as news organizations traced the identity of the person, or persons, operating behind the apparent pseudonym of “filmmaker Sam Bacile.” Noah Shachtman at Danger Room digs into public records and finds that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the primary guy using the “Bacile” alias, was arrested in 1997 for manufacturing drugs: angel dust and crystal meth. He has also been convicted of financial fraud charges.
Laura Rozen wonders how it is possible that Nakoula was released from prison one month, and was out directing this schlock-hate-film a month later. Was he an informant? If this is a disinfo job, by whom and to what end?
Meanwhile, Vice digs in a different direction, unearthing documents and raising even more questions about another linked character who uses the name “Robert Brownell.”
I haz a confused.