Calif. filmmaker: I won't return to besieged home
(AP) LOS ANGELES - A Southern California filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie inflaming protests across the Middle East was interviewed Saturday by federal probation officers at a Los Angeles sheriff's station, authorities said.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed for about half an hour at the station shortly after 12 a.m. in his hometown of Cerritos, Calif., said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County sheriff's department.
After that, deputies dropped Nakoula off at an undisclosed location.
"He is gone. We don't know where he went," Whitmore said. "He said he is not going back to his home."
Feds question possible anti-Muslim filmmaker
Dozens protest at U.S. Embassy in Paris
Al Qaeda calls for more attacks on embassies
Federal officials are investigating whether Nakoula, who has been convicted of financial crimes, has violated the terms of his five-year probation. If so, a judge could send him back to prison.
Nakoula went voluntarily to the station, wearing a coat, hat, scarf and glasses that concealed his appearance. His home has been besieged by media for several days.
Whitmore said Nakoula was not handcuffed and the heavy apparel was his idea.
The probation department is reviewing the case of Nakoula, who pleaded no contest to bank fraud charges in 2010 and was banned from using computers or the Internet or using false identities as part of his sentence. Whitmore did not disclose other details about the interview.
Federal authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind "Innocence of Muslims," a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Middle East.
Much of the film was shot inside the offices of Media for Christ, a nonprofit based in the Los Angeles-area city of Duarte. The charity raised more than $1 million last year "to glow Jesus' light" to the world.
The Riverside County man who was a script advisor to the film and who has a long history of anti-Islamic activism told the Press-Enterprise newspaper that he has received multiple death threats.
"I'm really tired," Steven Klein said when he answered the door of his home in Hemet, Calif., Friday with a pistol in his hand and clad only in a pair of white shorts stained with what appeared to be ink spots.
The newspaper said Klein, a Vietnam veteran, appeared agitated. While waving the gun, he told the newspaper he was standing up for his First Amendment rights in helping with the film and said he is prepared to die for those rights.
A federal law enforcement official said authorities had connected Nakoula to a man using the pseudonym of Sam Bacile who claimed earlier to be writer and director of the film.
Violent protests set off by the film in Libya played a role in mob attacks in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials. Demonstrations against American missions have since spread to several other countries.
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For all of us who believe in the freedom of the press & speech, we should also be smart enough enough to use our freedoms wisely. As the old saying goes, DON'T POKE THE BEAR!! These bears (Muslims) are absolutley nuts and we have freindlies inside their cages. You poked the bear and now we pay the price for your stupidity.
If the so-called "Muslim Brotherhood" is elected through the very democratic processes we forced upon them, then those who cannot accept the result can go suck rotten eggs.
So what if it turns against Israel? That is Israel's problem, not ours. Perhaps they should consider not being so hostile against the indigenous peoples in that area.
And I don't mean "show" racism, but actually make directly racist statements against "whitey".
I have often invited you to show how anything I have posted was not truth, backed up by facts, you have consistently failed to do so.
That point notwithstanding, I find it funny how your ilk seems to imply that we should simply accept all the hate you and your ancestors have directed, and continue to direct towards us, and not resist it. It is as funny as it is impossible
I was raised to NEVER see skin color as any more important than eye color. Go fish, junior.
Your implication that you consider yourself "white" and thus take offense at what I say, simply proves that you are indeed part of the problem.
1. Release many photos of him
2. His residential address
3. His exact where about
This way, we are not dragged down to his inhumane level, and to those contemplating supporting other such miscreants, we would offer the boycotts as a cautionary tale.
The idiot poked the hornets' nest with a 6000 mile-long stick.
The point no one is asking, what is the motive for provoking the hornets?
The only logical answer, to use the response as justification to call for genocide against the hornets.
So how is that not hate? Given the lies contained in the video, how is it not blind hate?
Your paragraph about extremists is indeed valid, but that assertion must also include those Americans, like Bush, et. al., as well as these idiots, as well as the fake "pastor" of the Florida Quran-burning church who, after all, formulated ways and false justifications to murder thousands of innocent Afghanistanis and Iraqis, and therefore also fit your characterization of being a terrorizing menace.
After all, what is the concept of "shock and awe", if not terrorism?
I say the world has no room for extremists of any religious stripe, or even of no religious stripe, if we condemn one, we must condemn all, even our own.
Should Bush and co. also be eradicated? I am never going to advocate the death of anyone in my name, unless they attack me personally, and there is no other way to end the attack, but I say that all terrorists, including Bush and his clan, should be held responsible for their crimes.
It is all too common to see "Americans" condemning people for resisting American hostilities towards them. This is nothing new, the "Injuns" were condemned because they fought back the US incursion and genocide, today they would be called "terrorists" by those committing hostile acts against them, just as Muslims are called today, and just as "black" Americans have been.
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Honestly, you seem fairly intelligent, but I've seen you actually show racism towards white people. The above isn't an example of such, but just reminded me of the actual direct hate you have toward white people.
But Rushdie is still alive and healthy after all these years.
I do think this idiot will survive also.
Van Gogh was indeed killed, but if you know of the consequences of your acts, and still choose to act, then it is on your own head.