It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
A man who claimed he’s the creator of an anti-Muslim film that’s sparked violent protests in Libya and Egypt may not be who he says he is.
The mysterious “Sam Bacile” supposedly spoke to The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Times of Israel, claiming to be a California real estate developer and an Israeli Jew who raised $5 million for the film from 100 other nameless Jewish donors.
However, since those stories were published, several cracks in that description have emerged, and now reporters are wondering whether he even exists at all.
In a report for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg spoke to a militant Christian from Riverside, Calif., named Steve Klein, who says he had a consulting role on the film. He cast doubt on Bacile's story.
"I don't know that much about him," Klein said. "I met him, I spoke to him for an hour. He's not Israeli, no. I can tell you this for sure, the state of Israel is not involved, Terry Jones (the Koran-burning radical Christian pastor) is not involved. His name is a pseudonym. All these Middle Eastern folks I work with have pseudonyms. I doubt he's Jewish. I would suspect this is a disinformation campaign."
Jones is tied to the project in that, as a radical pastor, he has begun actively promoting the film, promising to host screenings at his Florida church. He has gained infamy for holding Koran burnings, which caused riots in Afghanistan, and also has hanged President Obama in effigy.
Klein added that he believed that the people funding the project were not Israeli, but from Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt. He added that they probably were Coptic Egyptians and Evangelicals.
Klein told me that Bacile, the producer of the film, is not Israeli, and most likely not Jewish, as has been reported, and that the name is, in fact, a pseudonym. He said he did not know "Bacile"'s real name.
Foreign policy reporter Laura Rozen also noted that Steve Klein, cited by the AP as a consultant on the film, said in 2007 that he had ties to the Coptic Christian community in Egypt, an often persecuted minority group. “And there were some hints that Bacile may be a pseudonym, possibly for someone affiliated with the Egyptian Coptic diaspora,” she wrote.
That analysis is supported by U.S. sources who say the attack on the consulate is believed to have been pre-planned. The sources say the attackers used the protest as a diversion to launch the attack, although the sources could not say if the attackers instigated the protest or merely took advantage of it.
LOS ANGELES — The film that set off violence across North Africa was made in obscurity somewhere in the sprawl of Southern California, and promoted by a network of right-wing Christians with a history of animosity directed toward Muslims. When a 14-minute trailer of it — all that may actually exist — was posted on YouTube in June, it was barely noticed. Related Libya Attack Brings Challenges for U.S. (September 13, 2012) The Lede Blog: Latest Updates on Rage Over Anti-Islam Film (September 12, 2012) For Veteran Envoy, Return to Libya Was Full of Hope (September 13, 2012) A Challenger’s Criticism Is Furiously Returned (September 13, 2012) Afghan Leader Condemns Anti-Islam Film (September 13, 2012) Russians Say Anti-U.S. Attack in Libya Vindicates Their Position (September 13, 2012) American Muslim Leaders Condemn Attacks (September 13, 2012) World Twitter Logo. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors But when the video, with its almost comically amateurish production values, was translated into Arabic and reposted twice on YouTube in the days before Sept. 11, and promoted by leaders of the Coptic diaspora in the United States, it drew nearly one million views and set off bloody demonstrations. The history of the film — who financed it; how it was made; and perhaps most important, how it was translated into Arabic and posted on YouTube to Muslim viewers — was shrouded Wednesday in tales of a secret Hollywood screening; a director who may or may not exist, and used a false name if he did; and actors who appeared, thanks to computer technology, to be traipsing through Middle Eastern cities. One of its main producers, Steve Klein, a Vietnam veteran whose son was severely wounded in Iraq, is notorious across California for his involvement with anti-Muslim actions, from the courts to schoolyards to a weekly show broadcast on Christian radio in the Middle East. Yet as much of the world was denouncing the violence that had spread across the Middle East, Mr. Klein — an insurance salesman in Hemet, Calif., a small town two hours east of here — proclaimed the video a success at portraying what he has long argued was the infamy of the Muslim world, even as he chuckled at the film’s amateur production values.
Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.
The person who actually plants the bomb or assassinates the public official is not the stochastic terrorist, they are the "missile" set in motion by the stochastic terrorist. The stochastic terrorist is the person who uses mass media as their means of setting those "missiles" in motion.
Here's the mechanism spelled out concisely:
The stochastic terrorist is the person who uses mass media to broadcast memes that incite unstable people to commit violent acts.
One or more unstable people responds to the incitement by becoming a lone wolf and committing a violent act. While their action may have been statistically predictable (e.g. "given the provocation, someone will probably do such-and-such"), the specific person and the specific act are not predictable (yet).
The stochastic terrorist then has plausible deniability: "Oh, it was just a lone nut, nobody could have predicted he would do that, and I'm not responsible for what people in my audience do."
That might be the case here, the film and it's alleged makers, were just "Stochastic Terrorists" hoping to incite some form of violent reaction, but that doesn't quite jibe with the intelligence thinking the attacks were pre-planned, and too-well coordinated with the inflammatory media blitz in Egypt. These "Stochastic Terrorists" may have been more involved with a "planned response" designed to be blamed on others.
thats a good point,i didnt think about the money. i believe this is a psy-op, to further raise the tensions in the middle east and the even the western countries in order to justify the continuing destruction , rape and plundering of the planet and its natural resources to further the "elites" disgusting lust for the power of life and death.. how ever, I find the thought of any one committing violence in the name of peace complete @#@ holes. and any one who stands up under tyranny and hate to profess their love and sympathy to those who commit the violence uplifting. this was in reply to patrickgarrow post on the 5 million being for p.r.
Originally posted by mike dangerously
An interesting read,OP s&f! Stochastic Terrorism is an interesting theory.Who would gain from this? Israel and a small network of fanatical Coptic Christians and the Military-Industrial-Security Complex.There is more to this then meets the eye.
Update at 7:27 p.m. ET. Calif. Coptic Christian Confirms Role:
Using the cellphone number they talked to "Sam Bacile," The Associated Press tracked down a man named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, who lived at the address that aligned with cellphone records.
Nakoula denied that he directed the film but admitted that he was the manager for the production company. He also told the AP that he was a Coptic Christian.
The AP notes that Nakoula has a criminal record: He pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges and served 21 months in federal prison.
"Nakoula denied he had posed as Bacile. During a conversation outside his home, he 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 the name 'Basseley' and other connections to the Bacile persona.
"The AP located Bacile after obtaining his cell phone number from Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who had promoted the anti-Muslim film in recent days on his website. Egypt's Christian Coptic population has long decried what they describe as a history of discrimination and occasional violence from the country's Arab majority."
So, if this is true, then a group of Christians, or at least one Christian, eager to slander Muslims have endangered Jews. How so? The story that "Sam Bacile" is an Israeli Jew, with "100 Jewish donors," has spread across the Middle East. It is not possible to withdraw such a story. The onus for violence is on the people who commit violence, of course. But if true, this fiction that the anti-Muhammad movie was a Jewish production is cowardly and despicable. Alas, "Sam Bacile" could not have spread the apparent fiction that Jews were behind this film without the help of the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal, which both reported, without independently checking, "Sam Bacile"s claim to be Israeli.
His outing solidified growing evidence that members of Egypt's Coptic diaspora, who complain of persecution by Egypt's Muslim majority, were behind the making and promotion of the video.