Seattle Arson Suspect Was Headed To Turkey, First Court Appearance Is Today

According to a court document revealed yesterday, the suspect in the New Year's Eve arson at a packed Seattle gay nightclub was booked for a one-way flight to Turkey when he was arrested on Saturday on his way to the airport. Musab Masmari, 30, is scheduled to make his first court appearance today after a judge yesterday found probable cause to hold him on a charge of first degree arson. Masmari, who was born in Benghazi, Libya, has been arrested five times since May 2013 and police have not yet publicly speculated about his motive for setting the fire.

In related news, anti-Islam blogger Debbie Schlussel, who appears to be a clone of Pam Geller, yesterday claimed that Masmari is an "Obama State Department Arab cultural ambassador." Schluessel points to an article posted in 2011 to the website of Seattle's 911 Media Arts Center.

A delegation of Iraqi journalists and media professionals visited 911 Media Arts Center’s offices yesterday morning as part of an ongoing program through the World Affairs Council and the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). During the meeting 911 Media director Steven Vroom presented the workings of the organization to the group and fielded questions via two Arabic translators. The discussion primarily centered around the financial and practical workings of the organization, particularly the non-profit model in general and the income sources for a charitable new media center in an environment with little to no government funding for the arts. The concept of a community-driven media arts organization, and the idea of empowering individual voices through access and education, in the context of media independent from commercial or political interests was also discussed. Seattle resident Musab Masmari, a Libyan/US citizen, was also in attendance to act as a cultural ambassador on behalf of 911 Media Arts Center for the Arabic speaking visitors.

Schlussel idiotically describes the 911 Media Arts Center as "some sort of Muslim and/or leftist propaganda outfit to make us 'understand' the 'greatness' of Muslims and how they were the real victims of 9/11 terrorism and other dog poop endorsed by both the Obama and Bush Islamo-pandering State Departments." In fact, the 911 Media Arts Center was founded in 1984 and takes its name from the original address of its Seattle office, 911 Pine Street.

Despite Schlussel's nonsense, it will be interesting to learn if the man named in the above article is same man currently in custody. I've written to the 911 Media Arts Center to request further details.

Hillary: Benghazi Is My Biggest Regret

Via Mediaite:

During her Monday morning closing address at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in New Orleans, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named the September 2012 Benghazi attacks as her “biggest regret.” During her Monday morning closing address at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in New Orleans, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named the September 2012 Benghazi attacks as her “biggest regret.” According to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Clinton told the NADA crowd that “My biggest regret is what happened in Benghazi. It was a terrible tragedy losing four Americans.” Clinton took the brunt of public blame for the lack of security and resultant deaths of four Americans during the terrorist siege. During Senate hearings on the matter, Clinton famously pushed back on Sen. Ron Johnson‘s (R-WI) accusations that the administration misled the public on the lead-up to the attacks, telling him, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Headline Of The Day

Headline by Mediaite. Public Policy Polling breaks it down:

One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history is that 39% of them don’t actually know where it is. 10% think it’s in Egypt, 9% in Iran, 6% in Cuba, 5% in Syria, 4% in Iraq, and 1% each in North Korea and Liberia, with 4% not willing to venture a guess.

BENGHAZI HEARING: Secretary Clinton Fires Back At GOP Sen. Ron Johnson

Madame Secretary got fired up at the end!

LIVE: Clinton Testifies On Benghazi

UPDATE: The Senate hearing has concluded and Clinton will testify before the House later today.

Ambassador Susan Rice Withdraws From Secretary Of State Consideration

Responding to the continuing assault upon her handling of the Libyan embassy attack, UN Ambassador Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

“I am fully confident that I could serve our country ably and effectively in that role,” Rice wrote in a letter to President Obama today. “However, if nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly – to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities.” “That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country,” she added.

According to unnamed sources cited by ABC News, the president had already decided that Sen. John Kerry was the better candidate.

President Obama Slams Senators McCain & Graham Over Benghazi Claims

Headline Of The Day

Details.

Obama Visits The Daily Show

God Killed Our Libya Ambassador As A Warning To Heathen Americans

"Like Biblical Israel, America is mired in sin – 1.2 million abortions a year, the assault on God’s institution of marriage, an explosion of pornography, children robbed of their innocence, skyrocketing rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births, the Church persecuted – need I continue? And yet we blithely go on as if there was no connection between this and the way we violate God’s commandments? Too many Americans act as it the Bible’s prophecies are charmingly poetic, but bear no relation to today’s events? How many more 9/11 attacks, how many more wars, how much more turmoil – how many more Benghazis – will it take before we finally begin to make the connection between our behavior as a nation and the horror unfolding before our eyes?" - Rick Scarborough, promoting his ongoing forty days of fasting and prayers in advance of election day.

Libya Makes Arrests Over US Deaths

Initial reports are light on details:

NPR's Dina Temple-Raston says Libyan officials have informed the U.S. that four people are under arrest in connection with the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other embassy staffers on Tuesday. But U.S. officials have yet to interview the detainees, described as "militants" or to verify their involvement in the attack. She says it is also unclear whether those arrested are Libyans or foreigners.

Feds Identify Anti-Islam Filmmaker

Federal investigators have tracked down the man who produced Innocence Of Muslims. As it turns out, he's neither Jewish or Israeli (as he told others), and he's spent time in prison for bank fraud.

A federal law enforcement official said Thursday that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was the man behind ‘‘Innocence of Muslims,’’ a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that sparked protests earlier in the week in Egypt and Libya and now in Yemen. U.S. authorities are investigating whether the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya came during a terrorist attack. Nakoula, who talked guardedly 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 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.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has information about Steve Klein, a spokesman for Nakoula who has appeared on network television several times in the last two days.

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. It quoted Klein as saying he believes that California is riddled with Muslim Brotherhood sleeper cells ‘‘who are awaiting the trigger date and will begin randomly killing as many of us as they can.’’ Klein told the AP he vowed to help make the movie but warned the filmmaker that ‘‘you’re going to be the next Theo van Gogh.’’ Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam. ‘‘We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen,’’ Klein said.

Bolding is motherfucking mine.

Quote Of The Day - Bill Donohue

"Just this week, I wrote a news release explaining why a special jury award was given to a movie at the Venice Film Festival: it shows a woman masturbating with a crucifix. I also issued another release on an upcoming series on FX that portrays a sadistic nun who beats mentally insane patients in an evil Catholic institution. This is what we do at the Catholic League: we are constantly drawing attention to the Catholic bashing that takes place in the arts, the entertainment industry, the media, and elsewhere. Yet no one in the Obama administration has ever expressed the slightest interest in condemning anti-Catholic fare.

"Hollywood specializes in trashing Catholic 'feelings,' yet we hear nothing about it from President Obama. That’s because he has too many friends there. Just last month, Harvey Weinstein, who has produced more anti-Catholic movies than anyone, held a $35,000-per-person dinner in his home for the president. In March, Bill Maher, who is the supreme Catholic basher, wrote a check to Obama’s superPAC for $1 million. Yesterday, when Neil Cavuto on Fox News asked me how to make sense of all this, I said, 'Hollywood respects Jews, fears Muslims and hates Catholics, as well as Evangelicals.' - Catholic League blowhard and pedophile defender Bill Donohue, again turning a national tragedy into a story about himself.

Editorial Cartoon Of The Day

By Bill Schorr.

Gay Porn Actor Tim Dax Talks To Us About His Role In Innocence Of Muslims

After several JMG readers noticed that one of the actors in the infamous Innocence Of Muslims appeared to be the oddly tattooed and occasional gay porn star Tim Dax, I reached out to Dax for an interview, which he declined after confirming his role in the film. He did provide us with this statement via email:

i can tell you i auditioned for a movie called Desert Storm that was about Ancient Warriors. My character was called Sampson on the paper with a few lines I got each day upon arriving on set. We never saw a full script or any lines after the day we shot them. Many questions were asked regarding absurdity of lines and situations. Sam the producer who I believed to be, but not certain as Egyptian. His reply would always to work with what we were given as he wrote the script. The clip that I saw part of today for the first time is questionable as to being my voice. The voice over work is dubious at best. a week and a half of work, 75 bucks a day & lunch. ; ) Can't tell you anymore than that other than I'm am very much NOT anti muslim. one world one love. Tim.

Dax, who describes himself as "straight, but with a twist," appeared in Titan Media's 2008 release Folsom Undercover. He's also been photographed for Michael Alago's popular Rough Gods. Google has removed Innocence Of Muslims from YouTube but below is a screenshot of the clip. The above photo is from Dax's IMDB page.

The Romney Smirk

News outlets yesterday took note of Mitt Romney's smirk of satisfaction as he finished his slam against Obama over the Libya tragedy. [Photo credit]

Editorial Of The Day

From the New York Times:

President Obama’s statement of outrage and his vow to bring the killers to justice received bipartisan support, including from politicians otherwise committed to partisan warfare, like the House speaker, John Boehner, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who rarely misses a chance to attack Mr. Obama.

But not from Mitt Romney, who wants Americans to believe he can be president but showed an extraordinary lack of presidential character by using the murders of the Americans in Libya as an excuse not just to attack Mr. Obama, but to do so in a way that suggested either a dangerous ignorance of the facts or an equally dangerous willingness to twist them to his narrow partisan aims.

Mr. Romney could easily have held his fire during this crisis, if he could not summon the decency to support the United States government. Instead, he misrepresented the administration as “sympathizing” with the attackers. There was no truth in what he said. In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the first official comment on the killings, a strong condemnation, before Mr. Romney released his statement. Even after having a night to reconsider his response, Mr. Romney merely doubled down on his false charges, as he is prone to do.

Libyans Rally To Denounce Attack

More photos here.

Conspiracy Plots Thicken

As the media questions the true identity of the filmmaker whose work is now inflaming much of the Middle East, Right Wing Watch reports on the man whose Arabic blog post first brought the film to attention among Islamic radicals.

Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-American anti-Muslim activist, managed in one week’s time to take an overlooked YouTube video featuring a lame attack on Islam and turn it into a flashpoint with violent extremists, with deadly consequences. [snip] Sadek pulled his Facebook profile around 1 pm today, but we were able to take a look beforehand. Here’s what we found: Sadek is a supporter of ACT! for America, which believes that President Obama has embraced the Muslim Brotherhood. The group rallied its supporters last month behind Michelle Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witch hunt against Huma Abedin and others. [snip] Sadek is a man of many interests. He’s a member of these groups, among many others: Islam is of the Devil, Warriors of Christ, and OBAMA IS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER! Agree?. Sadek is also a fan of the Republican Party, George Bush, Allen West (for president no less!), and number of other Islamophobic, conservative and/or Republican institutions and leaders.

I pulled the above photo from Sadek's Twitter profile.

Right Wing Watch concludes their post with this:

This is not the first time that the actions of extremist Christian activists in America have boiled over in the Middle East. As the New York Times reported in July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s motorcade “was pelted with shoes and tomatoes by Egyptian protesters” motivated by conspiracy theories that “originated with American conservatives” – two of whom, Jerry Boykin and Frank Gaffney, will be speaking at the upcoming Values Voter Summit.

Suspicions Grow Over True Identity Of Anti-Islam Filmmaker "Sam Bacile"

While many news outlets quickly corrected initial reports to point out that crackpot Florida Pastor Terry Jones "only" had a hand in promoting the anti-Islam film now inciting violence across the Middle East, the man that many publications then named as film's producer does not exist.

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. The WSJ reported that he’s 52, but the AP placed his age at 56. Raw Story‘s own inquiries could not find a ”Sam Bacile” linked to any California court filing, which would be highly unusual for a real estate developer. He’s also missing from U.S. genealogy databases and the major social media networks. And yet another wrinkle: Speaking on condition of anonymity, Israeli officials told the AP that they have no record of anyone by that name.

Another man quoted by the Associated Press as a consultant on the film has confessed that "Sam Bacile" does not exist.

“I don’t know that much about him,” he reportedly 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 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.”

Commenters on the above-linked site and many others are now speculating as to whether the entire debacle was staged to damage the Obama campaign. (Tipped by JMG reader David)