Nakoula made a notorious anti-Islam film -- yet he had worked for an Islamic terrorist

Added note: I ask readers to pay special attention to the Eiad Salameh connection, which nails the theory that Nakoula worked for spooks...

Additional added note: Or does it? I've recently received information that places the Nakoula/Salameh linkage in a new light. The claim that Eiad Salameh is a PLO terrorist comes from his cousin Walid -- whom some people (including Chris Hedges) have labeled a serial hoaxer. Walid, like so many of the players in this drama, hails from what we may call the "Pam Geller ring." His accusations against Hilarion Cappucci -- an aged Greek Orthodox cleric -- appear to be spurious.

Still, I have received convincing evidence that Eiad is indeed a crook.

If you're confused -- well, read what follows, and the context should become clear.

Nakoula Nakoula, producer of the film "Innocence of Muslims," has been called in for questioning by the Los Angeles Police Department. This makes sense: The terms of his parole specified that he was not to use the internet without supervision, and he seems to have hopped on the net quite often while posing as "Sam Bacile."

If Nakoula walks, you'll know that the fix is in. On the other hand, keeping him behind bars will keep him away from interviewers.

The really stunning news is that he seems to have been a snitch for the government...

Though many key documents from the U.S. District Court case remain sealed, a June 2010 sentencing transcript provides an account of Nakoula’s cooperation with federal investigators in Los Angeles (and how his prison sentence was reduced as a result).

Nakoula, 55, was arrested in June 2009 for his role in a check-kiting ring that stole nearly $800,000 from six financial institutions by using stolen Social Security numbers and identities. Nakoula was named in a six-count felony indictment accusing him and unnamed “co-schemers” of perpetrating the bank fraud.

Denied bail, Nakoula, a married father of three, was locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in L.A. when he began cooperating with Justice Department lawyers and federal agents. During a series of debriefing sessions, Nakoula provided investigators with a detailed account of the fraud operation and fingered the man who allegedly headed the operation, according to comments made by his lawyer at sentencing.

Nakoula identified the ring’s leader as Eiad Salameh, a notorious fraudster who has been tracked for more than a decade by state and federal investigators. In his debriefings, Nakoula said he was recruited as a “runner” by Salameh, who pocketed the majority of money generated by the bank swindles, according to James Henderson, Nakoula’s attorney.

I hate to sound like one of those guys who interprets all new information as confirmation of a preconceived narrative, but this material really does buttress my theory that Nakoula made a deal with either Mossad, an American intelligence service, or both. The government knew about this guy. They knew he was ready to cut deals. He's not bright enough to run his own show. He works for others.

This is not someone who is going to create a bloody international incident of his own accord.

Eiad Salameh -- Nakoula's former boss -- is probably the same fellow called "Eiad Salameh Shu’aybat" here and here. This Eiad Salameh is accused of the same type of fraud that landed Nakoula in jail. Moreover, the author of the afore-linked piece mentions that Eiad is wanted by the LAPD. That detail is congruent with the "Smoking Gun" story excerpted above.

Although much remains hazy, it seems that Salameh is a Muslim accused of funding terrorism.

Eiad was well connected with Hilarion Cappucci, a Christian Syrian born terrorist, and a major explosives smuggler...

Eiad had disclosed to my brother Farid years ago of his intention to work with Cappucci to smuggle explosives via buses with welded covered compartments. Eiad continually received mal from Tunisia while he was linked with the P.L.O.

I don't know what "mal" is, but the rest seems clear enough. Nakoula's relationship with this guy surely would have put him on the radar of both Mossad and the American intelligence establishment.

The obvious question: If Nakoula really hates Muslims so much, then why was he so tight with a guy like Salameh? Hell, with anyone named Salameh?

Another obvious question: If Nakoula is willing to work with an anti-Israel terrorist, then why does his movie go out of its way to proclaim Judaism superior to Islam?

Wired reports that the 2009 bust was Nakoula's third. In 1997, he was nabbed for selling watered-down gasoline; in 1997, he was making PCP and meth. Y'know what's odd about this? California has a "three strikes and you're out" law...

It's one of the harshest sentencing schemes in the country and a law that can send people convicted of even nonviolent offenses to prison for life.

Just ask Leandro Andrade. The father of three languishes in California state prison with two consecutive life sentences for shoplifting nine children's videos on two occasions in November 1995...

Nakoula should be in jail for the rest of his life. Yet he was sentenced to 21 months for ripping off $800,000 -- and he served only a year.

Yeah. Just try to convince me that that isn't suspicious.

Then this same crook immediately went into the movie-making business (about which he knew nothing). His partners were quite a bizarre crew: Jimmy Israel (a shady real estate operator), Steve Klein (a "patriot" fanatic with spooky connections), Morris Sadek (part of the Pam Geller crowd and a likely Mossad asset) and Joseph Nasrallah Abdelmasih (ditto). Oh -- and somehow, Nakoula managed to secure the services of a well-connected lawyer named James Henderson, who was accused of having organized crime connections by the same informant who accurately told the FBI in February, 2001 that Osama Bin Laden was going to crash jets into the World Trade Center.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Klein used the film's one midnight screening as "bait" in a bizarre anti-terrorist sting. Klein showed up to that party in disguise.

On top of all of that is the discomforting fact that when the spotlight first hit him, Nakoula nervously blurted out that his film was funded by Israeli money.

If none of this seems spooky to you, your spookmeter is broken.

Incidentally: There's an interview with Jimmy Israel here. Israel minimizes his participation in the film -- unconvincingly, in my opinion. One slip seems telling:

Israel, who identifies as a "pacifist" liberal with no affiliation to organized religions, and who claims to have no strong opinions about Islam, despite having heard some "alarming" things about the Quran at "seminars," says he supports freedom of religion and expression.

"Seminars"? What kind of irreligious pacifist liberal goes to "seminars" (plural) which discuss the origins of the Quran in negative terms?

Jimmy, who admits that his film had no commercial prospects, also let something else slip out...

Likewise, I can't be sure that this isn't part of some larger deception — anything from a prank to some kind of bizarre intelligence operation. It's phenomenally strange.

"Some kind of bizarre intelligence operation." If Jimmy Israel, who worked on the damned movie, is thinking along those lines, then so may we.