Video maker blamed for Benghazi remains jailed

But term has nothing to do with sparking Muslims to demonstrate

By Dave Tombers
Published May 8, 2013 at 9:43pm

It was no less than President Obama who blamed the Benghazi terror attack on an obscure video trailer posted on the Internet called "Innocence of Muslims."

And it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who promised the father of one of the Americans killed that she would see to it that the person who made the video was arrested and prosecuted.

That claim came from Joe Woods, the father of slain Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who spoke with Clinton when the body of his son arrived in the U.S. from Benghazi.

Woods said Obama also spoke with him at the ceremony but was "totally insincere."

"His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder," he said, "like he could not look me in the eye. … totally insincere … more of a whining type of 'I'm sorry.'"

He said Clinton also came over to talk.

"She did not appear to be one bit sincere at all. She mentioned that thing about we're going to have that person arrested and prosecuted who did the video."

So what about that filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula?

He's been in jail since the controversy erupted, officially for reasons unrelated to his "offense" against Islam.

A lawyer for the filmmaker told WND his client was serving time for a probation violation and is scheduled to be released this fall from a prison in Latoona, Texas.

The issue was all over Twitter, where one person commented, "It's crystal clear that the terrorists who killed four Americans in Benghazi weren't spurred on by an anti-Islam video, despite what administration officials wanted the public to believe. But nearly eight months after the attacks, 'Innocence of Muslims' filmmaker Makoula Basseley Nakoula still languishes in prison."

Critics of the Obama administration point out that a year in jail for a probation violation appears out of the ordinary.

Find out why the left behaves as it does, in "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder."

The Associated Press has reported the man behind the video had violated a probation order and acquired a driver's license under a false name.

He had been on probation in a bank fraud case.

The plea agreement accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder last fall put Nakoula behind bars, but none of the offenses was related to "Innocence of Muslims," which portrays the founder of Islam as a religious fraud and pedophile.

The New York Times called the video "crude" and said it depicted Muhammad as "a bloodthirsty, philandering thug."

The newspaper described Nakoula, 55, as "a Coptic Christian born in Egypt."

The Obama administration clung for weeks to the story that it was Muslims upset over the video who spontaneously rioted in Benghazi, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice made the claim on five morning news shows the Sunday after the attack.

But the claim was contradicted by Mohammed Magariaf, president of Libya's National Assembly, who said it had "nothing to do" with the attack. Evidence has mounted ever since that it was an organized attack on the U.S. by a group affiliated with al-Qaida.

A witness at today's House panel hearing on Benghazi, Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, said his jaw dropped when he heard Rice blame the video.

Hicks said the YouTube video was a "non-event" in Libya.

The New York Times said, "Militants interviewed at the scene said they were unaware of the video until a protest in Cairo called it to their attention."

The video was described as an "amateurish project" that might have "disappeared quietly."

WND has reported that a sub-plot to the issue is that the CIA, under Gen. David Petraeus, purportedly was using the Benghazi mission to coordinate U.S. aid to Syrian opposition groups.

WND reported that the U.S. facility in Benghazi was not a consulate and at no point functioned as one, according to informed Middle East security officials.

Instead, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi served as a meeting place to coordinate aid for the rebel-led insurgencies in the Middle East, the security officials said.

Among the tasks performed inside the building was collaborating with Arab countries on the recruitment of fighters – including jihadists – to target Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

Furthering the story, WND reported claims that Paula Broadwell, the alleged mistress of Petraeus, revealed a secret CIA detention center in Benghazi in a public speech she gave just weeks after the attack.

Broadwell, a former counter-terrorism operative, co-authored a bestselling biography of Petraeus. She discussed the book in a keynote speech Oct. 26 at a University of Denver alumni symposium.

In a question-and-answer session, Broadwell was asked about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

She stated: "Now I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually had taken a couple of Libya militia members prisoner. And they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that's still being vetted."