New York Times interview with Innocence of Muslims filmmaker raises question about YouTube channel

There was an interesting tidbit found toward the end of a 6-page article written by Serge Kovaleski and Brooks Barnes of the New York Times - in which the two reporters revealed the contents of their interview with Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man behind the Innocence of Muslims video. Until now, it was only assumed that the Sam Bacile YouTube channel belonged to the filmmaker.

According to Kovaleski and Barnes, the person responsible for creating and maintaining the YouTube account is Nakoula's twenty one year-old son, Abanob Nakoula:

On July 2, the trailer was posted on YouTube by someone using the name Sam Bacile. Mr. Nakoula’s son said he was the one who did it.

“My dad is not tech-savvy at all, and does not know how to work social media,” Abanob Nakoula said. “So he asked me to take the initiative to spread the word, and I did my best.”

He explained that using the name Sam Bacile, he created a Facebook account before production started and then the YouTube account.

Now that we know who is responsible for the YouTube account, how about some questions about content?

This screenshot was captured on October 5, 2012 (converted from tiff to jpeg on November 28th). At the time, it was the only video found under the channel's "Likes" tab. The video consists of an interview between a woman from the U.K. who had converted to Islam and an Arabic-speaking man. The woman is effusive in her praise of Islam. The video has since disappeared from the Sam Bacile YouTube account:

Here is a screenshot of the YouTube page today. Note, there are no more "Likes" on the page (the video is no longer posted):

This is the video once liked by who is now believed to be Abanob, based on what can logically be deduced from the New York Times piece:

The question it'd be nice to know the answer to is:

Why would someone so anti-Islam "like" a very pro-Islam video?

A logical follow-up question would be:

What made Abanob "un-Like" the video?

Questions about this YouTube account have been raised before.

Video: Morning Joe panel laughs over joke about Lindsey Graham being homosexual

A little over two years ago, William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) made news at a Tea Party when he demanded that Senator Lindsey Graham 'come out of the log cabin closet', a not-so-subtle charge that the senior Senator from South Carolina is a homosexual. Feeding that rumor has likely been Graham's status as an older, unmarried man.

Enter the Morning Joe crew. This morning, during their 6am airing of the show, guest John Heilemann referred to the 'three amigos' (John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte) as being made up of two women, an obvious jab at Graham over the rumors.

Consider...

1. MSNBC is a known ventriloquist dummy for the White House; that is much more well known than what Graham's sexual preference is.
2. Indications are that the three Senators were expected to play nice in their meeting with Susan Rice less than twenty-four hours before Heilemann's comment. It didn't. In fact, Graham said he's more troubled now than he was before the meeting.
3. Whether the rumors about Graham are true or not, the White House could conceivably benefit from someone like Heilemann joking about it. If there's truth to the rumor, the joke could be seen as a shot across the bow. If there's no truth to it, people are talking about it anyway (instead of Rice's credibility).

On the other hand, the 8am re-airing of the program edited this part out.

h/t WZ

Video: Republican Senators not happy after meeting with Susan Rice

Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) is definitely on the rise. As the junior senator from New Hampshire (elected in 2010), she's wading in the deeper waters quite early in her tenure. When it comes to attempts to get answers about Benghazi, she's been out in front and has teamed up with two senior senators (McCain and Graham) who are constantly fighting the moderate label but who are right to demand answers on the Benghazi attack.

In any event, there was a meeting between U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and the three aforementioned senators. Many believed it was going to be smooth-over session but all three senators said afterward that they're more disappointed after the meeting with Rice than they were before the meeting.

Again, the issue is that Rice appeared on five Sunday talk shows on September 16th and blamed the attack on our Benghazi consulate that killed four Americans five days earlier, on a "spontaneous reaction" to the anti-Muhammad video. That charge has proven to be demonstrably false and it's obvious Rice either knew it was false or should have known it was false at the time.

Here is video of McCain, Graham, and Ayotte answering reporters' questions after they had met with Rice.

Via MediaIte: