Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, otherwise known by his criminal alias, Sam Bacille, has been arrested federal agents, and he's being held without bail.

Why?  Well, isn't it obvious?  Violation of parole.  But it could he committed bank fraud, too -- the media's been focusing on that a lot.  Or because he's a flight risk.  Or because he's just an all-around bad dude, and him being off the streets will make the public safer.  Take your pick.  But it was definitely not because he made a movie that has offended Muslims and for which Obama has repeatedly apologized to the world.  The feds can't make a legal case for that.   

The Smoking Gun reports here with a little more vague honesty:

The producer of the controversial anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims" has been arrested for violating terms of his probation and is set for an appearance today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

[...]

Investigators have not yet provided details about how Nakoula allegedly violated probation, but it seems clear that his involvement in the "Innocence of Muslims" production is central to the government's new charge.

I'll be honest.  The guy's no saint, and the media's gone out of its way trying to convince me of that fact.  Yeah, he was arrested in 2009 for his part as a runner in a check-kiting ring.  Yeah, he was a government snitch and got his sentence reduced.  Yeah, it's possible that he cheated some of the investors who supposedly contributed $5 million to the production of his terrible film.  And yeah, he violated his parole by using the internet and an alias. 

I get it.  But I just can't shake this uncomfortable feeling that I've seen it before.  There's something about all of this that just smacks of a Capone-type situation.  Sure, Capone was arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for tax evasion.  But we all know that wasn't the real reason the feds beat down his door.  We all know that Capone didn't really attract all that federal interest and media attention because he was a tax cheat.  We know that the G-men popped him for something else, and we all know what that "something else" was.

The difference?  For Sam Bacille, that "something else" is not a crime.

William Sullivan blogs at: http://politicalpalaverblog.blogspot.com and can be followed on Twitter.