Kill the messenger (and cut off his head): film director dismembered for blaming U.S.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

A U.S. film producer has successfully used a "patriotism" defense to plea-bargain his murder and dismemberment of an Afghan-American film director, who worked with the producer but made the mistake of blaming the U.S. for 9/11.

The producer received a manslaughter conviction, after prosecutors reduced the charges via a plea bargain this week.

Related articles follow.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/homefront020124.html

Patriotism Defense

Lawyer Says Patriotism Motivated Killing

M I N E O L A, N.Y. , Jan. 24 2002 — The lawyer for a Queens film producer charged with fatally stabbing and dismembering an Afghan-American filmmaker said Wednesday that his client was motivated in part by patriotism after the terrorist attacks.

Nathan Powell, 38, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and evidence tampering in the Oct. 4 slaying of Jawed Wassel, 42. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday in Nassau County Court.

Powell, who was the primary investor in Wassel's most recent film, allegedly killed the filmmaker and dismembered his body with a hacksaw, placing his head in the refrigerator of his home.

Police said the two men disagreed on how to divide earnings from the film, FireDancer, and that Powell killed Wassel during a dispute over money just before the film's opening.

Powell's lawyer, Thomas F. Liotti, said Wednesday that his client was angered when Wassel blamed the U.S. for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Liotti said Powell was schizophrenic and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following the attacks. He also said Powell acted in self defense after Wassel lifted a machete during their argument.

Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Fred Klein called the defense an "insult" to the families of those who died in the terrorist attacks.

— The Associated Press

http://www.asianweek.com/2002_02_01/news_murder.html

Afghan American Filmmaker May Have Been Murdered in the Name of Patriotism

By Associated Press

A film producer accused of stabbing an Afghan American filmmaker to death in New York was motivated in part by the filmmaker’s criticism of the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, a defense lawyer said.

Nathan Powell, 38, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of second-degree murder and evidence tampering in the Oct. 3 slaying of Jawed Wassel, 42.

Powell, the primary investor in Wassel’s film FireDancer, allegedly killed the filmmaker and dismembered his body with a hacksaw, placing his head in his refrigerator.

Police said they pulled over Powell’s van the day after the slaying because he was driving erratically, and found body parts, a shovel and hacksaw blades.

Police said Powell killed Wassel during an argument over how to divide earnings from the film, just as it was opening.

But defense attorney Thomas F. Liotti said Powell became angry when Wassel blamed the United States for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Powell was schizophrenic and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following the attacks, Liotti said. He also said Powell acted in self-defense after Wassel lifted a machete during their argument.

Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Fred Klein called the defense an “insult” to the families of those who died in the attacks. Prosecutors also said Wassel was a loyal American who helped the FBI by giving information on Afghanistan.

Wassel spent six years working on FireDancer, his autobiographical story of an Afghan youth who eventually leaves his village and settles in New York.

Wassel was smuggled out of Afghanistan by his mother after the Soviet invasion of 1979, living in Pakistan, Germany and France before coming to New York.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attack, Wassel went around the city filming the various victims’ memorials for a documentary titled New York Shrines.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=413385

The Independent

US film producer pleads guilty to beheading his own director

By David Usborne in New York

08 June 2003

Three weeks after a first screening of his film about an Afghan refugee navigating western culture in America, producer Nathan Powell finds himself in prison this weekend after pleading guilty to killing his director and stuffing his severed head in a freezer.

Powell pleaded guilty on manslaughter charges before a Long Island judge last week to avoid trial. His lawyers had been preparing to argue an insanity defence, citing stress after the 11 September attacks in New York and allegations that the victim, Jawed Wassel, had voiced sympathy for the Taliban regime.

Mr Wassel was an Afghan himself, and the film, Firedancer, was the first from Afghanistan ever to be considered for an Academy Award nomination. But its impact on critics has been eclipsed by the drama of the bloody killing and the mystery surrounding what drove the perpetrator to commit it.

Prosecutors expressed outrage at the notion of exploiting the twin towers attack as a reason for killing someone. And on announcing the guilty plea, Powell's lawyer, Thomas Liotti, tried to put the record straight. "Mr Powell wants it to be very clear that he was not in any way taking advantage of 9/11," he said.

The fatal frenzy appears to have been sparked in part by a business disagreement in Powell's Queens apartment on 3 October 2001. Powell told the New York Post from his prison cell that he first struck Mr Wassel with a pool cue. "I grabbed a knife and I stabbed him in the back as he was kneeling. Then I hit him again in the head with the stick. There was blood all over my daughter's toys and books."

Earlier, however, Powell told police that Mr Wassel had visited Afghanistan just before the 2001 terror attack and that he had later said what had happened was America's "just deserts". He also claimed that Mr Wassel had threatened to have Powell's wife and children killed by the Taliban. A jury might not have been convinced, however. Prosecutors later revealed that Mr Wassel had given the US authorities 80 hours of film showing roads and mountain passes in his native country to help American intelligence to plan their subsequent invasion of Afghanistan.

Powell was stopped by police while he was driving in Long Island in the early hours of 4 October with his headlights switched off. They found blood-smeared boxes, with the body parts of his victim inside. But the head was missing. It was later found in the freezer at Powell's home. Powell told the Post that police asked him, "Where is the friggin' head?" He apparently replied, "I have no idea."

The last-minute decision to plead guilty, thus short-circuiting the possibility of a more serious second-degree murder conviction, came after Powell concluded he would not get a fair hearing. "I feel I would have gotten a more fair chance on trial in Afghanistan than here," he complained. As part of the plea deal, he will get a 20-year sentence, but is likely to serve only five years.

It took Mr Wassel six years to put together his film, based on his own unpublished autobiographical novel. It tells of a 20-something Afghan-American artist, orphaned during the Afghan-Soviet war in 1980, who comes to New York where he struggles to reconcile his roots with his new surroundings.

The film caused a stir when it was screened to an eager audience in Kabul's battered stadium last September. When people started to gather around the projector to protest against scenes of women in "immodest" attire, an associate director, Vida Zaher-Khadem, was forced to hold a coat in front of the projector whenever images came up that were likely to offend.

It was an American producer who later suggested that the work could win the foreign film category at the Oscars. But it was never nominated, and its first American showing, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last month, was understandably overshadowed by the lurid events involving its makers.

[Art]

We need to get you two guys together ASF .

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Originally posted by Art

We need to get you two guys together ASF .

Now that's funny. :laugh:

[chiefhogskin48]

Positive energy, ASF, positive energy. Where's the real outrage in this, anyways? It's not like there was any sympathy for this sad justification for murder.

[PCS]

Oooooookay. So a U.S. film producer, with no ties to the CIA or Bush administration...yet , with questionable sanity kills and dismembers some poor Afghan film director, (a nasty financial dispute apparently), and his lawyers try the 9/11 defense. Dispicable. However, when called on it by prosecuters, (again no link to the Bush administration or Israel....yet ), and others, they in essence bail on that defense. Then promptly go with the settle for the lighter offense because the punishment isn't nearly as stiff thing and going to trial was something to be avoided. guys going to do 20. He should be worse off than that but a conviction was made. Big deal. the only crime here would be if the poor Afghan guy's family doesn't see any money made from the film.

[AdmiralWaugh]

Wow, what insanity! Especially for a good 'ol Republican like me who would probably rather have those kinds of criminals off the streets...

[aREDSKIN]

Defense Lawyers= Some of the best fictional story tellers are country has. Hey it's their job.

[TennesseeCarl]

Everyone hates defense attorneys.....right up until they or their loved ones are accused of something.

[NavyDave]

Actually they were gay partners and Nathan was determined to get some head:rolleyes: :puke: :doh:

[redman]

He plea bargained, ASF. There was no trial, and so there was no acceptance (or rejection) of this theory about patriotism that had been floated by his attorney. You and the news reports, have no grounds to say that the plea bargain came about "because of" the defense patriotism theory.

[Riggo-toni]

Originally posted by NavyDave

Actually they were gay partners and Nathan was determined to get some head:rolleyes: :puke: :doh:

:laugh: :laugh: