When it needs to act fast, the FBI can do so. When a YouTube video came to its attention on Friday in San Francisco, the FBI had a Philadelphia man in custody the next day. A reminder to Internet nutjobs: your IP address can and will be used to hunt you down, so posting threatening rants to YouTube is only a good idea if you're looking to get arrested.

The FBI's affidavit gives us a window into how the investigation unfolded, and into just how quickly the Bureau can turn a YouTube link into a home address when necessary.

"I am here with my son, Messiah"

Last Friday, March 26, the San Francisco office of the Bureau "received a copy of a video that had been removed from the Internet website YouTube. The video included images of a white male, later identified as NORMAN LEBOON, making threats against United States Congressman Eric Cantor, 7th Congressional District - Virginia. The video appeared to be homemade and was of good quality. The face of the white male can clearly be seen."

This video was clearly something special; in it, Leboon railed against Cantor's "cupcake evil wife" and called the Congressman "a liar... a lucifer... a pig... an abomination." Pretty over-the-top, especially when Leboon went after Cantor's kids and called them "Lucifer's abominations," then started talking about bullets that "will be placed in your heads."

Leboon did not keep his threats to himself; he has uploaded numerous videos to YouTube, including one that made threats against YouTube itself. Sitting in his bathrobe in front of a webcam, Leboon recorded the piece called "YouTube employees will ALL lose there first born sons" and uploaded it on March 1. In it, he describes himself in a normal tone of voice: "I am the former god with the name of Zeus and Zion and Ra, and I am here, and I am here with my son, Messiah. His name is Atom [Adam?], he is my first Atom [Adam?] ever, and he is all twelve tribes of Israel."

His words for YouTube were direct. "You cannot remove my videos, I have warned you before and you do not listen. YouTube belongs to me, all of it belongs to me. Every company, every building, every home, everything. I created it. It belongs to my son." For taking down his divine words, Leboon then told every YouTube employee that he or she would lose their firstborn son.

515 uploads are currently on Leboon's account; one is titled, "Remove the movie BABE the Pig or I will BURN." Leboon also addresses many of the world's political and spiritual leaders in the rambling videos.

The Philadelphia connection



The next day, March 27, the FBI sent an "Emergency Disclosure Request" by fax to Google, asking for the IP address of the uploader. Google provided the most recent one, an IP address that had been used to access YouTube within the last week.

The FBI then took the address to Verizon and issued an "Emergency Situation Disclosure Request By Law Enforcement." Verizon turned over the subscriber information attached to the IP address during the time in question. It traced to Benner Street in Philadelphia.

The FBI then ran an internal database search for this address, coming up with an active bench warrant against one Norman Leboon. The warrant came from a state court and charged Leboon with "Terroristic Threats with intent to terrorize another, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person."

The FBI compared a Leboon arrest photo with the man in the YouTube videos and had a match. That same day, March 27, law enforcement descended on the Benner Street home, arrested Leboon, and took him down the local FBI office for questioning. Leboon waived his Miranda rights and began speaking.

He told the agents that the video threats against Cantor had been made on his cell phone, then transferred to a home PC and uploaded to YouTube. Leboon admitted that he had made more than 2,000 such videos. Leboon also had some other interesting data for agents, telling them that he is the "son of the god of Enoch" and that "his father speaks through him." Leboon also reiterated his belief that Rep. Cantor is "pure evil," "will be dead," and that "Cantor's family is suffering because of his father's wrath."

Leboon was charged with threatening to kill Cantor.