[Vision2020] Concerned California Muslims Reported FBI Plant To The FBI

[Tom Hansen]

"Now, from The Washington Post, comes the story of Craig Monteilh, a
self-proclaimed FBI informant who was so aggressive in his quest to find
potential terrorists at a California mosque that the community got a
restraining order against him."

Courtesy of Talking Points Memo at:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/wapo_concerned_california_muslims_reported_fbi_pla.php

---------------------------------------------------------

WaPo: Concerned California Muslims Reported FBI Plant To The FBI

Questions about entrapment have dogged counter-terrorism cases for some
time, most recently in the case of the Oregon man charged with trying to
blow up a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony. Now, from The Washington Post,
comes the story of Craig Monteilh, a self-proclaimed FBI informant who was
so aggressive in his quest to find potential terrorists at a California
mosque that the community got a restraining order against him.

The fallout so far includes the unraveling of one terror case, the fraying
of FBI-Muslim relations in California, and a lawsuit brought against the
FBI by Monteilh, who says the agency conspired to have him arrested.

The Post reports that Monteilh, an ex-con once convicted of forging bank
notes, started working as an FBI informant in 2003. Anonymous law
enforcement sources told the Post that "Monteilh was promoted from drug
and bank robbery cases because his information was reliable and had led to
convictions." In 2006, he was asked to infiltrate the Islamic Center of
Irvine, which draws as many as 2,000 people for Friday prayers. From the
Post:

Law enforcement sources said that the FBI trained Monteilh and that he
aided an existing investigation. Monteilh, however, said he was ordered to
randomly surveil and spy on Muslims to ferret out potential terrorists.
Agents, he said, provided his cover: Farouk al-Aziz, a French Syrian in
search of his Islamic roots. His code name was "Oracle."
Just months before Monteilh arrived at the mosque, the then-head of the
FBI's Los Angeles office spoke at the mosque and reassured members that
the Bureau would not monitor them without notice.

"If we're going to mosques to come to services, we will tell you," J.
Stephen Tidwell told the congregation. "The FBI will tell you we're coming
for the very reason that we don't want you to think you're being
monitored. We would come only to learn."

But Monteilh says he was sent in unannounced. Mosque members told the Post
that Monteilh's "Western clothes gave way to an Islamic robe." He attended
prayers five times a day, and waited in the parking lot before 5 am
prayers. People noticed that he often left his car keys lying around the
mosque. Inside the car remote on the key chain was a recording device.
Monteilh claims the FBI told him to date Muslim women if it would help
discover information.

In May 2007, Monteilh recorded a conversation in a car with worshiper
Ahmadullah Sais Niazi and another man, in which Monteilh suggested blowing
up buildings and Niazi agreed. A federal grand jury would later indict
Niazi, but just a few days after the conversation, he and the unnamed
third man contacted Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles
chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"They said Farouk had told them he had access to weapons and that they
should blow up a mall,'' Ayloush recalled. "They were convinced this man
was a terrorist."

Ayloush reported the FBI's own informant to the FBI. He said agents
interviewed Niazi, who gave them the same account, but the agency took no
action against Monteilh.

Still, Monteilh's mission was collapsing. Members of the mosque told its
leaders that they were afraid of Monteilh and that he was "trying to
entrap them into a mission," according to Asim Khan, the former mosque
president. The mosque went to Orange County Superior Court in June 2007
and obtained a restraining order against Monteilh, court records show.

After that, Monteilh says agents wanted to "cut me loose." He then
threatened to go public, and says an FBI supervisor threatened him with
arrest. At a later meeting, Monteilh says he signed a non-disclosure
agreement in exchange for $25,000.

In December 2007, Monteilh, who says he made a tax-free $177,000 over a 15
month span working for the FBI, was arrested on a grand-theft charge and
went to jail for 16 months. In January 2010, Monteilh sued the bureau,
claiming the Irvine police and the FBI conspired to have him arrested, and
also let his informant status slip in prison, where he was stabbed. A
judge tossed Monteilh's original suit, but then allowed him to file an
amended complaint, which is still pending.

In February 2009, Niazi was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of
lying about his ties to terrorists on immigration documents, according to
the Post.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot said: "Frankly, there is no amount
of bail or equity in a home that can protect the citizens of this
community [from Niazi]." Sources told the Post much of the evidence
against Niazi came from Monteilh.

Then Monteilh went public with his role as an informant. He even sought
out Niazi's attorneys. Finally, on Sept. 30, prosecutors moved to dismiss
the case.

"They got a guy, a bona fide criminal, and obviously trained him and sent
him to infiltrate mosques," Shakeel Syed, executive director of the
Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, told the Post. "And when
things went sour, they ditched him and he got mad. It's like a soap opera,
for God's sake."

---------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown