Middle East

Man claims he spied on Islamic community in California for FBI

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-01 17:27

LOS ANGELES: A self-proclaimed undercover FBI informant on Monday said he was trained by the agency to spy on the Islamic community in Southern California.

"My mission was to engage Muslims in conversations about "jihad fi sabi lala (fighting in the cause of Allah).' I was instructed to carefully learn and memorize much of the Quran and Hadith, and update myself on sensitive political topics," Craig Monteilh said outside the courtroom at the West Covina Superior Court.

Monteilh, who also maintains that the FBI withheld $100,000 owed to him, is suing the agency for $10 million, claiming his bureau handlers wrongfully allowed him to get arrested and convicted on felony charges resulting from a federal sting operation.

Monteilh was convicted of fraud and grand theft and served a prison sentence for conning two women out of more than $157,000.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Monteilh are seeking sealed court records showing that Monteilh's probation for a 2002 grand theft conviction was terminated early as part of a deal with the FBI, in exchange for his work as an informant.

Monteilh claimed that he was an FBI informant from July 2006 until October 2007 and "provided invaluable information in a pending investigation" into the Islamic community.

Monteilh claimed that he posed as a Muslim convert and learned to read, write and speak Arabic.

"I would then carefully and skillfully converse with Muslims using this newfound knowledge to gain their confidence and obtain as much information as I possibly could about their beliefs and beliefs of their family and friends," Monteilh said.

He said that he recorded the conversations with sophisticated electronic equipment the FBI trained him to use.

Muslims in Southern California were angered in February when they learned that the FBI used an informant to infiltrate their mosques.

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said after the alleged infiltration was reported by the press that reports that informants had been paid to monitor law-abiding Muslims in their mosques created "deeply troubling concerns."

"These coercive and intimidating methods highlight the fact that the FBI continues to view the entire American Muslim community as suspect and treat it as such," the council said in a statment.

The FBI has said it does not investigate people based on their religion.