In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California, eager to study the Koran and make new friends. But when he started acting odd and saying strange things, those friends got suspicious. To them, he was Farouk al-Aziz. But his real name was Craig Monteilh, and he was working undercover for the FBI.
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Craig Monteilh, photo by Andy Templeton
Prologue
At a Muslim community center in New York, two lawyers teach a workshop on how to react when an FBI agent shows up at the door asking questions. The workshop is a project of CLEAR — Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility — at the City University of New York School of Law. (10 1/2 minutes)
Gym Rat
In the summer of 2006, an FBI official visited a mosque in Orange County, California. His intention was to reassure the community that they weren’t being spied on. But a few months later, an undercover informant named Craig Monteilh showed up at the mosque. Monteilh says he’d been sent there to catch terrorists. But his behavior was so odd that Monteilh himself came under suspicion. Documentary filmmaker Sam Black reports the story. (25 minutes)
Act Two
The story of Craig Monteilh continues: What happens when you turn someone in to the FBI who, it turns out, is working for the FBI? Trevor Aaronson, whom Sam Black interviewed for this story, has a book coming out called The Terror Factory. (21 minutes)
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