Subject: Craig Monteilh

• Man Claiming to be FBI Informant Spins Quite a Tale

  A location scout for a spy movie could not have picked a better location for my late December meeting with Craig Monteilh: a table outside a restaurant in a bustling Irvine shopping center. A lensman would appreciate the shadow-erasing clouds hovering overhead on the warm winter morning. And central casting could not have found a better leading man: Monteilh is tall, intense, talkative, with a shaved head and the kind of cut body one would expect from someone who is now a fitness instructor.

  February 26, 2009

• It's a Quick Read 4: weekend and Monday editions

  Orange County Register: A six-man, six-woman jury recommended death for John Fitzgerald Kennedy--no, not that John Fitzgerald Kennedy; that one is already dead, and this one is a 43-year-old career criminal with the gang moniker "Crazy John"--in the murders at sea of a Newport Beach couple. The same jury had convicted Kennedy of two counts of murder with special circumstances in the 2004 slayings of yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks. "Crazy John" showed no emotion as he got the chai

  March 2, 2009

• Muslim Groups Consider Breaking FBI Ties Over Irvine Case

  Citing the highly publicized case involving an undercover informant who spied on an Irvine mosque, a coalition of U.S. Muslim organizations has announced it may suspend relations with the FBI."Muslim communities throughout the United States have made significant advances in promoting and contributing to a fair, free and pluralistic society," reads the statement from the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). "Through civil rights advocacy, civic and political engagement,

  March 18, 2009

• FBI Spying on Mosques Draws Senate Attention; Rights Workshop Helps Local Muslims Deal With the Feds

  A Senate Judiciary Committee questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller Wednesday about a Muslim coalition's consideration of breaking ties with the bureau following the highly publicized federal government spying on an Irvine mosque.Meanwhile, a workshop has been organized for this Sunday to help local American Muslims deal with this frightening new twist in the "Global War on Terror." Details on that in a bit.  First, as mentioned here last week, the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights

  March 26, 2009

• A Look at Craig Monteilh, Who Says He Spied on the Islamic Center of Irvine for the Feds

  March 5, 2009

• ACLU Demanding That Feds Turn Over OC Mosque Spying Records

  The case that erupted with ex-con man Craig Monteilh's confession that he's been spying on OC mosques for the FBI will hit local federal courts this afternoon, when the ACLU makes arguments asking for the release of all theJohn GilhooleyCraig Monteilh says he spied on the Islamic Center of Irvine for the Feds. information attached to the FBI's infiltration of various local mosques. ACLU missive below: SANTA ANA, Calif. - In the wake of news that an FBI informant infiltrated several Orange County

  April 20, 2009

• The FBI, the Islamic Center of Irvine and Craig Monteilh: Who Was Conning Whom?

  April 30, 2009

• Suspected OC Al-Qaeda Sympathizer Read La Voz de Aztlan

  Carreon once called Osama bin Laden the "Pancho Villa of Islam.' What a pendejo!Ahmadullah Sais Niazi is currently out on bail while the United States government determines whether to prosecute the Tustin resident for previously lying about his ties to Al Qaeda, of which this week's cover boy, Craig Monteilh, says Niazi was a fan. Nick Schou's excellent story also has this interesting tidbit:Monteilh didn't just secretly record Niazi, but he also kept what he claims are copies of all his e-mail

  May 6, 2009

• FBI Spy: "Islam Itself is a Threat to National Security"

  John Gilhooley / OCWCraig MonteilhIf Craig Monteilh was hoping the Weekly's recent cover story about him would provide a springboard to media fame, he probably wasn't thinking of Inside OC with Rick Reiff on KOCE. But that's exactly where Monteilh found himself last week when Reiff interviewed Hussam Ayloush of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for his thoughts about the FBI using a con artist--that'd be Monteilh--to infiltrate Orange County mosques. As he did with the Weekly, Mon

  May 21, 2009

• How Do You Stop Terrorists? Ask A Con-Artist!

  Craig Monteilh, everybody's favorite convicted con artist and FBI mole, hit the airwaves last night in an in-depth interview with KFI AM 640 talk show host Bryan Suits. The topic of the conversation: an FBI sting operation that led to the arrest of four Muslim converts in upstate New York on Wednesday. None of the suspects were from the Middle East nor did any have any connection to Al Qaeda--there is even doubt about whether they were really Muslims-- although one has widely been described as m

  May 22, 2009

• Letters From OC Weekly Readers

  May 28, 2009

• Does Al Qaeda's Infamous Goat Boy Read the Weekly?

  In April, the Weekly published this story about Craig Monteilh, a self-described FBI mole who spied on Orange County mosques and claimed that he foiled unspecified terrorist plots. No evidence has ever surfaced to bolster Monteilh's claims, and in that story, I noted that only two OC residents have ever been linked to Al Qaeda, the most famous of whom is the terrorist group's American spokesman,  Adam Gadahn, aka "Azzam the American," whom I identified as a "Jewish-American."Gadahn grew up on a

  June 19, 2009

• CAIR's Hussam Ayloush Makes the Media Rounds

  CAIR-LA's Hussam Ayloush comes out strongly against profiling, entrapment and extremism.​Nick Schou posted yesterday about the Al Jazeera news service interviewing Orange County Islamic mosque infiltrator and FBI informant Craig Monteilh of Irvine, but he is not the only local who turns up in the piece. Along with some local Muslims who Monteilh apparently approached (and, they say, tried to entrap), Al Jazeera catches up with Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Anaheim-based, Southern C

  August 18, 2009

• Irvine Mosque Speaks: OC Weekly World Exclusive!

  On Feb. 21, FBI agents arrested Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, an Afghan immigrant, and charged him with lying about his brother-in-law's status as an alleged Al Qaeda terrorist. A few days later, Craig Monteilh, a convicted con artist, held a press conference to announce that he was an FBI informant and had helped the FBI bust Niazi. Over the next few months, Monteilh made numerous claims in published articles--including this one in the Weekly--asserting that he had been recruited by the FBI to snoop o

  May 29, 2009

• Public's Interest in FBI Spying on Islamic Mosques in OC Cited in Lawsuit Seeking Surveillance Guidelines

  Photo by John GilhooleyCraig Monteilh, a.k.a. Farouk Aziz​While the Senate Judiciary Committee peppered FBI Director Robert Mueller with questions today before about the guidelines the bureau operates under while spying on Islamic mosques in the United States, a San Francisco legal advocacy and education organization filed a lawsuit demanding access to those guidelines. February's arrest of Tustin resident Ahmadullah Sais Niazi and Irvine resident Craig Monteilh's disclosure that he was the FB

  September 17, 2009