Subject: Federal Bureau of Investigation

• Happy Xmas (War is Over?)

  It was a long fight-- a generational struggle, as President Bush might say-- but UCI Professor Jon Wiener has finally prevailed: the government agreed yesterday to release the last of the classified FBI surveillance files on John Lennon. For 25 years, Wiener, a historian who has written two books on Lennon, has been denied those FBI files on national security grounds. Or the government was trying to hide material that might prove embarrassing to the reputation of the FBI behind a phony claim

  December 20, 2006

• All your porn are belong to U.S.

  That's not "us" in the post title, that's U.S.   As in the U.S. federal government.  Because according to a Cnet News story (found via TPMmuckracker.com), while your boss may never find out what you're really doing with your computer when you should be working, the feds just might. The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed. Instead of recording only what a partic

  January 31, 2007

• Finally, Santa Ana isn't First or Last

  SanTana is a city of many ignoble stats: the country's youngest, most-Latino, most-crowded, most-Spanish speaking big city and also the toughest to live in. One of California's fattest. A mini-Mexico where a campaign sign can hang for months after an election and no one gives a damn. Where gang shootings seem to be a weekly occurrence. But thanks to Latina Magazine, SanTana can finally boast some good ranking news. This month's issue features a survey of America's 25 healthiest city for Latinas

  April 17, 2007

• Tuesday's Headlines

  Apologetic at gunpoint: The Oxford-shirt-and-khaki-pants-donning man known as the "Irreconcilable Bandit" held up his 16th bank Monday—a California National Bank in Newport Beach. He repeatedly apologized to the teller, saying he was going through "hard times" and needed the money, said the FBI. Coastal curiosity: Giant squid started washing up on San Pedro's shore last Wednesday. And they're still rolling in. Before that, they were showing up in San Diego. Good news, bad

  June 5, 2007

• What's Good for the Goose ain't for the Zealot

  So some young, misdirected, religious zealots who authorities conceive were too impoverished and unsophisticated to carry out plots to blow up an FBI building and the Sears Tower in Chicago are arrested in Miami. By the way, the kids are black. Meanwhile, older, misdirected zealots who reportedly have raised buttloads of cash, used highly sophisticated means to breed a specific kind of cow, moved tens of thousands of people from Russia to Israel, pushed tons of building materials up an Israeli h

  June 23, 2006

• Rohrabacher on Torture: "Just hazing"

  The House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing on detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba yesterday. The meeting focused on a recent FBI report documenting abusive interrogation tactics toward prisoners at the facility. Present at the hearing was our treasured local representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who seemed to note nothing wrong with the documented abuse. During the questioning of FBI Inspector General Glenn Fine at the hearing, th

  June 5, 2008

• The Few, the Proud, the Spies

  July 15, 1999

• Mondo Washington

  March 7, 2002

• Up In Smoke: Orange County Edition

  If you’ve stepped outside of your house today, chances are you’ve smelled the faint scent of burning. But don’t go calling the FBI on your stoner neighbors just yet. The reason behind that smell lingering in the air is wildfire, and it’s right in your back yard—in Brea, Yorba Linda and Corona, to be precise. Because we here at the Weekly aren’t exactly big on fire chasing—we’re much more into the pessimistic analysis part of news media—we’ve decided it would be fitting to c

  November 15, 2008

• 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

• Interesting Op-Ed Pieces on FBI Informant, Toll Roads

  In "Breach of Trust: FBI Wants It Both Ways," the editorial board of UC Irvine's New University student newspaper takes issue with the indictment of a Muslim resident of Tustin and the use of a controversial government informant. (Background is here and here.) The case is bound to have a chilling effect, according to the editorial.This incident is alarming to the American Muslim community in Orange County, who had been working hard to establish and maintain good relations with the FBI, according

  March 10, 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

• Some Muslims Support FBI's Stand Against CAIR

  The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has an office in Anaheim, has been in the news (and on this blog) a lot lately following official confirmation that the FBI has been spying on the Islamic Society of Irvine mosque. CAIR and the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County were among several Muslim advocacy groups that signed on to a statement saying they are considering breaking ties with the feds over such snooping and the FBI's previous break

  April 2, 2009

• Declassified FBI Files Exonerate Joel Dvorman, OC's Original Conservative Scapegoat

  June 26, 2008

• Against the Wall

  Praying, eating and bowling with the most hated student group at UC Irvine

  October 18, 2007

• Slammer Time!

  August 5, 2004

• More Groups Sign Statement Damning FBI for Spying on Mosques

  FBI Director Robert MuellerThe National Lawyers Guild--last seen in Clockwork four hours ago in relation to a debate it is hosting at Chapman University concerning visiting professor John Yoo signing off on torture while advising the Bush White House--is doing some signing off of its own. It's joined the 44 groups that have signed a statement blasting the FBI for recent incidents involving the use of informants and spying on Islamic mosques.The issue came to a head in February following the high

  April 15, 2009

• So I Married a Terrorist . . .

  Saraah Olsons strange trip through the U.S. war on terror

  April 19, 2007

• Letters

  December 8, 2005

• Thats Noose to Him

  September 1, 2005

• Case Un-closed

  June 23, 2005

• Dead End

  February 17, 2005

• Slammer Time!

  July 29, 2004

• Art as Terror

  June 10, 2004

• Buckle Up for Terrorism

  May 27, 2004

• Sorry seems to be the hardest word

  November 27, 2003

• You Wanna See Some Real Terror?

  October 9, 2003

• Throwing the Book at Us

  April 17, 2003

• Suspicious Minds

  April 10, 2003

• Is That a Stinger Missile in Your Pants?

  January 16, 2003

• Way of the Gun

  July 4, 2002

• Long Arms of the Law

  May 30, 2002

• Crack Cop

  May 2, 2002

• Psychic Friends

  February 14, 2002

• Crack Cop

  July 19, 2001

• Raw Deal

  July 13, 2000

• Bigger Than the Beatles

  March 30, 2000

• Tip-Toe Thru the Bureau

  April 1, 1999

• Invisible Enemies

  March 11, 1999

• Work-at-Home Scams Draw FBI Attention

  Hot on the heels of the Welcome to the Poorhouse post that included shady work-at-home offers in the email inbox, the FBI posted a story today warning of the same. (Note to self: when Clockwork and the G-Men are in sync, time to weatherproof against frogs falling from the sky.)The FBI expands its warning beyond emails to include "seductive work-at-home opportunities" hyped in newspaper classified ads and fliers tacked to telephone poles. These promise earnings of hundreds or thousands of dollars

  April 17, 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

• Public's Help Sought in Nabbing the 'Hazmat Bandit'

  The Orange County Bank Robbery Task Force is seeking the public's help in identifying an armed bank robber authorities have dubbed the "Hazmat Bandit" due to his attire: a white painter's jumpsuit, a white hat, boots and sunglasses.The unidentified man--described as white, in his fifties, with long blonde hair which may have been a wig, and with a height of approximately 6 feet to 6-feet-2--has pulled off two heists, according to the FBI.He entered the Laguna Niguel Wachovia branch on March 17 a

  April 20, 2009

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

  April 30, 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

• FBI: That Cute Home for Rent Could Be Latest Nigerian Scam

  ​So, you know those Nigerian criminals of "We've got a $1 million check waiting from your long lost Nigerian prince uncle" spam e-mail fame? They've come up with a new scam, warns the FBI. You can't believe your good fortune--you find a rental home in a nice area through a Craigslist classified ad at an unbelievably low rate. The landlord--who had to leave the country and travel to Nigeria--asks that you wire him two months' worth of rent. You arrive at the home on the agreed-upon date, b

  July 31, 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

• Locals Among Dozens Caught Up in International Criminal Phishing Scheme

  No, not that kind of fish fry. ​Congratulations, Orange County! Some of your residents were among today's arrestees in the largest cyber crime case of its kind. "Operation Phish Phry," the first joint cyber investigation between Egyptian law enforcement authorities and United States officials, netted the most defendants ever charged in a cyber crime case, turning up domestic suspects in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, elsewhere in&nb

  October 7, 2009

• OC-Raised Lawyer Says New FBI Footage Shows OK City Bombing Coverup

  ​On March 31, 2008, Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue won an unprecedented legal victory over the FBI in his years-old lawsuit to force the agency to hand over everything it has on the mysterious death of his brother, former Westminster resident Kenneth Trentadue. That day, the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled that Trentadue and other family members had suffered severe emotional distress as a result of Kenneth's bizarre death at the Federal Transfer Center nea

  October 9, 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