A rogue former FBI agent who claims he infiltrated a Southern California mosque has vowed “vengeance” on the bureau, accusing it of breaking promises by allowing him to be jailed for theft and shorting him $100,000 he claims it owed him.
Craig Monteilh, 63, of Irvine, Orange County, is at the center of a legal battle that has spiraled from a simple lawsuit into a legislative roller-coaster that is now back before the US Supreme Court.
The former asset is now at war with both the bureau and the ACLU, after he retracted his previous declaration, signed under penalty of perjury, alleging he carried out covert activities at an Orange County mosque, Politico reported.
“The FBI has earned my vengeance,” Monteilh said in one of the emails later filed in court.
“I’m not an informant. I’m not your snitch. I’m not the guy you got leverage on. I am a professional operative. I’m an independent contractor,” Monteilh said.
“If you f**k me like that, I’m going to turn around and do the same thing to you,” he said. “In the end, whether it’s a portion or the whole thing, that’s my money. … If the FBI knows one thing, they’ll never, ever forget my name.”
Monteilh’s battles with the FBI started when he claimed that, between 2006 and 2007, he infiltrated the Islamic Center of Irvine using the pseudonym Farouk al-Aziz, recording thousands of hours of audio and video as part of “Operation Flex.”
Just two months before Monteilh’s alleged subterfuge began, top FBI official Stephen Tidwell had spoken at the same mosque to reassure Muslims that the agency wouldn’t send undercover agents to spy on their houses of worship.
Monteilh even claimed his spying helped bring about Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011, after he recorded the brother-in-law of bin Laden’s bodyguard, Amin al-Haq, which led to al-Haq’s arrest in 2008.
Al-Haq later revealed bin Laden’s whereabouts in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the Al Qaeda chief was killed by US Navy SEALS, Monteilh claimed in an email filed in court.
That same year, after Monteilh went public, the ACLU sued the FBI for religious discrimination on behalf of Muslim congregants in Irvine, after a judge dismissed a lawsuit Monteilh had filed against the bureau in 2010.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) does not override the government’s right to claim “state secrets.”
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Now, in a bombshell twist reported this week, Monteilh has distanced himself from his previous collaboration with the ACLU, admitting that his declaration that he spied on a mosque was “not accurate” and contained “50–60% lies,” according to an email sent to lawyers on both sides last summer.
“Most of the information the ACLU… and I made up. I do not stand by that information,” Monteilh said in the email, also accusing two ACLU attorneys of “willfully” overlooking information he wanted included because it “wouldn’t look good for the lawsuit.”
The ACLU attorneys, Peter Bibring and Ahilan Arulanantham, have both “emphatically” denied Monteilh’s claims in a court filing.
The Supreme Court justices are expected to announce shortly whether they will dismiss the case or send it back to a lower court for a public hearing, where Monteilh would get the chance to publicly testify and denounce the FBI.
“My plan is working. The Supreme Court, when they’re ready, is going to [send it] back to Santa Ana. And when they do, I’ll be ready,” Monteilh told Politico.
Neither the FBI nor the ACLU immediately responded to requests for comment.
