The Convert

This American Life

2021-12-03

59 分钟

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In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California. Known as Farouk al-Aziz, the convert was actually an FBI informant named Craig Monteilh. That informant’s infiltration of the mosque is at the heart of FBI v Fazaga, a case heard at the Supreme Court last month. We return to our episode from 2012, which tells the story behind it. 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. (9 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 he¹d 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 into the FBI who, it turns out, is working for the FBI? Trevor Aaronson, whom Sam Black interviewed for this story, has a book called The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism. (21 minutes)

From WBEZ Chicago, it's this American Life.
I'm Ira Glass.
So back in 2012, we ran this completely outrageous story about some stuff that the FBI did about an undercover informant who spied on American Muslims for over a year.
And it went badly.
Like, spectacularly badly.
And some of those people who were spied on, some of the people in the story, sued the US Government because of it.
It's taken years to wind through the courts, but just last month, it was argued before the US Supreme Court.
So today, I want to play you the story and also talk about the court case.
A little some context for the story before we start.
It's about FBI surveillance of Muslims.
Ever since 9 11, there's been a ton of that.
And just to give a sense of what that means, our original episode opened in Queens, New York City.
One Saturday night at a community center.
Three dozen people show up.
Their kids run around.
Before it starts, coffee in the back.
It's a workshop run by two lawyers, Ramzi Qasim and Diala Shamas, who are with a project called Clear from the City University of New York Law School that gives free legal aid to Muslims who get caught up in counterterrorism surveillance investigations.
So what we want to do today is nothing controversial.
We just want to arm you with the knowledge of your rights so that you know how to respond when you find yourself.
If you find yourself in that really uncomfortable situation where you have an FBI agent at your door or an NYPD detective at your workplace asking to talk to you.

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The Convert

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