ALEXANDRA JONES
The FBI had to pull the plug on the operation when someone called the police on its informant disguised as a Muslim advocating violence against the United States.
(COURT HOUSE NEWS) WASHINGTON (CN) — Wading into a decade-old class action, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to look at the FBI’s use of an informant to collect information from several Los Angeles and Orange County mosques for more than a year.
The FBI petitioned the high court to take up the case last year, saying it raises “exceptionally important questions” regarding the Executive Branch’s responsibility to protect national security.
For the Council on American-Islamic Relations, however, it is the reason why this case was filed that is important to remember as it heads to high court.
“The FBI infiltrated several mosques in Southern California, planted informants, and targeted Muslim Americans for illegal spying solely because of their religion,” Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR Los Angeles, said in a statement Monday.
“The FBI’s actions were a clear violation of our Constitution and revealed that the FBI viewed, and continues to view, the American Muslim community as second-class citizens who are suspects until proven innocent.” Along with other groups and attorneys, CAIR-LA represents a Southern California imam and two practicing Muslims in one of several cases that explores how the FBI began profiling Muslim communities after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
They say the FBI began surveilling them in 2006 as part of a counterterrorism investigation called Operation Flex. At the direction of FBI agents Kevin Armstrong and Paul Allen, undercover informant Craig Monteilh began attending the Islamic Center of Irvine, publicly declaring his Muslim faith during a prayer in front of hundreds of members and adopting the name Farouk al-Aziz.