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

John Gilhooley / OCW

Craig Monteilh

If 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, Monteilh used the show to claim he'd uncovered unspecified "terrorist cells" operating in Orange County but failed to adequately account for why his operation resulted in just one arrest--of a guy who lied on his passport application and who Monteilh surreptitiously (and allegedly) taped praising Osama bin Laden.

Inside OC reporter David Nazar asked Monteilh some probing questions. The show''s online clip keeps buffering itself ad infinitum, so I can't get the exact language right now--you can watch it here for yourself--but here's a rough synopsis of the interview.

Nazar: So you claim you infiltrated mosques for the FBI.

Monteilh: Yes, that's what I did.

Nazar: Then what happened.

Monteilh: I uncovered a bunch of terrorists who were planning terrorist plots.

Nazar: How did you do that?

Monteilh: I posed as a Muslim and gradually the terrorists tried to get me to join their plot. That was the plan.

Nazar: What do you say to those who point out that you are a con artist? Where's your credibility?

Monteilh: The credibility isn't from me, it's from the tape recordings I made. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi was arrested because of my tape recordings. An FBI special agent admitted in court that I made the tape recording.

Nazar: So did the FBI believe that there were people at the mosques who posed a threat to US national security?

Monteilh: Well, not really, but Islam itself is a threat to National Security.

Okay, so most of that conversation is a sloppy rehash of the actual interview, but Monteilh really did say that Islam itself is a threat to national security.

We can't wait until the FBI finally breaks its code of silence about Craig Monteilh.  Love him or hate him, you have to appreciate the guy's ability to embarrass the FBI. The more he talks, the worse it gets for the bureau and the more obvious it becomes that this whole mosque infiltration fiasco could be the biggest blunder in the war on terror since the Iraq invasion.