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February 23, 2011

FBI Sued for Spying on California Mosque 
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The FBI is facing a class action lawsuit over the spying on members of a
California mosque. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and
the Council on American-Islamic Relations accused the FBI of violating
the constitutional rights of hundreds of members of a mosque in the town
of Irvine. Former government informant Craig Monteilh has acknowledged
he posed as a Muslim convert to lure mosque members to work out with him
at local gyms. Monteilh says FBI agents would then press him to obtain
information on his workout partners in the hopes of one day pressuring
them to become informants. According to the suit, FBI agents instructed
Monteilh to collect email addresses, phone numbers and other personal
information of mosque members, telling him that Islam is "a threat to
national security."



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