Alka Verma-
Published On: November 08, 2021 at 22:41 IST
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the US will be Hearing a Case regarding an undercover operation of the FBI that involved the mosques of California.
The Court is going to hear Muslims who sued the FBI for a year-long surveillance program that had no results at the end.
The said facts of the case include a surveillance operation that was conducted by the FBI in 2006, in Orange County, Calif.
It started from the FBI receiving a hint that a most-wanted criminal had visited a mosque which then led to the FBI deciding to visit one of the Orange County mosques for surveillance.
However, the FBI assured the Islamic Center of Irvine, that it was not monitoring them in general.
“We will tell you we’re coming for the very reason we don’t want you to think you’re being monitored,” stated the FBI.
But even after promising this, the FBI recruited Craig Monteilh, a local gym trainer as an undercover agent.
It is said that Craig used to visit Mosque to find out the information and to catch all the suspects.
Later on, the FBI also informed that Craig recorded tons of audio and videos inside the Mosque.
“The FBI later confirmed in Court that Craig was an undercover informant. A district attorney also stated in court that Craig did work with Agent Kevin Armstrong and that Craig had given the FBI very valuable information,” stated one of the Spokesperson.
However, when it was found that the FBI was conducting an undercover operation, the Muslim Community stated this move as a breach of trust.
“We believe that we were targeted not because of anything other than our religious beliefs. Craig Monteilh said he was sent to surveil the Muslim community. He recorded conversations, discussions at the Mosque; he recorded the license plate numbers and took photos of people who were coming to the Mosque,” stated the Muslim Community.
Following the incident, the Community approached the Court demanding justification of the FBI’s actions.
For now, the argument is only focused on whether this case can move forward at all or not as the Government stated that exposing evidence of 15 years ago will be dangerous for National security.
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