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August 10, 2012

The Convert (2012)

In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California, eager to study the Koran and make new friends. But when he started acting odd and saying strange things, those friends got suspicious. To them, he was Farouk al-Aziz. But his real name was Craig Monteilh, and he was working undercover for the FBI.

Craig Monteilh, photo by Andy Templeton

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. (10 1/2 minutes)

Act One

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 he’d 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)