By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/22/AR201102...
An FBI informant who infiltrated a California mosque violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of Muslims by targeting them for surveillance because of their religion, the ACLU and a Muslim group said in a lawsuit Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed against the FBI and seven of its agents and supervisors, focuses on the actions several years ago of Craig Monteilh, a paid FBI informant. Monteilh has said he was instructed to spy on worshipers at an Irvine mosque in a quest for potential terrorists, allegations that prompted fierce criticism of the FBI from some Muslims in Southern California and nationwide.
The lawsuit alleges that Monteilh was ordered by his FBI handlers to conduct "indiscriminate surveillance" of Muslims, violating their First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the 64-page document seeks class action status, unspecified damages and a court order instructing the FBI to destroy or return the information Monteilh collected.
"The FBI should be spending its time and resources investigating actual threats, not spying on every American who happens to worship at a mosque,'' said Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, which filed the complaint along with the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
FBI officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, but empasized that they are careful not to violate civil liberties when they use informants and do not target anyone based on religion or ethnicity.
The lawsuit comes after years of national debate over how the FBI can stop terrorism while preserving civil liberties. The FBI says it has been successful in striking that balance.
FBI and Justice Department officials say that they have gone to great lengths to maintain good relations with Muslims and that the Monteilh case is not representative of those efforts. Some Muslims say the revelations about Monteilh have seriously damaged their relationship with the FBI.
Monteilh, who had served time in jail after being convicted of forgery, revealed his informant status in 2009, and law enforcement sources have confirmed that he was a paid FBI informant for several years until 2007. They have said he aided an existing investigation and was not told to target Muslims because of their religion.
Legal experts said that point - whether the ACLU can prove that the FBI randomly targeted Muslims - will be key in determining the case's outcome. If the FBI did, "the case has a strong likelihood of success,'' said David Cole, a constitutional law and national security expert at Georgetown University's law school.
John Baker, a professor at Louisiana State University's law school and a former state prosecutor, said the ACLU's case is heavily dependent on Monteilh's word. "Using informants is an unsavory business, and informants often lie,'' he said. "How trustworthy is his information? No one knows.''
Legal experts said that there have been a number of legal challenges to FBI surveillance practices since the 1970s but that the current lawsuit is among the first to accuse the agency of targeting people based on religion.
Monteilh, a Los Angeles native, has said he became an informant for a federal-state task force in 2003 and was later recruited by the FBI for counterterrorism cases. Agents, he said, provided his cover: Farouk al-Aziz, a French Syrian in search of his Islamic roots. His code name was "Oracle."
Monteilh said he was instructed to infiltrate mosques throughout Orange County and two neighboring counties in Southern California but was told to focus on the Islamic Center of Irvine.
Members of that mosque have said Monteilh attended prayers five times a day, and he has said he tape-recorded Muslims at the mosques, in their homes and at a gym. He helped build a terrorism-related case against a mosque member, but the case collapsed.
The lawsuit says that Monteilh's handlers, FBI agents Kevin Armstrong and Paul Allen, instructed him to collect e-mail addresses, phone numbers and other detailed information about Muslims and "explicitly told Monteilh that Islam was a threat to America's national security. ''
Through an FBI spokeswoman, the two agents declined to comment.
Ali Malik, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who helped teach Monteilh about Islam at the Irvine mosque, said the Muslim community has yet to recover from Monteilh's actions.
"A lot of people now see the mosque as a place where the government can just come in and spy on you,'' said Malik, who says he has been questioned by the FBI several times since his dealings with Monteilh. "It's going to take a long time to heal those wounds.''

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has named Peter Eliasberg, Ahilan Arulanantham and Belinda Escobosa Helzer to head up its legal team in Los Angeles and Orange County.
“I am extremely pleased to name Peter, Ahilan, and Belinda to these leadership positions. They have distinguished themselves in their passionate devotion to and defense of civil liberties and civil rights,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU/SC. “Through their expertise and vision, they will ensure that the legal advocacy of the ACLU of Southern California remains at the forefront.”
Eliasberg, 50, has been named to succeed Villagra as the legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. His appointment fills the vacancy left by Villagra, who became executive director of the ACLU/SC on Feb. 15.
Eliasberg joined the ACLU/SC in 1996 and until February 2011 served as the Managing Attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the Manheim Family Attorney for First Amendment Rights.
“It’s a great honor for me to have a job held by such legendary attorneys as Paul Okrand, Paul L. Hoffman, Mark Rosenbaum and Hector Villagra,” Eliasberg said. “It’s also a challenge given the incredible pressures confronting civil rights and liberties.”
During his time at the ACLU/SC Eliasberg, has worked on landmark civil rights cases. He represented Frank Buono in the United States Supreme Court in an Establishment Clause challenge to the presence of a cross on federal land in Buono v. Salazar (aka Salazar v. Buono, in the United States Supreme Court).
He has also represented a group of bus riders with disabilities who sued the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority over the agency’s failure to provide accessible buses. And in Williams v. State of California, he represented a class of school children challenging the State of California's failure to provide basic education necessities -- including clean and safe school facilities, adequate textbooks, and trained teachers.
Villagra also announced Arulanantham will become the ACLU/SC deputy legal director. Arulanantham, 38, joined the ACLU/SC in 2004 and until February 2011 served as the Director of Immigrants’ Rights and National Security.
“I’m excited to take on this new role and help the ACLU/SC respond to the human and civil rights challenges facing Southern California residents,” said Arulanantham.
Arulanantham has successfully litigated several landmark cases, including a challenge to the federal government’s policy of forcibly drugging immigrants during deportation efforts and several cases on behalf of people detained as national security threats, both in the United States and abroad.
The ACLU/SC has also named Belinda Escobosa Helzer as the director of the Orange County office. Escobosa Helzer, 38,joined the ACLU/SC in 2005, where she has served as a staff attorney in the Orange County office.
Escobosa Helzer has worked as counsel on civil rights cases ranging from free speech, to religious freedom, due process and law enforcement abuse. In Vietnamese Budddhism Study Temple of America v. City of Garden Grove, she sued Garden Grove officials to protect the rights of a Vietnamese Buddhist congregation to build a temple in that city. The lawsuit led to a settlement that allowed the congregation to build its temple and freely worship together.
“As a lifelong resident of Orange County, I am honored to continue to fight for and protect the civil rights of all residents in the region,” Escobosa Helzer said.
 

The ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC) and the National American Civil Liberties Union today called on the United States Attorney’s Office to launch an independent criminal investigation into last month’s brutal beating by two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) deputies of an inmate at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, part of the Los Angeles County Jail system.

The savage attack Jan. 24 on James Parker, detained on a non-violent marijuana charge, was witnessed by ACLU/SC’s Jails Project Coordinator Esther Lim, who is assigned to monitor all county jails, and another inmate. Both observed the two deputies beating and repeatedly tasering Parker for about two minutes while he was lying on the ground limp, motionless and not resisting the deputies in any way.

“It is crucial that the federal government launch an independent investigation immediately,” said Peter Eliasberg, ACLU/SC managing attorney. “A criminal investigation from an impartial outside agency will not only help the inmates but will also help all those deputies who work hard to do their job properly and who should not be painted with the same brush as those who may have violated the law by beating a non-resisting inmate.”

Sheriff’s department employees have made public statements challenging the motivation and integrity of Lim, calling into question the impartiality of the LASD. Lim would necessarily be a key witness in any criminal case filed against the deputies and so the statements by sheriff’s department employees could significantly harm any prosecution by the county district attorney that relies on an investigation by the LASD.

“It is odd, and indeed troubling, when a law enforcement spokesperson publicly disparages the credibility of a potential prosecution witness,” said Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia University’s School of Law and former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Such comments can undermine the appearance of impartiality critical to maintaining public trust in the criminal justice system. Moreover, if a prosecutor ends up bringing charges, the defense may try to use the comments to undermine the credibility of that witness, a problem that no prosecutor wants to deal with.”

The sheriff’s department has proven itself to be completely unwilling to investigate its own deputies aggressively. The ACLU has received hundreds of complaints over the past two years detailing deputy assaults of inmates similar to what Lim witnessed, dozens of which the sheriff’s department has claimed to investigate. But in each instance, the department has only stonewalled, asserting without presenting a shred of evidence to back up its claims that it has “thoroughly investigated” the complaints before finding them to be false.

“The subculture of deputy violence and abuse at the Los Angeles County jail is extraordinary and unprecedented,” said Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “It has gone unchecked for so long that deputies apparently feel emboldened to carry out a savage beating in full view of ACLU staff. This signals both the depth of the problem and the urgency of the need for an independent federal investigation, which we believe will be forthcoming.”