Monteilh's role as a government informant seemed to be supported by the testimony of an FBI agent in February.
The agent, Thomas J. Ropel III, was testifying at a bail hearing in the case of Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, who is charged with perjury, naturalization fraud and making a false statement to a federal agency for, among other things, not disclosing that his brother-in-law is Osama bin Laden's alleged security coordinator.
Ropel told the judge in the case that Niazi had been secretly recorded by an informant as he threatened to blow up abandoned buildings. The agent did not name Monteilh but testified that the informant was the same man Muslims had reported to the FBI as an extremist two years earlier. Monteilh was reported to the FBI in June 2007 after members of the Islamic Center of Irvine alleged that he was promoting terrorist plots and trying to recruit others to join him.
Monteilh denies being a terrorist and said anything he said or did at the mosque was in his capacity as an informant for the FBI. He said he was given permission by authorities to engage in terrorist rhetoric, planning and "pretty much anything short of an actual attack" as part of his assignment.
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scott.glover@latimes.com
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
