craig montey. aka the body builder. ruse was to get the gentlemen out of the mosque where they would drop their guard. aka the trainer, a special op trainer who taught young muslim men how to fire weapons. my interest in fbi informants began years ago in miami. after 9/11, the u.s. government set about recruiting an intelligence army of thousands of informants many of them in muslim communities. while working as a reporter here, i first heard about an alleged al qaeda cell that would be called the liberty city 7. >> this is morning edition from npr news, i'm linda wertheimer. >> the men were from a poor mostly asian american community in miami. odd place for the fbi to recruit. >> my first reaction was laughter. my name is rory mcman. i looked on the liberty 7 case. after the raid they searched the headquarters the total take of what they recovered was a ceremonial sword. so that signaled to me that these people weren't much of a threat. >> the operation began when the fbi received a tip about a suspicious group of men.