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The department is undertaking a comprehensive
review to turn up all cases in which such notifications need to
be made, said department spokesman Brian Fallon. Attorney
General Eric Holder first disclosed the review in an interview
with The Washington Post.
The notifications will set the stage for a likely Supreme Court
test of the Obama administration's approach to national
security, which uses the National Security Agency's technical
capabilities to gather phone and Internet data.
The high court so far has turned aside challenges to the law on
government surveillance on the grounds that people who bring
such lawsuits have no evidence they are being targeted.
Three weeks ago, the government told a suspect for the first
time that it plans to use evidence against him gathered under
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Jamshid Muhtorov was accused in 2012 of providing material
support to the Islamic Jihad Union, an Uzbek terrorist
organization that, authorities say, was engaging the NATO
coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. According to court
papers in the case, the FBI investigated Muhtorov after his
communications with an overseas website administrator for the
IJU.
Last February, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that a
group of American lawyers, journalists and organizations could
not sue to challenge a 2008 expansion of the National Security
Agency law. The court said those who sued could not show that
the government would monitor their communications along with
those of potential foreign terrorist and intelligence targets.
[Associated
Press]
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