Terror suspect challenges NSA surveillance
DENVER (AP) — Using evidence obtained under the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program violates a terror suspect's constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure, the suspect argued Wednesday in a court document filed with help from the American Civil Liberties Union.
In the motion filed in federal court in Denver, Jamshid Muhtorov also requested that prosecutors disclose more about how the surveillance law was used in his case.
Muhtorov was accused in 2012 of providing material support to an Uzbek terrorist organization active in Afghanistan.
"We've learned over the last few months that the NSA has implemented the law in the broadest possible way, and that the rules that supposedly protect the privacy of innocent people are weak and riddled with exceptions," Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director, said in a statement Wednesday.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon declined to comment.
The challenge had been expected after the Justice Department in October said it intended to use information gleaned from one of the NSA's warrantless surveillance programs against Muhtorov. It was the first time the department had made such a disclosure.
The Supreme Court has so far turned aside challenges to the law on the grounds that people who bring such lawsuits have no evidence they are being targeted.
