Electronic surveillance

The Government is Using its Foreign Intelligence Spying Powers for Routine Domestic Investigations

More than forty years ago, Congress gave the executive branch a set of exceptional surveillance powers to pursue foreign spies on U.S. soil. Now, the government is increasingly relying on those powers to advance ordinary domestic criminal investigations.

In United States v. Osseily, a fraud prosecution in California, the government appears to have used this surveillance — which is conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — to wiretap a longtime permanent resident of the U.S., Abdallah Osseily.

Mr. Osseily is a small business owner and a father of three. The government has charged him with bank and immigration fraud — charges that have nothing to do with “foreign intelligence” or “national security.” Indeed, the government has presented no evidence that Mr. Osseily ever acted on behalf of a foreign government. On top of all this, the government is trying to block Mr. Osseily from learning almost anything that would help him challenge this controversial surveillance.