Disclosures On NSA Surveillance Could Open Door For Some Terror Defendants To Challenge Cases

[Purveyor]

By EILEEN SULLIVAN | Associated Press | 58 minutes ago in Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Brooklyn man in prison for terrorism may have a new opportunity to challenge his conviction because the government only recently told him how it obtained evidence it intended to use against him. It was through one of the National Security Agency's secret surveillance programs.

On Monday, the government notified Albanian citizen Agron Hasbajrami it had intended to use information from the warrantless surveillance program — something that federal law required him to be told in September 2011. Hasbajrami pleaded guilty in 2012 to a terrorism charge after admitting he tried to go to Pakistan to join a radical jihadist insurgent group. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

This week's notice is the third of its kind since the Justice Department last year pledged to review certain terrorism cases in order to provide a clearer picture of how classified evidence against defendants was gathered. Hasbajrami's is the first closed case in which such a notification was provided.

The new policy is one of the ripple effects from disclosures last year by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. The Snowden leaks have prompted major reviews of the programs that collected and examined billions of electronic and telephone communications. President Barack Obama is considering reforms.

It's unclear what impact these after-the-fact notifications will have on criminal cases in U.S. courts — and how many cases could be affected.

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http://www.newser.com/article/ebb5477f0d1e41fea1a6b2015fa90a27/disclosures-on-nsa-surveillance-could-open-door-for-some-terror-defendants-to-challenge-cases.html

[Thinkingabout]

1. If a wiretap was placed on this persons phone after obtaining a wiretap warrant, what would be the

problem? If your information is correct and information was gathered through NSA programs then you are providing proof the NSA programs are working.