Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT • 197wide means of transportation and communications to organize theirattacks, publicize them, and then disperse to their sanctuaries. Forexample, cell phones can be converted into initiators for improvisedexplosive devices (IEDs) to be remotely detonated. Support infrastructuresallow a division of labor between terrorist leaders, combatants,and those providing logistical support as well as the recruitmentand fund-raising needed to keep the terrorist group viable. Finally,there is the role played by ideas, whether religious or secular ideologies,that serve as the motivation for the terrorist group and may winit greater support from a wider community sharing the same ideals.FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT (FISA).Also known as Public Law 95-511, this act, found under the U.S.Code, Title 50, Chapter 36, S. 1566, Foreign Intelligence and ElectronicSurveillance, permits electronic surveillance of individuals orgroups when there is probable cause to believe that these people orgroups are providing financial aid, or other material assistance, onbehalf of a foreign state or a group furthering international terrorism.The act is also intended to prevent domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens,resident aliens, or firms incorporated in the United States thatare not connected to foreign groups or nations. FISA established theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Court to issue warrants to federallaw enforcement agencies to permit surveillance of suspected foreignintelligence agents within the United States; FISA does not governU.S. intelligence collection activities outside the United States and itsterritories. The act also permits physical searches of the “premises,information, material, or property” used exclusively by a foreignpower or nonstate group. The Patriot Act of 2001 amended FISAto allow monitoring of communications with foreign groups that arenot sponsored by foreign governments. In 2004, FISA was furtheramended, in section 1801 b.1.C., to include a “lone wolf” clause topermit surveillance of a non-U.S. person who is engaging in, or preparingto engage in, international terrorism without having a previousconnection to a foreign nation or nonstate group.The National Security Agency (NSA) terrorist surveillance program,whose existence was revealed in 2006 and which conductedwarrantless wiretaps of suspected terrorist telephone conversations,involving telephone calls to and from the United States, was ruledillegal in the case of ACLU v. NSA on 17 August 2006 by the U.S.