The US has used controversial spy tool to STOP Iran buying weapons parts amid fears that Tehran is building up its ballistic missile program

• Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expires at year’s end
• Intel officials have been releasing information to show why it must be renewed
• Two described how it was used to prevent sales of weapons parts to Iran 

The U.S. has used a controversial surveillance authority to stymie Iranian efforts to build bigger and more powerful weapons, according to national security officials.

Their disclosure is the latest in a series of arguments that Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a crucial tool for protecting the U.S. as Congress considers reauthorizing the authority before it expires at the end of the year.

Two U.S. officials said intelligence agencies used it to monitor electronic communications of foreign weapons manufacturers to prevent parts being shipped to Iran.

Details from other surveillance tools was used to identify American-made components needed by Iran, which was then combined with a database of FISA intelligence.

The results generated information that could be used to prevent the sales, they said.

A handout picture provided by the Iranian Army media office on October 27, 2023 shows missiles being fired during a military drill in the Isfahan province in central Iran

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, visits an exhibition of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace projects, including a drone labeled ‘Gaza’

It comes as the administration is increasingly concerned about Iran’s ballistic missile program, and fears it could share technology with Russia for its attacks on Ukraine.

The two officials told Politico that intelligence agencies were able to identify the cost, timing and size of the sales.

‘It wasn’t one specific action. It was a number of actions,’ one official said. 

‘In at least one instance, if not more, specific sales were stopped either before they went or while they were en route.’

The officials offered no further information.

But their careful background briefing shows how the administration is keen to stress the importance of the FISA powers.

Section 702 allows intelligence agencies on domestic soil and without a warrant to intercept emails and other electronic communications of foreigners abroad, including their interactions with Americans.

It faces intense opposition from those who see it as a backdoor to monitoring Americans overseas, including privacy campaigners. 

Many Republicans are also still angry at errors made by the FBI during the investigation into links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign. 

Members of the Iran’s Basij paramilitary force attend a rally in support of the Palestinians as an Iranian domestically built missile is displayed, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Nov. 24

In particular, they are angry about missteps in the way that court orders were used to wiretap Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign, even though the FISA authority was not used.  

But an inspector general’s report found that the FBI had improperly trawled the FISA database to see if it could find political figures caught up in exchanges. 

The Biden administration says fixes have been made and that Section 702 will be ineffective if any more limits are implemented. 

Matthew G. Olsen, the assistant attorney general for national security, said recently: ‘In the current threat environment — following the Hamas attacks in Israel, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the persistent threats we face from China and Iran — it is impossible to overstate how operationally damaging a warrant requirement for U.S. person queries would be to our efforts to protect the United States and Americans at risk overseas.’

Officials have been making their case by releasing information about how it has been used to prevent fentanyl coming into the country, identify hackers and monitor abuse of Chinese dissidents.

The White House recently publicised an essay written by Admiral James Winnefeld, who described how his son might never have died of an overdose if the statute had used to its full extent. 

In an op-ed for Fox News, Winnefeld, former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is now chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), describes the phone call six years ago telling him his 19-year-old son was dead.

‘This tragedy didn’t have to happen,’ he writes. ‘Societal stigma, gaps in mental health and addiction treatment, and a lack of understanding of the disease of substance dependence set this young “warrior against addiction” up for failure on the demand side of the equation.

‘But he was also let down on the supply side: the fentanyl that killed him should never have been on the street. 

‘Had a key surveillance authority used by our nation’s intelligence community been fully applied to the fentanyl crisis that began gripping our nation around the time of Jonathan’s death, that fatal dose might have never reached him.’

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