Warrantless Surveillance in Terror Case Raises Constitutional Challenge

Prosecutors have told an Iraqi refugee who isaccused of traveling to Syria to help a terrorist organization that he faces evidence derived from the government’s warrantless surveillance program, a disclosure that elevates the significance of the case by making the constitutionality of that program a central dispute.

With the rare notice this month, the case joins a small number of others in which the constitutionality of the surveillance program and its legal basis — the FISA Amendments Act — are at issue. Among them is an Ohio case in which three defendants accused of giving money to Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch received similar notices in December.

Thomas A. Durkin, a defense lawyer who represents the Iraqi refugee, Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, who was arrested after returning to the United States, and one of the Ohio men, Yahya Farooq Mohammad, said he would ask the judges in both cases to suppress the evidence.

“We intend to challenge it,” Mr. Durkin said.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.