"In working together with our foreign service partners in Turkey, we were able to identify the individual who conducted that attack," FBI National Security Branch Executive Assistant Director Carl Ghattas said on the FISA Amendments Act, which allows for warrantless surveillance of non-US citizens.
Ghattas explained that the US authorities conducted warrantless surveillance after the attack to determine the location of the suspect, Abdulkadir Masharipov.
US authorities passed that information on to Turkey, which apprehended Masharipov on January 17.
Ghattas was one of several intelligence officials who testified to the Judiciary Committee in support of upholding the FISA Amendments Act, which rights groups have criticized for infringing on free speech and privacy rights.
The FISA Amendments Act allows the US Intelligence Community to target the communications of non-US persons located outside the United States for foreign intelligence purposes.
The law will expire on December 31 if Congress does not extend it.
