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To prevent whistleblowing, U.S. intelligence agencies are instructing staff to spy on their colleagues.<\/strong><\/p>\n Elham Khorasani was sitting in her car at a stoplight in Northern Virginia when she got the call. It was April 16, 2013. \u201cI\u2019m with the FBI,\u201d a man on the line said, \u201cand we\u2019re at your home executing a search warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n Khorasani was flummoxed. (A pseudonym is being used to protect her privacy.) The Iran native, a U.S. citizen since the 1990s, had worked as a Farsi and Dari language analyst at the National Security Agency (NSA) going on eight years. She had recently been selected for a second tour at Menwith Hill station, the NSA\u2019s mammoth listening post in northern England. Minutes before the FBI called, she\u2019d left a meeting at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he said, \u2018FBI,\u2019 my mind was going all over the place,\u201d Khorasani says, adding that the most illegal thing she has ever done is get an occasional parking ticket. Yet the agent gave her no information, only instructing her to return to her apartment immediately.<\/p>\n Khorasani describes her life after that day as a nightmare. \u201cThey suspended my clearances without giving me any reason,\u201d she remembers. She wasn\u2019t allowed at work, and for two years, the NSA made her \u201ccall every day like a criminal, checking in every morning before 8.\u201d Khorasani went to the agency only for interrogations, she says: eight or nine sessions that ran at least five hours each. She was asked about her family, her travel, and her contacts.<\/p>\n