In 2003 , the appropriate OIG was notified that an employee had possibly violated USSID 18 . A female foreign national employed by the U.S. Government , with whom the subject was having sexual relations , told another government employee that she suspected that the subject was listening to her telephone calls . The other employee reported the incident . The investigation determined that , from approximately 1998 to 2003 , the employee tasked nine telephone numbers of female foreign nationals , without a valid foreign intelligence purpose , and listened to collected phone conversations while assigned to foreign locations . The subject conducted call chaining on one of the numbers and tasked the resultant numbers . He also incidentally collected the communications of a U.S. person on two occasions . ;