A new report says the FBI has identified the whistleblower who provided documents about the U.S. terrorist watchlist to The Intercept news site. Citing unnamed sources, Michael Isikoff reports in Yahoo News the FBI recently searched the home of the employee of a federal contractor in northern Virginia, while federal prosecutors have opened a criminal probe. Isikoff said the case relates to an August story by investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux based on a classified document which showed nearly half of those on the U.S. government’s massive terrorist watchlist are not linked to any known terrorist group. Intercept editor John Cook said the stories had revealed “crucial information” about the excesses of the U.S. watchlisting system, and that “any attempt to criminalize the public release of those stories benefits only those who exercise virtually limitless power in secret with no accountability.” Last week on Democracy Now!, Scahill described the significance of the revelations.

Jeremy Scahill: “This document and others like it had been long sought after by the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal organizations and lawyers who represent clients who have been unjustly placed on the no-fly list. We saw an immediate impact from what this extremely principled and brave whistleblower did, in that it’s already been used in court cases. A federal judge has declared the aspects of the watchlisting program that disallow people from knowing their status on the watchlist to be unconstitutional.”

The existence of a second whistleblower is also noted at the end of Laura Poitras’ new documentary “Citizenfour,” about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Scahill has not discussed his source, but told Isikoff, “The Obama administration in my view is conducting a war against whistleblowers and ultimately against independent journalism.”