What Flew Over Secret NSA Data-Base? (PHOTO)

Heralded as “the first-ever anti-surveillance air force,” a 135-foot-long thermal airship flew over NSA’s data center base in Utah on Friday.

Carrying activists from a coalition of rights groups including digital rights watchdog Electric Freedom Foundation (EFF) and Greenpeace, the airship flew with the message, “NSA Illegal Spying Below.”

“We woke up before dawn and watched the Utah sunrise while drifting 1,000 feet above the NSA data center. The center is massive, sprawling, and symbolizes everything that’s wrong with the NSA’s collect-it-all approach to surveillance,” said Parker Higgins, the EFF activist who rode in the airship.

“Our right to privacy is not a partisan issue. It’s a human rights issue,” said Michael Boldin, executive director and founder of the Tenth Amendment Center.

“This coalition gives great hope for the future because it shows that people across the political spectrum can set aside differences to work together for common cause.”

Demands For Obama To End Illegal Spying

The flight marked the public unveiling of Stand Against Spying, an online scorecard grading every member of Congress from A to F on the degree to which they are supporting–or blocking–meaningful surveillance reform. The website has an open letter to President Obama, urging him to use his authority to end mass surveillance now, without waiting for Congress to act.

EFF is calling on the United States government to:

• Pass strong legislative reform to outlaw mass surveillance, including phone record surveillance and Internet surveillance. “This must include a recognition of the privacy rights of non-US citizens.”
• Reform the FISA court, the secret court that signs off on NSA’s secret surveillance. (FISA court reform includes transparency into any significant or new legal interpretations made by the court and ensuring a well-resourced public advocate is in place to argue for privacy rights within the court and seek further review.)
• Prohibit NSA from undermining international encryption technologies and standards and hacking into technology companies.
• Promote transparency, publish transparency reports, and also give companies rights to publish granular accounts about how companies cooperate with bulk surveillance efforts and the number of user accounts that are affected.
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“Make sure Congress and the president know that we’re paying attention,” Higgins said.

“We’re asking you to visit StandAgainstSpying.org now, look up your elected representatives’ grades, and tweet directly to members of Congress so we can pressure them to enact real reform—not cosmetic fixes.”