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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica's "Hacker Hotel" makes North Korea's look like a 1 star hovel.
Last edited Fri Dec 26, 2014, 02:02 PM - Edit history (2)
While the mass media is busy scaring you about the capacity of the mighty North Korea cyber warrior Army of Doom, complete with karaoke, ...oh my, ...you might want to take a gander at what squats quietly on the arid, sparsely populated high plains of Utah, U.S.A., spread out over hundreds of acres, most of it buried underground, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of tens of billions of dollars.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865605919/Blimp-flying-over-NSA-building-in-apparent-protest-forced-to-land.html?pg=all&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2F
BLUFF-DALE A California-based group that has been battling the National Security Agency for years in lawsuits flew a giant blimp over Utah's NSA Data Center Friday.
Parker Higgen, of the San Francisco-based group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., he along with a pilot from Greenpeace flew a 135-foot blimp over the data center with a banner that stated: "NSA. Illegally spying below."
The group, he said, was trying to raise awareness for its new website, standagainstspying.org/.
The foundation tweeted Friday: "We're in an airship over the NSA's data center in Utah with our friends @GreenpeaceUSA & @TenthAmendment, demanding an end to mass spying."
The NSA's Data Center is located in Bluffdale and has been the focus of national scrutiny and criticism. It is believed to be a destination for huge amounts of data from around the world collected by the tight-lipped agency.
Higgen told KSL's Doug Wright Friday after the flight that he had the blimp loaded in a trailer and drove it to Utah from California, and then launched it in the dark from a field. The blimp is owned by Greenpeace.
Even though Greenpeace typically protests environmental issues, Higgen said they, along with all activists, have become increasing targets of government surveillance.
Higgen said despite the apparent rogue nature of the protest, his group actually checked ahead of time to make sure it wouldn't be violating air space violations, particularly over Camp Williams.
"We checked in advance that everything was legal," he said. "At least for now, thumbing your nose at the government is not illegal. ... We did not break the law."
He said the air space restrictions didn't begin until 7 a.m., when people from the data center arrived for work. Neither the Utah National Guard nor Utah Department of Public Safety was called to respond to the aircraft.
Despite the early hour of the protest, Higgen believes that based on the number of cars he saw pulled over to watch, "It ended up making the splash we wanted to."
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jtuck004
(15,882 posts)NJCher
(35,685 posts)would be to record all police action on body cams, and have it instantly available to all U.S. citizens.
In addition, put body cams on as much of the military as is feasible, so we can watch what they're doing, too.
Obviously, there are some national security issues, but not nearly as much as they like to claim.
Cher
nichomachus
(12,754 posts)turn it into a hard-labor prison for all those involved in torture and other war crimes.
NJCher
(35,685 posts)Let's put body cams on them, too. I would so love to see Cheney doing latrine duty.
Cher