Anti-Surveillance Campaign Urges NSA Employees to Quit their Posts

Ministry of Defence Under OGL

A group of anti-surveillance campaigners have launched a campaign to persuade NSA and GCHQ employees to quit their posts.

As part of the campaign, which is called Intelexit, the group have sought to place billboards as close as possible to the intelligence agency’s buildings across the world.

A billboard posted near the NSA outpost and military base in Darmstadt, Germany, for example, said: “listen to your heart, not to private phone calls.”

The group is planning to place a billboard outside GCHQ headquarters in Cheltenham, UK. It is expected to read “the intelligence community needs a backdoor,” in a jibe at the UK and US governments, who are attempting to push through legislation allowing them to de-crypt all encrypted digital communications between their citizens.

Activists also plan to share fliers with em ployees at the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland while attaching a sign to the van patrolling the area.

“We know for a fact that there are many, many people working there who are conflicted, anxious and ultimately completely against what these agencies are doing,” says a spokesperson for the Intelexit group, which is part of the social activism collective Peng.

“If more of those individuals start realising that they can take a stand and that they have support from the outside world, well, then maybe a few people will be compelled to act on their principles.”

The group is also planning to bombard NSA fax numbers, emails, and phone numbers – which they obtained from an unnamed source – with messages.

Cyber expert Bruce Schneier and NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake have featured in a video from Peng – which you can watch below – advising Secret Service staff on how to quit their jobs.

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