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Protesters Launch a 135-Foot Blimp Over the NSA's Utah Data Center

Posted by Soulskill on from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

Dega704 sends this news from Wired: Plenty of nightmare surveillance theories surround the million-square-foot NSA facility opened last year in Bluffdale, Utah. Any locals driving by the massive complex Friday morning saw something that may inspire new ones: A massive blimp hovering over the center, with the letters NSA printed on its side.

Activist groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Greenpeace launched the 135-foot thermal airship early Friday morning to protest the agency's mass surveillance programs and to announce the launch of Stand Against Spying, a website that rates members of Congress on their support or opposition to NSA reform. The full message on the blimp reads 'NSA: Illegal Spying Below' along with an arrow pointing downward and the Stand Against Spying URL."

10 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So Fucking Awesome!

    That is all.

  2. Re:The US government by sabri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are in reality a bunch of shameless cowards.

    I agree, but they're not as shameless as I thought. My first reaction was: they are not going to have a pilot's license much longer. But when I took a look at the aeronautical charts for that area, I was surprised to find out that it's not a prohibited area to fly over.

    In my humble opinion, this means that apparently the Government doesn't think this datacenter is such a big deal, otherwise it would have been a no-fly zone (like the plant a couple of miles to the left of the lake).

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  3. How effective can the spying be? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If they are caught off guard by A BLIMP

  4. They screwed up the website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Too bad they are so utterly tone-deaf that they put up a website that requires not just your zipcode but also your street address in order to look up your congressional representative's record on the NSA. Stupid web2.0 fuckheads couldn't at least include a link to a list of reps to pick from in case we didn't want to hand out our home address to god knows what data brokers? Even when I disabled noscript and disabled requestpolicy that damn lookup still wouldn't work either. Epic fucking fail.

    1. Re:They screwed up the website by CanHasDIY · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So you're going to be targetted for looking up your representative's record?

      No, you're going to be targeted for looking up your representative's record regarding the NSA.

      Considering today's level of technology, does this really seem all that far fetched? A program watches the data stream, cross references the list of people who complain with what those people own, their health records, employment records, ie anything that could be used against them at some point, and if the system gets a significant enough hit, out goes the request for Judge Rubberstamp to sign some FISA warrants.

      Shit, other than the back end, they probably scripted most of it over a weekend.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  5. Re:The US government by sugarmatic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Prohibited areas are few and far between, and don't include power plants as you suggest,despite what some obedient naive security person might proclaim to an even more naive reporter.

    The data center is wide open, and this was a peaceful protest. It is not possible from the picture to tell if the flight was conducted at a legal altitude or not. http://www.aopa.org/News-and-V... ==the law enforcement community proved itself to be a bunch of incompetent, fragile personality types.

    People like to believe anything that gives a sense of urgency or authority to what they feel they have to say.

    If the government truly wanted to protect the data center, they wouldn't have placed their chiller stations on the perimeter with no barriers,or their transformer service stations, etc. The place would be disabled for months at a minimum if they were affected. An airplane flying overhead? It would barely mess up the paint. There is no reason to shut down the airspace there.

  6. "NSA! "We've got NSA here!" by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "See? Nobody cares."

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  7. Re:the NSA already thought of this. by kirkc99 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Salt Lake area resident here. The data center is easily visible from I-15, on a busy commute from Salt Lake County to Utah County. I am sure the blimp would have been visible to tens of thousands of people on their commutes to work.

  8. Re:The US government by 1s44c · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe it's just a disaster recovery site with a few hundred secretarial staff located there, the real show could be elsewhere. We just don't know.

  9. Re:Two thoughts by gweilo8888 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Correct. The blimp in question is a four-seater GEFA-FLUG AS 105 GD/4 with a 41-meter Hyperlast envelope that inflates using two Cameron Shadow burners. It's powered by a Rotax 582 UL engine putting out 65 horsepower, mounted in pusher configuration with a four-bladed, fixed-pitch Helix H50F prop. (That's an ultralight engine and a lightweight glass / carbon-fiber prop, incidentally. Dy weight is under 1,100 pounds, and maximum takeoff weight is under 2,000 pounds.)

    http://www.gefa-flug.de/index....