What Activists Did Near the NSA's Massive Data Center in Utah to Demand an 'End to Mass Spying

Activists flew a blimp over the National Security Agency's massive data center in Bluffdale, Utah on Friday demand "an end to mass spying" by the U.S. government. The blimp displayed an enormous sign reading: "NSA. Illegally spying below."

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation says it and Greenpeace flew a 135-foot "airship" over the center between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

"We checked in advance that everything was legal," Parker Higgen of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told KSL-TV. "At least for now, thumbing your nose at the government is not illegal. ... We did not break the law."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it is trying to raise awareness for the site standagainstspying.org, which has rated each member of Congress on where they stand on the subject of domestic surveillance.

The website represents a unique coalition of organizations from all sides of the political spectrum. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Greenpeace, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, FreedomWorks, and the Liberty Coalition are all represented. Each is standing to demand that President Obama and Congress take steps to halt domestic surveillance programs in the United States.

"Surveillance should be targeted. It should be only what is necessary and proportionate to the alleged crime," a letter on the website reads. "Surveillance should be authorized by an independent court with access to a full, factual record, facing the potential for scrutiny by a public advocate. Above all, it must not sweep in the records of hundreds of millions of people with little discernment."

The NSA maintains that all of its operations are legal.

More on the story via KSL-TV, below:

Front page image via Twitter.