anti-nsa blimp
Click to enlarge

Activists flew a blimp emblazoned with the words “Illegal Spying Below” over the National Security Agency’s data centre in Utah on Friday in protest against the US government’s mass surveillance programmes.

The one-hour flight was carried out by the environmental group Greenpeace, digital rights activists the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a conservative political organisation, the Tenth Amendment Centre.

The 41 metre blimp, owned by Greenpeace, was adorned with a sign that read “NSA Illegal Spying Below”.

In an email to Reuters the agency declined to comment. But a spokesman did note there was no restricted airspace over the data centre, housed on the grounds of the Utah National Guard’s Camp Williams in Bluffdale, 23 miles (37km) south of Salt Lake City.

The NSA says the facility provides the government with intelligence and warnings about cyber security threats. It is thought to be the agency’s largest data storage centre.

The blimp protest coincided with the launch of an online campaign that rates members of Congress on actions the activists say either further or stop data collection efforts by the NSA…

Here’s a link to the website they were advertising with their flight.



  1. RE@DER says:

    We stayed there until it began to get dark and we could hear the warbling death knell to all our evenings, Neil’s mom screaming “Neeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwlllllllll” in her slightly east coast brogue. (A friend of my sister did a fantastic impression of this) It didn’t matter, mission accomplished, we had seen Deathprobe. http://plaidstallions.blogspot.ca/2012/02/nerd-therapy-sessions-peeping-toms.html
    I’m with the Mission Impossible group. They accomplished so much that it’s impossible to pay for it.

  2. RE@DER says:

    Oscar: What do you think you’re going to get, a short term in the federal penitentiary? Let me tell you something, ou have stolen defense secrets. By the time you get out of there you won’t be good for anything but a rocking chair and a cane.

    Dan: I don’t really think I’ll be going to prison.

    Oscar: Well you’re either a dreamer or a certified psychopath. [Takes a call from the “secretary”]. The ambassador to Korami was kidnapped this morning. He’s being held hostage and will be killed unless we release him.
    http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Return_of_Deathprobe

    Snowden is Snow Dan with Big Data. You are going to Russia. Best plan may be to have kids as ambassadors

    “Only one slight flaw in the plan….

    My well meaning parents had declared the Summer of 1977, the “TV less Summer” and save for one night where my sister and I swore we heard gunfire and Indians, even my parents had adhered to this plan.

    I honestly don’t remember putting up a fight, we had a pool, I had a bike and my Dad was working from home more. He had this red “Hotline” that always reminded me of the Wolfman’s phone from “Frightenstein”. There was only one rule, white phone rings, continue playing, Red phone rings, you shutta your mouth.”

    With a cheap blue tarp and a garden hose you got a slip-n-slide. All you need is a hill. I’m over the hill, they are over the big data center. The debt is over the limit. Now we are going back over to Iraq. Prepare for shortages of…well everthing!

    • norman says:

      summer of ’77,,, well spring of ’76 arrive border town i’s 21yrs they gave me local drivers licence. I still can’t drive, when i was tween 18yrs and 21yrs they move mature age to 18yrs..

      ’77 arrive this town first time, here still Aarhus Denmark and students down a dock bars would buy ye a drink to test thier english. old day labourers on the docks humping 50kilo sacks of coffee. and they would drink-up their wage but those guys were all dead. Hence female students buying drinks.

      But it was like the city was brand new to me, the 1000 yr old church made of ‘monk stones’ same as red-brick but bigger dimensions, at the west church tower, bank had keller museum viking things. My border town mates girlfriend had an attic apartment and the bus stop right on old town bar st.

      They both were over six foot and had to bend in doorways, fantastic little apartment. She was studying medicine and work night nurse city hospitals. We were foreigners and collecting unemployment international insurance. They were used to other Scandinavians but Irish unemployed was new. The lady in the office looking for documentation said ‘ye think ye can get it for your blue eye sake’ then ask me did i understand… my mate there to translate, he was in country one year longer. I said i did which i did, and next think i know i was in like flynn… i ‘d not been to aussie then

      but back to the point. now in ireland and england them days ye had one number for tax and another for welfare and ye had to know somebody to get a bank a/c

      So there i was, in this country were everybody had a ‘person #’ remember i was westgermany military deserter. not too keen to give , name rank or number.

      But ye just had to have the magic number. (hearing the no agenda show now) Doctors were free but ye had to have the magic number. well in that case we had to have E303 or was it E301 but anyways EU was new.

      second helping of spaghetti bologne’ise was free in the day time in that bar were a guy from our street arrive asking if there were any irish in the bar. He was embarrassing. there was a dumb waiter were the girls would get the food, was the kitchen up-stairs of in the keller…

  3. RE@DER says:

    Oscar: Arnold, what a surprise to see you. I didn’t expect you.

    Arnold: Oscar, you have the edge on us chair-bound bureaucrats. Yes sir, you get out into the field.

    Oscar: Well I see you here. It must be very important, you flying all the way to see me.

    Arnold: Oh, it is, it is. Its also a pleasure to get out of my office. I think the walls were charred. I had an interview with the Russian ambassador.

    Oscar: Is that so. What did he have to say?

    Arnold: Well I accused him in the most diplomatic language of course, of sending the probe to tear up the country. I’ve known that man for a very long time. He can be charming and impossible, tough and generous; but the one thing he is not is a very good actor. He hasn’t fooled me yet. The ambassador said in the most undiplomatic language that the Russians didn’t send it, and I believe him.
    http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Return_of_Deathprobe

    Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

    I plead my case to my mother and was politely denied, we’ll try Neil’s house next. Now, I liked Neil’s parents a lot, they were kind and loving but I get the feeling he was a handful because they always had more of an edge to them. I could hear the “NO!” from my house, actually I could always hear what was going on in that house, I’ll get into that later….

    So shot down twice, Neil and I turned to our only hope, the new kid…

    Gord had moved into the neighbourhood in 1976, his family had immigrated from Germany years previous.

    The family immigrated from Ireland and they had more of an edge to them than any Germans you might of run across…

    • norman says:

      ainscoffs.. maybe i not say that right.. he was bit gypsie looking.. she ran away.. before they got the pianno… there was no number 13.. we lived in number 15. so tha ainscoffs lived in number 17 or did they… two children female born 29 feb.. maybe she yet a child… he sell drugs , meet him in london.. or id i.. not sure .. bot visiaon of hachet whielding maniac hand he our ride home… poolbars london were crewls then..

      The ainscoffs… dad play ‘gic gic daw daw, it all on yer leg..

      my dad at xmas woul play some tune hhis mam think posh..

      ahhh the ppls whom live next door

  4. Tim says:

    it said ‘Google Ron Paul’

  5. RE@DER says:

    Mahmoud: I’m sorry. Jamming won’t help.

    Oscar: You haven’t answered my question. Mr. Ambassador, how did you know about that?

    Mahmoud: You see the probe was preprogrammed to act in the event of any failure of radio communications.

    Steve: Your kidnapping was a set up to spring Dan Kelly. You’re involved in this whole caper.

    Mahmoud: I might be. I want to help you, and myself.

    I’m with the Irish Spring. I had nothing to do with the caper and Dan won’t give them anything. If radio communications fail switch to bells and whistles. Launch more space probes, it’s always New Frontiers.

  6. RE@DER says:

    Steve: Oscar, let’s get some digging equipment over here to this old excavation site.

    Oscar: To do what?

    Steve: Widen it, set it up like an elephant trap. You put the probe in here.

    Oscar: Ok, but what good does it do?

    Steve: Rudy found the alloy of the probe weakened in a hydrochloric acid bath. If I can get it into that pit it gets a bath.

    Steve Austin, searching for a satellite downed somewhere in the Pacific, rescues a young woman named Da-Nay from drowning, and from two men trying to capture her. She tells him that the satellite had landed on the island where she lives, which is protected by an impenetrable force field that also renders it invisible from a distance. She promises to lead him to the island, if he will help her acquire an immunity serum being developed at the University of Hawaii. The islanders are being threated by an insurrection led by a power-hungry man named Torg. But flight to another populated island would be fatal, since her people have no immunity against disease.
    http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lost_Island
    USA TODAY ‎- 10 hours ago
    After several weather delays, NASA successfully launched and recovered a “flying saucer” into Earth’s atmosphere Saturday to test technology ..We’re heading for Mars! Stop Torg and port into the Borg.

  7. bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist and junior culture critic says:

    The link is worth a look. Has a petition to our gubment to stop the mass surveillance. I’m thinking about whether or not to sign it. Pros and cons to all we do…………..

    ………………unfortunately in the current state of affairs, hard to tell what the pros and cons of mass surveillance are, will be, intended and not.

    I support the gubment doing what it can to prevent crime as intelligently as possible AND not violating the law/foundational principles as much as possible. When our own gubment lies to us without consequence about what this program is, hard to make such decisions.

    Is rather ironic. I do like that. (The blimp. why is that not a drone as well?–why does carrying a meat bag make any difference?)

  8. RE@DER says:

    Joe: These are my babies (referring to the computers). I’ve raised them. Nursed them. Taught ’em everything they know and I love ’em. But I gotta tell you something, I’m scared of them. If a pet elephant at the zoo were to go off and attack its keeper that wouldn’t be news.

    Steve: Computers are elephants?

    Joe: Million times smarter, million times stronger and we still don’t know just how these mechanical brains function

    http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Date_With_Danger
    Steve types at the computer with both hands at bionic speed.

    Air Pirates?

    Oscar: Navy Tower, this is Oscar Goldman. My code name: Snow White. Request immediate take-off clearance: Priority Red One.
    Navy Tower: Roger, Snow White, you’re clear for take-off. http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Act_of_Piracy

  9. RE@DER says:

    Meyer: The American dream was like a beautiful balloon, Mr. Austin, but balloons have a way of bursting in your face and then there’s nothing left but air.
    http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/The_Price_of_Liberty
    Lindstrom: You know, maybe Meyer had the right idea putting America over a barrel. This country’s given some people a raw deal.
    Steve: Well, some people have given this country a raw deal. Nothing’s perfect, Nils, this country’s basically what we make it, nothing better, nothing worse.

  10. RE@DER says:

    Audrey: One of those guys is thinking about all the money he’s gonna make for.. (concentrates, then gasps) getting rid of us!

    They keep sending them money for doing nothing and the only thing mounting are bigger losses. I’m highly trained and the poor are turning into blimps. How do the poor get so fat in the US?

  11. Go Fly a Kite! says:

    I love it!

    I’m not sure what flying a small blimp above the NSA’s Utah complex for a very short period exactly accomplished, particularly since no one could easily READ it. Personally find it funny how a group of hippies still have almost no consideration over what they do — or WHY!

    Nevertheless, I do love the stunt.

  12. RE@DER says:

    “American cities are like badger holes, ringed with trash–all of them–surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered in rubbish. Everything we use comes in boxes, cartons, bins, the so-called packaging we love so much. The mountain of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use.”
    ― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

    It figures that we would have need for piles of data-big data-packaged and really of no use.

    Oscar Goldman: (looking at a giant footprint) What is it, a mountain lion?
    Steve Austin: No, it’s too big. What do you think, a huge grizzly, Tom?
    Tom: No. No, not a cat. Not a grizzly.
    Oscar Goldman: Well, what is it?
    Tom: There’s only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him… Bigfoot.

  13. RE@DER says:

    Jaime Sommers: (on phone in classroom) Your office told me that you and Steve were in the California Mountains. I, eh, what are you doing, fishing?
    Oscar Goldman: (on other line, on location) I wish we were fishing.

    They’ll use that to track you to the lake. That’s funded and lots of schools in Chicago are closing. School’s for fish, eh?

    Data, debt and despotism are expanding. They have operations to turn your property into garbage and charge more for collection. Fishing is ruined, freedom is down the drain, debt is going up, school closings, food inflation, more refugees, unending war, less mobility, higher healthcare costs, longer wait times, more poverty in the cities, higher energy rates, big data…Piracy is free advertising. WANTED: Cleaning help. Please leave mess.

  14. RE@DER says:

    Wheel Jackson: (to Steve) I always thought if I had a son, he would have been like you: Air Force hero, astronaut, flying high, living clean. Not like me, having to live and work in hiding. This month a brickyard, last month a mortuary, hm. Next month…

    No space shuttles…we have blimps, pimps and chimps flying high though! Waste millions on fireworks. We can work out of airfields or malls. Run drones out of empty malls. Collect data, fill mortuaries in the Middle East. Stay in hiding, keep working. Run OGA systems.

  15. jpfitz says:

    Photoshop? Me thinks even hitting the link to their web site puts you in a honey pot. Gather, gather, gather.

  16. CrankyGeeksFan says:

    The blimp resembles, to me at least, the Fuji film blimp. It was one of the largest blimps in the U.S. 10 years ago.

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fuji_Blimp.jpg

    On the new blimp, the black lettering of “NSA” with the arrow next to it makes me think of a Kodak film box. The overall green coloring resembles a Fuji film box.

  17. RE@DER says:

    It’s the &^%#$@&$* stupid! http://creators.com/editorial_cartoons/12/29577_image.jpg
    Voting is just another way to track and control you. I took the Carlin advise, I stayed home. If you vote against them they are going to look for new ways to mess with you. Screw them. The one guy had $4 million and was bought. Your vote meant nothing. He couldn’t lose.

    One great thing about getting old is that you can get out of all sorts of social obligations just by saying you’re tired.

    “Getting old”

  18. JimD says:

    Did they have a SpyCam spying on the spies ?

  19. RE@DER says:

    There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
    Peter F. Drucker

    At least you know it’s not being done efficiently. Look useless and more expensive. Take pictures.


0

Bad Behavior has blocked 9346 access attempts in the last 7 days.