New campaign aims to convert intelligence staff

A new campaign has kicked off in Germany in an effort to encourage employees of the NSA and British spy agency GCHQ to quit their jobs.

Launched by a group of Berlin-based anti-surveillance activists on Monday, Intelexit wants the employees of the American and British intelligence community to reconsider their profession, WIRED reported.

The group has started the project by installing billboards near the agencies’ headquarters.

One reading “listen to your heart, not to private phone calls,” was installed near the Dagger Complex, a military base and an outpost of the US National Security Agency in the southwestern German city of Darmstadt.

GCHQ, British Government Communications Headquarters, would also see a billboard near one of its centers in Gloucestershire’s Cheltenham.

That one carries the text “the intelligence community needs a backdoor,” ironically touching on the intelligence agencies’ demands to have access to citizens’ decrypted communications.

A van was also set to patrol around the NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters in Maryland, featuring the message.

The activists were also supposed to hand in fliers providing information on the group’s support for those who want to leave their jobs there.

“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 Ariel Fischer, a pseudonymous spokesperson for the Intelexit group, an offshoot of the social activism collective called Peng. “If more of those individuals start realizing 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 will continue its work by using faxes, emails, and phone calls to NSA numbers and addresses.

The NSA and GCHQ have been under fire over violation of human rights in several cases, including tapping citizens’ communications.

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