Activists' Drone Drops Anti-Spying Leaflets Over the NSA

The anti-surveillance group Intelexit has graduated from passing out pamphlets to dropping them from the sky.
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Plakat INTELEXIT in der Nähe des "Dagger-Komplex" bei Darmstadt. Im Hintergrund ist eine Antennenanlage der US-Einrichtung zu sehen.PATRICK G. STOESSER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v2z7KwThIg&feature=youtu.be

When the German activist group Intelexit launched a campaign last week to persuade employees of surveillance agencies like the NSA to resign, their tactics started with billboards, online video and sidewalk canvassing. Now they've taken their campaign in a more aggressive direction: up into the NSA's airspace.

On Monday, supporters of the Intelexit group, an offshoot of the Berlin-based activist collective Peng, launched a winged drone over the Dagger Complex, a U.S. military base in Darmstadt, Germany that also houses an NSA outpost known as the European Cryptologic Center. The drone, which the group tells WIRED is a Skywalker x8 remote-controlled hobbyist plane, rained down leaflets over the complex asking NSA employees if they're "ready to exit?" and listing ethical reasons to quit the intelligence services. The stunt is captured in the video above, complete with a comically heroic NSA-battling score.

"It is very hard to reach the people working in secret services since they are so cloistered off from the rest of society," says Ariel Fischer, a pseudonymous spokesperson for the group. "This is a really innovative way to reach out to them...It also shows employees that Intelexit is serious about helping them."

The legality of their pamphlet drop is questionable: At least some German states prohibit flying drones over military bases. The NSA didn't respond to WIRED's request for comment about the anti-surveillance group's drone launch.

Fischer adds that the campaign, which included a – video featuring NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake and cryptography guru Bruce Schneier, has been an "immense success" so far. She said that the group has already been contacted by both current and former intelligence workers supportive of their cause, though she declined to say how many. If Intelexit continues its increasingly flashy exploits, it will at least have the intelligence agency's attention.