NSA blimp video showing a gigantic 135-Foot Blimp over the NSA's Utah Data Center is currently making headlines. The recently released NSA blimp has reportedly been launched by protesters against the NSA's 'illegal mass surveillance program.'


It was only last year that NSA's Utah Data Center opened in Bluffdale, Utah. Since then, according to Fox 13 Now, plenty of surveillance theories have surrounded the million-square-foot facility. But with the recently released NSA blimp by protesters, which have been set on Friday morning, locals driving along the vast complex may have thought those theories to be true.

The NSA blimp was covered by reporters as hovering over the center of the Utah Data Center along with the letters NSA printed on its side. According to Wired, the NSA blimp was set by an activist group from a coalition of environmental, privacy and anti-spying organizations flew to protest the NSA's alleged domestic spying. Parker Higgins, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Federation, told FOX 13 on Friday regarding setting of the NSA blimp, 'It's not often that you can get - literally - over the NSA."

Higgins continued, "NSA surveillance impacts a lot of us, but it's hard to feel the physical impact of it. When you see the sprawling, scary data center, it really drives home that this agency is really doing something physical and real that affects Americans and non-Americans' lives.'

Along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Greenpeace also joined with the launch of the 135-foot NSA blimp early Friday morning. In addition to protesting the agency's mass surveillance programs, the NSA blimp was also a way for the groups to announce their launch of Stand Against Spying, a website which rates members of Congress on their support or opposition to NSA reform. The NSA blimp included a full message on it which read, "NSA: Illegal Spying Below." This message on the NSA blimp went along with an arrow which points downward where the Stand Against Spying URL was located.

Rainey Reitman, also from the EFF said of the NSA blimp and launch of their new campaign, 'We thought it would be fun to fly an airship around the Utah data center, which in many ways epitomizes the NSA's collect-it-all strategy. We wanted to have a way to symbolize that our movement is getting quite confrontational with NSA surveillance in a visceral way.' The EFF, Greenpeace and the Tenth Amendment Center reportedly used the green NSA blimp.

The NSA blimp is owned by Greenpeace and named the AE Bates. The protestors reportedly launched the NSA blimp at 6 a.m., at 1,000 feet over the Bluffdale facility. Reitman said they timed the launch of the NSA blimp according to the year after the political debate on NSA spying began. He said, 'Many members of congress have acted as roadblocks or sat on the sidelines of this debate. The time had come for us to be very honest with the general public about those who have and haven't called for NSA reform.' According to reports, Greenpeace became involved in the project as a plaintiff in a lawsuit the EFF filed against the NSA last year.

The lawsuit reportedly accused the agency of intimidating activists with its mass phone metadata collection programs. Previously, before it came out as the NSA blimp, the humongous airship has already made appearances during protests on coal-fired power plants in North Carolina, overfishing in the pacific northwest and the Koch brothers in Southern California. FOX 13 reports on statements from the FAA and the Utah National Guard regarding the NSA blimp. According to them, the flight was legal.

Lt. Col. Steven Fairbourn said, 'Camp Williams only restricts the airspace when we're under operations with live fire cannon operations or small fire operations.' Protest groups also said that they have taken every precaution to make sure that the NSA blimp flyover was legal before the launch. Eventually, the activists group responsible for the NSA blimp flyover brought the NSA blimp down by 7 a.m. so as not to interfere with other air traffic. Meanwhile, the NSA blimp got commuters talking, and sharing on social media.

However, it seems that some Utahns reportedly did not get the message of the NSA blimp. One local wrote on Twitter, 'There was an NSA blimp on my way to work this morning. #whydotheyneedablimp? #whatwasitdoing? #nsa.'

Another twiterrer said, 'Wasn't a huge fan of the NSA blimp that saw me on the way to work this morning.'

As for the opinion of the NSA regarding the launch of the NSA blimp demonstration, the agency has not returned a request for comment.