Exorcists wearing tinfoil hats and burning sage staged a faux purification ritual in Manhattans TriBeCa neighborhood Saturday outside a building that they said was an outpost used by the U.S. government to surveil everyday Americans phone calls, texts and internet usage. <\/p>\n
About 50 chanters and passers-by who joined in wailed mock prayers in the direction of the 550-foot-tall windowless monolith at 33 Thomas St., an AT&T-owned building that reportedly has space for surveillance operations by the National Security Agency. <\/p>\n
The Intercept, one of the main online news sites publishing leaks by government whistleblower Edward Snowden, has reported that the granite and concrete building appears to have long served as a surveillance site for the agency. The NSA has not confirmed the claims. <\/p>\n
This building has eyes, and it is watching you! performer and activist Joe Therrien, 35, of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, shouted from inside a pen that the NYPD set up on Church Street for protesters. <\/p>\n
The harvested data is then made accessible, added his girlfriend, Sam Wilson, 37, a puppeteer and bartender, in a Google-like mass-surveillance system that the NSA employees use to search through huge quantities of data! <\/p>\n
The couple took turns listing the kinds: internet browsing history, chats, passwords, and phone calls. <\/p>\n
The NSA could not be reached for comment Saturday, but agency officials have defended bulk surveillance as the only way to thwart terrorist attacks like 9\/11. <\/p>\n
An AT&T building security guard, speaking through an intercom, told a reporter seeking comment, today being Saturday, we dont have anyone. <\/p>\n
An AT&T spokesman didnt immediately return a message seeking comment Saturday, but told The Intercept in November: NSA representatives do not have access to any secure room or space within our owned portion of the 33 Thomas St. building. <\/p>\n
Protest organizer Noah Harley, 33, of Ridgewood, Queens, a translator and musician, said the exorcism was designed to be presented in a playful way, in contrast with other protests. <\/p>\n
Kill em with kindness, he said. <\/p>\n
The spectacle drew tourists, some of TriBeCas midday brunch crowd and other passers-by, including Virginia Mott of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and her sister, Tiffiney Biorn, who was visiting from Minneapolis. <\/p>\n
When asked about the exorcism event, the sisters began a discussing the surveillance program. <\/p>\n
You dont care if the NSA listens to your phone calls? Mott, 29, asked Biorn, 25. <\/p>\n
Biorn answered: If they want but I dont do anything. <\/p>\n
Mott said she could see both sides of the debate there could be good, there could be bad. <\/p>\n
Regardless, she said, the government should be as transparent as possible about its surveillance practices. I mean, if theyre listening to everybody, they can say that, and then we dont know who theyre listening to. <\/p>\n
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