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30 Sep, 2015 10:28

'Listen to your heart, not to private calls': Campaign launched to help agents to quit intel service

You are an intelligent agent full of remorse? Feel ashamed at listening to private conversations? Want to quit but don’t know how? Now there is an exit – a private group has launched a campaign to help intel agents quit spying and start a new life.

“Right now thousands of people work in the shadows of the intelligence community. They don’t ask questions, they follow orders... But what happens when you see something you cannot forget? You realize that the system you are part of is chipping away the democracy?” says a YouTube promo from the Intelexit group.

So now if an intelligence agent is tired of tracking every visible user on the internet, he can ask the group to help him ”break free” from the intelligence community and transit to normal life, without spying.

Sandra Baierl, spokesperson for Intelexit, told RT the group launched their project for various reasons.

“We learned about the problem of exiting ([intelligent] service systems by individuals who were working at the time or having worked before within the agencies. And we’ve learned that it was quite problematic from time to time,” she said.

READ MORE: ‘Karma Police’: Illegal GCHQ operation to track ‘every visible user on the internet’

So Intelexit specialists decided “to take an initiative to care about such people professionally."

“There [are] plenty of people who think that it is not such a fulfilling job and that they might have gotten into the job for really good ideas. They find themselves working for systems they can no longer subscribe to.

“And these are the people that we are interested in. And they might find us very interesting because we provide a helping hand for them,” she said.

READ MORE: Germany prepares for cyberwarfare offensive – reports

The group has even created inspiring billboards that appear near intelligence agency buildings across the world.

“Listen to your heart, not to private phone calls,” says one posted in front of the Dagger Complex, a US military base in Darmstadt, Germany. Another one, saying, “The intelligence community needs a backdoor” appeared outside GCHQ HQ in Cheltenham, England.

For anyone who wants to become an ‘ex-agent’ there is a questionnaire on the website where they can answer five questions that can help them quit, says the group. Intelexit asks them what they feel when working in intelligence services and why they disagree with mass surveillance. If you answered all these questions, then you are ready to quit the ‘spying network’ and start a new life, says the organization.

However, if you are still not convinced that listening to Angela Merkel’s phone is bad, the group gives six more reasons to quit. Apart from “being honest with your family” and “contributing to freedom and democracy”, the group says surveillance is “ineffective against terrorism.”

READ MORE: Snowden leaks confirm existence of ECHELON

The group even gave advice on how to quit the services – either quietly or sensationally, like the famous whistleblower Edward Snowden and “expose the wrongdoings you have witnessed.”

“If you choose to share information, you should think carefully who you give it to and only communicate about this through secure channels. Please contact us or consult an organization specialized in handling and protecting whistleblowers like Wikileaks and Courage Foundation.”

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