Oct 27th 2013, 01:35, by Grant Gross, IDG News Service
A crowd of about 5000 people, chanting "stop spying, stop lying" and "hey, ho, mass surveillance has got to go," marched through Washington, D.C., Saturday to protest the U.S. National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs unveiled in press reports this year.
IDGNSA protester dressed as U.S. President Barack Obama joins the rally against government surveillance programs.
Protesters, from a seemingly wide range of political beliefs, called on the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to end mass data collection and surveillance by the NSA.
"The government has granted itself power that it does not have," said former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. president. "We have to stand against this."
Hundreds in the crowd held signs or wore stickers thanking Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor whose leaks to news organizations exposed mass surveillance and data collection programs at the spy agency. Others held signs with the text of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protests residents against unreasonable searches and seizures.
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