Courage Advisory Board member and NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, along with fellow whistleblowers Diane Roark, Ed Loomis, J. Kirk Wiebe and William Binney have filed a civil rights suit against former NSA directors Keith Alexander and Michael Hayden and the NSA, the DOJ and the FBI.

The group is suing over violations of

their constitutional and civil rights, invasion of privacy, and retaliation for their roles as whistleblowers, including illegal searches and seizures, physical invasion of their residences and places of business, illegal detention as temporary false imprisonment, confiscation of property, cancellation of security clearances leading to the loss of their jobs and employment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment and intimidation.

The whistleblowers helped develop internet-surveillance program THINTHREAD, which worked “efficiently, effectively, and at very low cost”, but which was abandoned by the NSA in favor of TRAILBLAZER, a far more expensive program that was scrapped as well. These plaintiffs reported the waste of government funds and were raided and persecuted in retaliation.

Back in March it was reported that Thomas Drake’s formal complaint of government relatiation was rejected, with the government condoning the way it responded to Drake vocalizing his concerns.

TechDirt opines on what might come of the suit, “The government likely won’t be able to dismiss the suit quickly, but the plaintiffs are going to run into a ton of immunity claims that will be buttressed by invocations of national security concerns.”

See the suit here: