Former NSA director Michael Hayden has denied claims that the intelligence organisation conducted a "blanket" surveillance programme of Salt Lake City-area residents during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games ©Getty Images

Senior officials of the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) have denied claims that the intelligence organisation conducted a "blanket" surveillance programme of Salt Lake City-area residents during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that current NSA director of operations Wayne Murphy and former NSA director Michael Hayden have rejected allegations made in a lawsuit against the Agency.

It is claimed the NSA gathered the contents of text messages and emails along with metadata from any phone call made around Salt Lake City before and during the Games, which took place five months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In a recent related filing, NSA attorneys requested that US District Judge Robert Shelby dismiss the case and issue a summary judgement.  

A bid to dismiss the lawsuit against the NSA was rejected in January by Shelby, who decided to let the case continue.

Shelby said "the court is simply in no position to evaluate at this stage of the proceedings whether the NSA engaged in the massive warrantless surveillance programme plaintiffs allege".

In sworn declarations filed in the US District Court, Murphy and Hayden have argued that it did not occur. 

"Neither the PSP (President's Surveillance Programme), nor any other NSA intelligence-gathering activity, at any time has involved indiscriminate 'blanket' surveillance in Salt Lake City or the vicinity of the 2002 Winter Olympic venues, whether during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games or otherwise," Murphy wrote.

Hayden said all of the allegations are "false" and denied that he was the one who "personally" led the NSA to engage in such a practice.

It is alleged the United States' National Security Agency collected data from phone calls, text messages and emails during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City ©Getty Images
It is alleged the United States' National Security Agency collected data from phone calls, text messages and emails during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City ©Getty Images

Rocky Anderson, who was the city’s Mayor when the Games took place, filed the lawsuit in 2013 which also alleges then-US President George W Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney had approved the programme.

Bush and Cheney, both Republicans, are listed as defendants in the case.

Anderson, who was a Democrat Party member before co-founding the Justice Party in 2011 and becoming their US Presidential candidate a year later, has said he believes the NSA still has data collected from the Games.