Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is attempting to get to the bottom of the Transportation Security Administration’s watchlist and blacklist programs following several high-profile cases and whistleblowers scrutinizing these TSA systems.
“Recent disclosures from whistleblowers raise serious concerns that these mechanisms may have been improperly employed to target individuals based on their political views and participation in constitutionally protected activities, rather than legitimate security threat,” the Kentucky Republican wrote to TSA Administrator David Pekoske in a Wednesday letter shared with The Daily Signal.
Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is reportedly among the victims of this effort to surveil and control the travel of individuals on the basis of their political beliefs.
In a bombshell report from journalist Matt Taibbi on Aug. 7, Taibbi reports—with whistleblower testimony—that Gabbard had been added to a TSA terror threat list as part of the “Quiet Skies” program. The program seeks to closely monitor potential threats with law enforcement personnel at the airport or in the air.
On her recent travels, the former Hawaii congresswoman’s boarding pass was marked with an “SSSS” designation, which means “Secondary Security Screening Selection,” but is colloquially known as “Quad S.”
The Quad S designates a traveler as a potential threat to security, and often leads to “random” searches “lasting up to 45 minutes,” according to Taibbi’s report.
“It happened every time I boarded,” Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran, told Taibbi. “I’ve got a couple of blazers in there, and they’re squeezing every inch of the entire collar, every inch of the sleeves, every inch of the edging of the blazers … padding down underwear, bras, workout clothes, every inch of every piece of clothing.”
Gabbard, a former Democrat who ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020, has been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration. And she’s not the only critic of President Joe Biden caught up in Quiet Skies surveillance. As Gabbard told Taibbi, one TSA agent told her that he had encountered several supporters of former President Donald Trump who have received Quad S designation as of late.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, the TSA has expanded the Quiet Skies program to surveil individuals who were in the District of Columbia that day. Some with detailed knowledge of Quiet Skies and other programs like it have blown the whistle on this expansion.
David Londo and Sonya LaBosco, the president and executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, respectively, wrote to the House of Representatives in January of 2023 that innocent Americans were coming under Quiet Skies’ crosshairs, according to The Daily Wire.
“We have recently become aware that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) are improperly classifying innocent Americans as ‘Domestic Terrorists’ on internal TSA/FAMS databases and watchlists,” Londo and LaBosco wrote. “Most of these classifications occur in the absence of any investigation or even any follow up.”
One case involved an air marshal whose wife was in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, but never entered the Capitol. The Federal Air Marshal Service started following the woman on her travels, where she was often accompanied by her air marshal husband. On one of these flights, an air marshal tasked to watch the woman told her husband that he was reassigned from a “high-risk international mission” in order to monitor the wife of a fellow air marshal. When the husband investigated his wife’s surveillance, he found she was classified as a “Domestic Terrorist.”
Paul referenced the case in his Wednesday letter, writing, “The whistleblower disclosed that TSA inaccurately recorded his wife—who has a documented mobility disability—as having unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Paul continued: “Despite her physical limitations making it impossible for her to engage in the alleged activities, and with no criminal charges against her. TSA has kept her on a watchlist for more than three years.”
Londo and LaBosco’s letter added, “We have been hearing many similar stories from our FAM membership about being assigned to surveil people that TSA/FAMS labeled domestic terrorists, specifically due to being in D.C. on or about January 6th.”
The issue of surveilling individuals suspected of being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has also come up in court proceedings.
“I have also been red-flagged at the airport, and I have to go through extra security while other passengers stare at me as if I’m a terrorist,” one Jan. 6 defendant, Kirstyn Niemela, said at her sentencing hearing. “I have had other passengers come up to me—which I have videos of all of this—and tell me that undercover police or air marshals were watching and following me, and they even peeked inside the ladies’ room while I was in there. This is extremely humiliating, totally unnecessary.”
Now, Paul is demanding answers, including “unredacted” copies of “all current guidelines, criteria, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and related documents governing the selection of individuals for TSA-managed lists and programs, including the Quiet Skies program” as well as “all documentation and internal communications related to the process for determining whether an individual is designated as a ‘domestic terrorist.’”
The Daily Signal asked the TSA if it planned to cooperate with Paul’s request. A TSA spokesperson replied, “TSA will not comment on Congressional correspondence and will reply via official channels.”
