The Transportation Security Administration’s Quiet Skies program, which is supposed to track terror suspects traveling by air, is under fire again.
UnCoverDC.com has reported that Quiet Skies has targeted former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a fierce critic of Vice President Kamala Harris. Gabbard says that Harris — President Joe Biden’s hand-picked successor who faces former President Donald Trump in November’s election — does not have the brains and strength to be commander in chief.
The surveillance began a day after Gabbard criticized Harris on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program. A congressman is demanding answers about it.
The controversial program, under which federal air marshals track airline passengers who might be a terror threat, was exposed in 2018. A newspaper revealed that it tracked passengers who were, well, simply passengers.
Get Gabbard
Sonya LaBosco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, told UncoverDC that Gabbard was unaware that she’s under constant surveillance when she travels.
“According to LaBosco, at least one of the whistleblowers is ready to go on the record with pertinent documentation,” Uncover DC reported:
LaBosco shared that Gabbard is unaware she has two Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshals on every flight she boards. LaBosco has attempted to contact Gabbard and her staff but has not received a response.
LaBosco and AMNC President David Londo have repeatedly testified on behalf of FAMS. They have also written countless letters concerning the classification of innocent Americans as domestic terrorists to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the House Homeland Committee, the Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the House Oversight Committee.
Because of ongoing whistleblower information, LaBosco believes TSA and Homeland Security are violating citizens’ constitutional rights in a “big domestic surveillance grab” that seems to be targeting conservatives.
The spy program sounds as if it’s run by the Soviet KGB. Air marshals track individuals from their arrival at the airport through the end of their flights. Their boarding passes are marked with SSSS, and they miss flights because they are subjected to extra searches.
But LoBosco told UncoverDC that Gabbard enrollment in the anti-terror program is “likely politically motivated.”
“Air Marshals were first assigned to Gabbard on Jul. 23, a day after she criticized Kamala Harris, Biden, and the National Security State in an interview with Laura Ingraham,” the website continued. Air marshals “mobilized on Jul. 24 and assigned to their first flight with her on Jul. 25.”
Gabbard’s Commentary: Harris Can’t Handle the Job
So Gabbard might be under surveillance for telling the truth about Harris and her boss, President Joe Biden.
Harris is “inexperienced and lacking of knowledge and strength,” Gabbard told Ingraham. And to find out what kind of foreign and military policy she would pursue, “we simply need to look at the facts of what we’ve seen under the Biden-Harris administration”:
They are not running our foreign policy. Our foreign policy decisions are being made by unelected people in the military-industrial complex, who are profiting from us being in a constant state of war, and the national security state that has more power to undermine our freedoms and liberties when we are in a state of war.
Kamala Harris does not have the strength to stand up to the military-industrial complex and national security state. So she’s going to continue being a figurehead like Joe Biden has been. And … this is where the clear choice is in this election. Donald Trump is strong. As commander and chief, he will take charge. He will stand up to the military-industrial complex and national security state. He will prevent us from getting into unnecessary wars and make decisions that actually serve the best interests of the American people and our own security.
Gabbard then attacked Harris for “completely” failing to secure the border as “border czar.” Harris, Gabbard said, has “fail[ed] to serve the interests of the American people.”
Harris — who once said that the United States and North Korea are allies — is “clearly incapable” of being president “and would be very dangerous in that position,” Gabbard concluded.
As UncoverDC noted, Gabbard denounced U.S. adventures abroad during her presidential campaign in 2022 and quit the party the same year. Hillary Clinton falsely said Gabbard was a “Russian asset.”
Responding to the report, GOP Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee wrote to TSA chief David Pekoske and demanded a meeting with the individual who runs Quiet Skies.
Globe Report
The Boston Globe exposed the program in 2018, reporting that it wasn’t just tracking terror suspects. It was tracking law-abiding Americans.
The targets were “ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency,” the newspaper reported.
Air marshals confessed to the Globe that they followed travelers who “pose no real threat,” and that “thousands of unsuspecting Americans” were being watched. One of those unsuspecting Americans was a Southwest Airlines flight attendant.
Quiet Skies records showed that air marshals watched travelers to see whether they “fidget, use a computer, have a ‘jump’ in their Adam’s apple or a ‘cold penetrating stare,’” the newspaper reported.
As well, the Globe reported:
All US citizens who enter the country are automatically screened for inclusion in Quiet Skies — their travel patterns and affiliations are checked and their names run against a terrorist watch list and other databases, according to agency documents.…
When someone on the Quiet Skies list is selected for surveillance, a team of air marshals is placed on the person’s next flight. The team receives a file containing a photo and basic information — such as date and place of birth — about the target, according to agency documents.
The teams track citizens on domestic flights, to or from dozens of cities big and small — such as Boston and Harrisburg, Pa., Washington, D.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C. — taking notes on whether travelers use a phone, go to the bathroom, chat with others, or change clothes, according to documents and people within the department.
After the Globe revealed the program that July, TSA discussed the program at length next month.
“TSA uses this program to reduce the risk on airplanes by identifying passengers deemed to be higher risk according to certain travel patterns and other intelligence-based factors,” the agency claimed. “Contrary to some reporting, the program does not take into account race or religion, and does not designate individuals based on their observed behaviors onboard an aircraft.”
UncoverDC did not disclose whether Gabbard fidgets, or has a jumpy Adam’s apple or a menacing stare when she goes through airport security.
