The Biden administration’s Transportation Security Administration protected the husband of far-left Democratic U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire from TSA surveillance after he was linked to a known terror suspect.
And while President Joe Biden’s TSA shielded William Shaheen from scrutiny under the Quiet Skies surveillance program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed today, the agency targeted Trump supporter and future Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard. The reason: Gabbard said far-left presidential candidate Kamala Harris didn’t have the cerebellar capacity to be president.
DHS uncovered police-state tactics. TSA targeted a critic of Harris even as they protected the husband of a senator who just happened to pal around with a terror suspect.
DHS Report
Someone at DHS or TSA was clearly doing his job: finding out just what the Biden administration was doing with Quiet Skies, under which federal air marshals track airline passengers who might be a terror threat.
“Discovered documents, correspondence, and timelines clearly highlight the Biden’s inconsistent application of Silent Partners Quiet Skies and watchlisting programs, circumventing security policies to benefit politically aligned friends and family at the expense of the American people,” DHS said:
This includes William “Billy” Shaheen, spouse of fellow [D]emocrat and sitting U.S. New Hampshire Senator, Jeanne Shaheen, while surveilling political opponents like Tulsi Gabbard months after.
Senator Shaheen, DHS said, “directly lobbied” TSA chief David Pekoske. Pekoske then repeatedly told underlings to exclude her husband from the Quiet Skies list of people to be watched.
“Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption despite Shaheen flying with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions,” DHS said.
Also on the exclusion list were “members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists.” DHS did not disclose names.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called the program a Biden administration “political rolodex” that was “weaponized against political foes” but favored “well-heeled friends.”
Timeline
The timeline of events shows how William Shaheen, a divorce lawyer, ambulance chaser, and former U.S. attorney under President Jimmy Carter, escaped scrutiny under Quiet Skies despite a possible terror connection.
On July 20, 2023, he was a “TSA Random Selectee” on flights from Boston to Washington, D.C., after he “was flagged for the first time as Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST),” DHS reported.
That’s when his high-powered wife stepped in. She asked TSA why her husband received “enhanced screening” on the flights. On October 18 of that year, TSA again flagged Shaheen “as a Co-Traveler of a KST.”
And again, Senator Shaheen inquired of TSA, this time by meeting with Pekoske. Why, she wanted to know, was her husband on a watch list. “TSA did not disclose any information on watchlisting,” DHS reported.
Two days later, Senator Shaheen got the special treatment she wanted for her husband:
[William] Shaheen was then approved by then Assistant Administrator for Intelligence and Analysis [Nancy] Nykamp … acting on then TSA Administrator Pekoske’s Authority, to be added to the Secure Flight Exclusion List.
This means that Shaheen was excluded from any future TSA Random Selectee designation, and Rules-based Selectee designation, such as Quiet Skies, Association Based Rule Selectee designation, or Silent Partner Selectee designation.
Just four days later, TSA’s legislative affairs people contacted Nykamp, after which “follow on communication provide[s] instructions to TSA Security Operations to ensure the exclusion is accurately captured in the passenger’s boarding pass status.”
Shaheen was on the exclusion list for 18 months, though his “blanket exemption has since been revoked.”
No Such Luck for Gabbard
But Gabbard, TSA thought, was the real threat. She told Fox’s Laura Ingraham that Harris wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, and was unqualified to be president.
Harris was “inexperienced and lacking [in] knowledge and strength,” Gabbard said.
And, the future DNI said, Harris didn’t have the moxie to oppose the Deep State War Party:
Kamala Harris does not have the strength to stand up to the military-industrial complex and the national security state, so she’s going to continue being a figurehead just like Joe Biden has been. And … this is where the clear choice is in this election. Donald Trump is strong. As commander in 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 summarized the conversation on X.
Shortly thereafter, whistleblowers revealed, Gabbard landed under the Quiet Skies microscope.
Citing Sonya LaBosco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, UncoverDC reported that Gabbard didn’t know that she had two “Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshals on every flight she boards.”
But Gabbard was just one of the many Americans that Quiet Skies fingered as possible terrorists, the website reported:
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.
How many conservative critics of the Biden administration landed on the list and who they were wasn’t reported.
The message from the Biden administration was clear. Travel with a known terror suspect, no worries. Criticize Kamala Harris, we’re watching you.
