DHS ends controversial Quiet Skies passenger surveillance program
"It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration - weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends," Noem said in a statement on June 5. "I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security."
Noem said the Transportation Security Administration will maintain its critical aviation and security vetting functions, and the Trump Administration will return TSA "to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public."
"This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans," Noem said.
Quiet Skies was revealed in 2018 by The Boston Globe, which said the program deployed air marshals, who fly armed and undercover to thwart terrorists, to track dozens of suspicious travelers daily.
Lawmakers and civil rights groups have long criticized the program for potentially masking racial or religious discrimination in deciding who to focus on. Part of identifying suspicious travelers relies on noticing behaviors such as fidgeting or having a penetrating stare, which government watchdogs and some lawmakers have criticized in the past as an unreliable basis for probable cause.
After the Globe report, David Pekoske, who was then TSA Administrator, told USA TODAY's editorial board that Quiet Skies has been in place for years and was a valuable piece of the air marshals' portfolio.
This May, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, exposed that the TSA tracked Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, during the 2024 election for unspecified reasons that Republicans have said were purely political.
DHS issued a statement on June 4 alleging that Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, improperly contacted TSA to complain that her husband, William "Billy" Shaheen, was being subjected to enhanced screening.
DHS accused Shaheen's lawyer husband, William "Billy" Shaheen, of having traveled with a "known or suspected terrorist" - and said the senator had used her influence to have him removed from a TSA watchlist.
But according to a USA Today Network report on June 5, William Shaheen was flagged for the program because he had traveled several times with a New England lawyer who said TSA had inaccurately and unfairly marked her as a possible terrorist.
Immigration attorney Celine Atallah shared with USA TODAY Network in an exclusive account that she was the unnamed suspicious "co-traveler" mentioned in a June 4 DHS press release attacking the senator - and that she is "a U.S. citizen, a licensed attorney, a law-abiding American, and Billy Shaheen's legal co-counsel."
Shaheen denied getting her husband removed from a watch list, as Atallah, a close family friend, blasted DHS for trying to "score political points by smearing innocent people."
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