Latest news with #QuietSkies
New York Post
05-08-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Tulsi Gabbard tells ‘Pod Force One' about life on TSA watchlist: ‘Makes zero sense whatsoever'
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard opened up to The Post's Miranda Devine about being harassed and followed by federal law enforcement after her name was added to a since-scrapped Transportation Security Administration watchlist. 'I was certain … that it was politically motivated,' Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and ex-Democratic National Committee vice chair, said on the latest episode of Devine's 'Pod Force One,' out Wednesday. 'There was no other explanation for it, other than that. 'When I spoke to TSA agents in multiple airports who were just doing their jobs, but who, as they went through this extreme and in-depth search of me — and oh, by the way, my husband was also placed on this domestic terror watch list — they were like, 'Why are we doing this with you?'' the DNI recalled. Advertisement ''You are still serving as a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve. You're a former member of Congress. This makes zero sense whatsoever.'' Gabbard and her husband, Abraham Williams, were flagged under the Quiet Skies program, in which federal air marshals would surveil individuals on domestic and international flights who were not already on existing watchlists. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ended the Quiet Skies program in June of this year, claiming it failed to prevent a single terrorist attack. Advertisement 4 Tulsi Gabbard alleged that the government was weaponized against her when she was placed on a watchlist. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post 4 The Quiet Skies program has since been ended. AP Gabbard's inclusion on the list was triggered by her attendance at a Vatican event in July 2024 that was organized by a European businessman who was on an FBI watch list, the New York Times reported in January. It is unclear why the businessman was of interest to federal authorities. As a result, the DNI told Devine, she was subject to intense searches of her clothing and luggage — 'sometimes 30-minute long, 40-minute long' before getting on any flight. Advertisement '[They would search] the lining of my luggage, after everything was removed; feeling down every jacket that I had, feeling down the seams of every single inch of my clothing,' Gabbard recalled. 'Again, these guys were doing what they were told to do. I wouldn't want them to be fired for not doing their job. But when you look at the consequences again of this politicization of intelligence, this is another example.' 4 Tulsi Gabbard wasn't sure whether a Clinton ally got her put on the Quiet Skies surveillance list. Getty Images The DNI also said that air marshals were ordered to 'surveil me and follow me and look at how many times did I pick up my phone while I'm in flight. Did I talk to any other people? Did I have any interesting conversations? Was there any movement that I made that seemed a little out of the ordinary? How many times do you get up and go and use the bathroom?' 'I didn't know until later the extent of how many air marshals they required to watch me and who had to type up reports … …from drop off, to move through the airport, to get on the plane, to landing at my destination and out to the curb.' Advertisement 'The real implication here is people will see me on TV criticizing Hillary Clinton's foreign policies, criticizing Kamala Harris' foreign policies,' Gabbard later added, 'and then very publicly [see] how the government and the intelligence is being weaponized against me, it can have a very chilling effect.' 4 The DNI is now in charge of coordinating government surveillance efforts and other intelligence operations. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post Gabbard, 44, also opened up about her drift from the Democratic Party. 'I joined the Democratic Party back in my early 20s because I had to pick one, and what I saw and was attracted to was really the values that I saw Dr. Martin Luther King promoting, the values that President John F. Kennedy, talked about … I saw a party that fought for the struggling, working man and woman in America, those who were just trying to take care of their families and put food on the table and provide a better future for their kids,' she recalled. 'Fast forward to where we are now, where you have people talking about this guy, [Zohran] Mamdani in New York, as the future of the Democratic Party, and he's a self-proclaimed socialist,' she went on. 'You look at AOC, same thing. 'If only the Democratic Party of today had the intellectual honesty to really question themselves about what party would President John F. Kennedy most align with in today's world that we live in.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - ‘Politics' is not a valid reason to abort the TSA's Quiet Skies program
The Trump administration announced on June 5 that it is ending the Transportation Security Administration's Quiet Skies program. Launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Quiet Skies focused on surveilling and tracking people based on their behavior and other information that made them an elevated risk to the air system. Issues cited to support its termination include its costs and purported ineffectiveness in identifying any terrorists. However, the real reason may be that the administration believed it was misused by the Biden administration, targeting former President Joe Biden's adversaries while giving his friends a free pass. Let's put the politics aside. Although the program certainly required long-overdue adjustments, as prior investigations by the Office of the Inspector General recommended, it complete abandonment is not in the interest of securing the nation's air system. The TSA's federal air marshal program and Quiet Skies program are closely intertwined. Air marshals are strategically deployed on the ground (including at airports) to make behavioral observations of passengers, and on flights based on the risk profile of its passenger pool. The federal air marshal program has been under scrutiny for some time. Given that the team of air marshals must be deployed to cover flights that are deemed high risk, scheduling them has made their utilization challenging. Many serve on international flights with origination and destinations around the world, often demanding they work long hours, which makes it difficult to schedule much-needed downtime. Since there have been no reports of federal air marshals apprehending any suspected bad actors on flights based on the Quiet Skies watch list, some may argue that in the interest of saving money (to the tune of $200 million annually), it would be reasonable to end Quiet Skies entirely. That is like saying a community should cut its fire department because it has never put out any fires. It is shortsighted at best. Indeed, the effectiveness of the Quiet Skies and federal air marshal programs may lie in their deterrence benefit — admittedly can be challenging to quantify — and the unpredictability that they inject into aviation security operations. Moreover, since the Transportation Security Administration's aviation security strategy embodies a disparate collection of layers — some of which are highly visible, like the physical screening operations at airport security checkpoints, and some of which are hidden from most travelers, like risk-based security strategies including the Secure Flight program — the law of unintended consequences means that removing any one layer must be done thoughtfully and cautiously. David Pekoske was relieved of his duties as the TSA administrator in January, meaning the organization has been rudderless, without significant changes made, ever since. If strategic or tactical changes are to be made, a new administrator should be in place to ensure that the new protections are appropriate to maintain the security of the air system, while serving the best interests of all travelers. Past assessments of the Quiet Skies program have uncovered many deficiencies. Yet none of the points raised have captured the deterrence benefit of maintaining a Quiet Skies watchlist and deploying federal air marshals on flights based on such information. The issue of concern here is when reasons for its dismantling are based on poorly framed justifications, including politics. In the current divisive climate in Washington, politics has become the backstop reason anytime one party wants to change something that they perceive has had a negative effect on them or a positive benefit for their opposition. Clearly, changes in the federal air marshal and Quiet Skies program have been needed for some time. Sunsetting the Quiet Skies program before the TSA had the opportunity to fully address and vet all such concerns is premature. The agency not having a permanent administrator in place further exacerbates an already tenuous decision. With one fewer security layer now available, the air system may indeed be no more risky, as the secretary of Homeland Security claims. It is, however, difficult to believe that it will be more secure. Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of computer science in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He applies his expertise in data-driven risk-based decision-making to evaluate and inform public policy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
‘Politics' is not a valid reason to abort the TSA's Quiet Skies program
The Trump administration announced on June 5 that it is ending the Transportation Security Administration's Quiet Skies program. Launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Quiet Skies focused on surveilling and tracking people based on their behavior and other information that made them an elevated risk to the air system. Issues cited to support its termination include its costs and purported ineffectiveness in identifying any terrorists. However, the real reason may be that the administration believed it was misused by the Biden administration, targeting former President Joe Biden's adversaries while giving his friends a free pass. Let's put the politics aside. Although the program certainly required long-overdue adjustments, as prior investigations by the Office of the Inspector General recommended, it complete abandonment is not in the interest of securing the nation's air system. The TSA's federal air marshal program and Quiet Skies program are closely intertwined. Air marshals are strategically deployed on the ground (including at airports) to make behavioral observations of passengers, and on flights based on the risk profile of its passenger pool. The federal air marshal program has been under scrutiny for some time. Given that the team of air marshals must be deployed to cover flights that are deemed high risk, scheduling them has made their utilization challenging. Many serve on international flights with origination and destinations around the world, often demanding they work long hours, which makes it difficult to schedule much-needed downtime. Since there have been no reports of federal air marshals apprehending any suspected bad actors on flights based on the Quiet Skies watch list, some may argue that in the interest of saving money (to the tune of $200 million annually), it would be reasonable to end Quiet Skies entirely. That is like saying a community should cut its fire department because it has never put out any fires. It is shortsighted at best. Indeed, the effectiveness of the Quiet Skies and federal air marshal programs may lie in their deterrence benefit — admittedly can be challenging to quantify — and the unpredictability that they inject into aviation security operations. Moreover, since the Transportation Security Administration's aviation security strategy embodies a disparate collection of layers — some of which are highly visible, like the physical screening operations at airport security checkpoints, and some of which are hidden from most travelers, like risk-based security strategies including the Secure Flight program — the law of unintended consequences means that removing any one layer must be done thoughtfully and cautiously. David Pekoske was relieved of his duties as the TSA administrator in January, meaning the organization has been rudderless, without significant changes made, ever since. If strategic or tactical changes are to be made, a new administrator should be in place to ensure that the new protections are appropriate to maintain the security of the air system, while serving the best interests of all travelers. Past assessments of the Quiet Skies program have uncovered many deficiencies. Yet none of the points raised have captured the deterrence benefit of maintaining a Quiet Skies watchlist and deploying federal air marshals on flights based on such information. The issue of concern here is when reasons for its dismantling are based on poorly framed justifications, including politics. In the current divisive climate in Washington, politics has become the backstop reason anytime one party wants to change something that they perceive has had a negative effect on them or a positive benefit for their opposition. Clearly, changes in the federal air marshal and Quiet Skies program have been needed for some time. Sunsetting the Quiet Skies program before the TSA had the opportunity to fully address and vet all such concerns is premature. The agency not having a permanent administrator in place further exacerbates an already tenuous decision. With one fewer security layer now available, the air system may indeed be no more risky, as the secretary of Homeland Security claims. It is, however, difficult to believe that it will be more secure. Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of computer science in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He applies his expertise in data-driven risk-based decision-making to evaluate and inform public policy.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Department of Homeland Security ending Quiet Skies program
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that the Transportation Security Administration will be ending its Quiet Skies program.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sea-Tac screenings to scale back as homeland security ends surveillance program
This story was initially published on The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is terminating the Quiet Skies program, DHS announced via a news release. Quiet Skies was a counterterrorism surveillance program through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), according to The New York Times. However, DHS stated the program 'has failed to stop a single terrorist attack' and cost taxpayers $200 million a year. The department believes the program was put in place to target political opponents. '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,' DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, via the release. 'I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of U.S. national security.' TSA will continue to vet security threats and reinforce REAL ID requirements, DHS noted. 'The Trump Administration will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public,' Noem added. 'This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans.' Follow Julia Dallas on X. Read her stories here. Submit news tips here.
