Latest news with #SilentPartnersQuietSkies
The Herald Scotland
20 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Lawyer says she's no terrorist as DHS accuses Sen. Shaheen's husband
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. 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." "Let me be crystal clear: I am a U.S. citizen, a licensed attorney, a law-abiding American, and Billy Shaheen's legal co-counsel," Atallah told Seacoastonline, part of the USA TODAY Network, adding she had been pulled out of airport lines more than 40 times for invasive searches. Atallah came forward after DHS said Shaheen's husband had been accompanied on flights by a suspected terrorist. "New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen's Husband Traveled with a Known or Suspected Terrorist Three Times in a Single Year," a June 4 DHS4 press release alleged. "I am the individual DHS referred to in its recent public release, the so-called 'known or suspected terrorist' who traveled with Attorney William 'Billy' Shaheen," Atallah said in a statement. "I have no criminal record and have dedicated my career to fighting for immigrants' rights here at home, and to representing, pro bono, Americans who were wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad, out of a deep belief in justice and service," Atallah said. "In fact, I also worked closely with the Trump administration during its first term to help bring unlawfully detained U.S. citizens home." The DHS press release cites specific flights in which Bill Shaheen was a "Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist." Atallah said she was on those flights. Kristi Noem says Biden 'weaponized' watchlist DHS asserts that the TSA watch list program, "Silent Partners Quiet Skies," was politicized by the Biden administration, leading to the harassment of political opponents like Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman and President Donald Trump's current director of National Intelligence - while letting political allies like the Shaheens off the hook. The Biden administration "weaponized" the program "against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in the press release. DHS announced June 5 it was ending the Quiet Skies Program, saying it had "failed to stop a single terrorist attack while costing US taxpayers $200 million a year." Atallah doesn't disagree the Quiet Skies program was broken. "I had no idea I was ever on a TSA Quiet Skies watchlist until I read DHS's public statement," Atallah wrote. "I knew I was being subjected to humiliating searches -- frisked, pulled aside, questioned -- more than 40 times, and NOT ONCE did they find anything illegal, inappropriate or incriminating on me." Atallah said she asked Sen. Shaheen's office for help, "not to intervene but simply to understand why this was happening to me and who was behind it." "I have done nothing wrong and I am not worried - they can find anything on me if they try," she said. The Department of Homeland Security declined to say why Atallah was flagged as a possible terrorist. "We are confident in our law enforcement's intelligence, and we aren't going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security," DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, noting Atallah "chose to reveal herself of her own volition." Atallah filed a Freedom of Information Act request over the airport searches. In June 2023, DHS told Atallah it could "neither confirm nor deny any information about you which may be contained within federal watchlists or reveal any law enforcement sensitive information." DHS suggested, but didn't confirm, it may have made " may assist in avoiding incidents of misidentification." As a well-known immigration lawyer, Atallah said she has been working to arrange the return of Palestinian-Americans trapped in Gaza. "I have already helped individuals and families, including a prominent Massachusetts family," she said. "I have helped them get home; that's what I do and I am very passionate about it." Choir girl turned lawyer Atallah said she has known Jeanne and Bill Shaheen since she was 16, "when I was a choir girl at St. George Church in Dover, New Hampshire, a church that Billy's mother helped build." "It is both baffling and disgraceful to see this administration suggest that Bill Shaheen was 'traveling with a terrorist,'" Atallah wrote, "when, in fact, he was traveling with me: a fellow attorney and American citizen. This isn't just false, it's a deliberate and dangerous distortion, designed to score political points by smearing innocent people." Sen. Shaheen recently announced she will not seek re-election in 2026. U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., is the Democratic frontrunner for her seat, and the Shaheens' daughter, Stefany Shaheen, of Portsmouth, recently announced her bid for Pappas' seat. "The whole situation is ludicrous," said Bill Shaheen. "I did not know I was on a list, or why I was on a list but I guess I know now. The first time I was searched, I was told it was 'random' when I asked why. After a few times, you get suspicious, and they will not tell you why you are on the list. That's un-American." Shaheen said the searches are invasive. "They take your belt; they feel up your crotch," he said. "They don't even bother to ask you on a date. Then they 'walk' you to the gate." Shaheen said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, his wife, never asked anyone to take him off any list. He only wanted to know why he was being searched and who was responsible. "If you are going to take away someone's rights, you better be ready to justify it, better be able to prove the facts," he said. Bill Shaheen said he has known Atallah since she was a little girl. "She has a very big heart and she wants to help people, wherever she can," he said. "She said, as a girl, she wanted to be a lawyer. I offered guidance to help her along the way. I cannot and will not ever believe she is a terrorist." 'Invasive and degrading' Shaheen's office said she contacted TSA "after her husband was subjected to several extensive, invasive and degrading searches at airport checkpoints." "Any suggestion that the Senator's husband was supposedly included on a Quiet Skies list is news to her and had never been raised before yesterday," the office said in a statement. "Nor was she aware of any action taken following her call to remove him from such a list." The senator's office noted Bill Shaheen had been stopped and searched at least five times, despite the fact that he is a former judge who also served as U.S. attorney for New Hampshire. Bill Shaheen is a respected Lebanese-American attorney, the senator's office said, who is active in the Arab-American community. What was TSA's Quiet Skies program? The Transportation Security Administration, which federalized airport security after the terrorist hijackings Sept. 11, 2001, created the "Quiet Skies" program in 2010 to provide additional screening for suspicious travelers. TSA has said individuals identified for additional screening aren't necessarily "known or suspected terrorists." Travelers are chosen for the list are based on aggregated travel data, intelligence and suspicious activity. TSA doesn't release how many people are on the list for security reasons. But press reports said 1.2 million people, including 4,600 U.S. citizens, were on the Terrorist Screening Database in 2017. Civil liberties groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have filed lawsuits on behalf of people who disputed their inclusion on the "Quiet Skies" list. But TSA officials have defended the program as "very effective" at providing security and protecting the privacy of travelers. Atallah said she chose to speak out to clear her name and the names of the Shaheens. "They used my story not to bring about accountability or reform, but to wage a partisan smear campaign," she said. "They twisted facts, spread falsehoods, and used the official platform of DHS to paint me, a U.S. citizen and attorney, as a 'terrorist' for political gain." Contributing: Bart Jansen, Josh Meyer - USA TODAY
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
DHS says Democratic senator's husband removed from Biden TSA watchlist despite flying with possible terrorist
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sounded the alarm on alleged Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "corruption," accusing a longtime Democratic senator of lobbying the Biden administration to have her husband removed from a watchlist despite him allegedly flying with a "known or suspected terrorist." New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's husband, William "Billy" Shaheen, "traveled with a known or suspected terrorist three times in a single year," DHS said in a statement. The Trump administration on Wednesday cited evidence "detailing the politicization of TSA's watchlisting program under the Biden administration." DHS says that evidence includes discovered documents, correspondence and timelines clearly highlighting "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 claims Sen. Shaheen "directly lobbied" former TSA administrator David Pekoske. Pekoske afterward allegedly "gave repeated, explicit direction" to exclude the senator's husband from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Shaheen's office, but they did not immediately provide a response to the allegations. "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 Wednesday. "All the while, Tulsi Gabbard, and many other Americans, were placed on the Silent Partners' Quiet Skies list with little to no visibility, awareness, explanation or oversight." President Donald Trump tapped Gabbard as his director of national intelligence during his second term. The Trump administration claims Billy Shaheen "was hardly the only high-profile individual that was placed on this exclusion list," which also allegedly included members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists. DHS said Billy Shaheen's "blanket exemption has since been revoked." "It is clear that this program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration – weaponized against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "This program should have been about the equal application of security, instead it was corrupted to be about political targeting. The Trump Administration will restore the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans, including aviation screening." DHS said the program has for far too long "yielded little to no measurable security impact and lay at the expense of the American traveler." According to DHS's timeline of events, Billy Shaheen was a "TSA Random Selectee" on his flights from Boston Logan International Airport to Washington-Reagan International Airport and then from Washington Dulles International Airport back to Boston on July 20, 2023. "Billy Shaheen was flagged for the first time as Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST)," DHS said. Shortly after his trip, Sen. Shaheen's office "made an inquiry to TSA about the senator's husband receiving enhanced screening on these two flights," DHS said. He was flagged a second time as a co-traveler of a known or suspected terrorist again on Oct. 18, 2023, and Sen. Shaheen afterward met with Pekoske about her husband "being on a watchlist," according to DHS. "TSA did not disclose any information on watchlisting," DHS noted. On Oct. 20, 2023, Nancy Nykamp, then-assistant administrator for intelligence and analysis, approved Billy Shaheen to be added to the "Secure Flight Exclusion List." That means he 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," according to the Trump administration. Nykamp notably departed TSA in March 2025. DHS said TSA Legislative Affairs communicated with Nykamp on Oct. 24, 2023, and referred to the action taken to add Shaheen to the Secure Flight Exclusion List. Billy Shaheen stayed on the Secure Flight Exclusion List for 18 months until current TSA leadership removed him. Shaheen, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in March that she is not seeking re-election in 2026, but her daughter, Stefany Shaheen, just last week announced that she's running for a key House seat.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration: Shaheen's husband got preferential treatment
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Sen. Jeanne Shaheen interceded to keep her husband, Bill, from being put on a terrorist watch list because he had taken three flights with an unnamed suspected terrorist. In an unusual statement released to the press, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this was only one of many examples of politicization of the Transportation Safety Administration's Silent Partners Quiet Skies program that monitors air travel. Homeland Security (DHS) accused the New Hampshire Democrat of directly lobbying former TSA Administrator David Pekoske to exclude her husband from the list; Bill Shaheen was given a blanket exemption for 18 months. Meanwhile, Noem charged that TSA, at the Biden administration's urging, had added Tulsi Gabbard, a political opponent and now President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, to the same list. 'It is clear that this program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration —weaponized against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends,' Noem said in the statement. 'This program should have been about the equal application of security, instead it was corrupted to be about political targeting. The Trump Administration will restore the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans, including aviation screening." According to a timeline provided by Homeland Security, Bill Shaheen was randomly selected for surveillance for two flights in July 2023 from Boston to Washington and then back again. DHS officials claim Sen. Shaheen's office made an inquiry to the TSA about her husband being subjected to enhanced screening. Then Bill Shaheen was flagged a second time as a traveler with this suspected terrorist in October 2023. After Shaheen's office made a second inquiry, DHS said, the TSA put her husband on the exclusion list. Shaheen's office has issued a statement denying the senator played any role but said her office did inquire with the TSA after her husband was subjected to inquiries the office called 'extensive, invasive and degrading.' Sen. Shaheen had been unaware her husband was put on any list or that his name was later exempt from that inquiry, a spokesperson said. Bill Shaheen told WMUR Wednesday that it was his complaints about these incidents that prompted his removal from the list, not anything his wife did. 'I didn't ask my wife to put me on the (exemption) list. Who put me on the list (to be watched)? I wanted to know that. When I started pushing on that they took me off the list,' Bill Shaheen said. Bill Shaheen is a Lebanese American who has been politically active in that community. Shaheen's office had told CBS News that the person Bill Shaheen had been flying with was an attorney associate who was also an Arab American. klandrigan@
