You may have heard that the TSA put Tulsi Gabbard under surveillance in its Quiet Skies program (“Quiet Skies is a TSA surveillance program with its own compartmentalized suspected terrorist watchlist”). The story was originally broken by UndercoverDC (sorry, never heard of it) in “Federal Air Marshal Whistleblowers Report Tulsi Gabbard Actively Under Surveillance via Quiet Skies Program.” The story includes a screenshot from the actual “Target Package” used by the Federal Air Marshals (below).
Matt Taibbi followed up with an interview of Tulsi that is generally accessible on his Racket News site. Taibbi has also commented in the subscribers-only Racket News post “The First Deep State Fix? Dismantle Homeland Security.”
Before publishing his interview with Tulsi, Taibbi had sent a query to the TSA. Was it true Gabbard was placed under surveillance via its “Quiet Skies” program? Within the last half hour he received this reply “attributable to a TSA Spokesperson” (links omitted):
TSA uses multi-layered security processes to protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce. TSA’s Quiet Skies program uses a risk-based approach to identify passengers and apply enhanced security measures on some domestic and outbound international flights. To safeguard sensitive national security measures, TSA does not confirm or deny whether any individual has matched to a risk-based rule. These rules are applied to a limited number of travelers for a limited period of time. Simply matching to a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual. Quiet Skies is further described here in the Secure Flight Privacy Impact Assessment.
Well, I feel better already (not). In any event, Taibbi has posted the reply in generally accessible form here (with TSA links) and promises more to come.
