Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said her placement on the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) “Quiet Skies” watchlist was “politically motivated” after revelations about her surveillance under the Biden administration came to light during a Senate hearing.
Gabbard told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday that she believes she was placed on the list after a July 22 interview with “The Ingraham Angle” where she criticized then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership capabilities.
Gabbard’s remarks came soon after former President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee.
“I think they were trying to intimidate me, but also, they were trying to really create this chilling effect, probably knowing that I wouldn’t stay silent about it and send a message out to people that if you go and criticize then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now going to be the Democratic nominee for president, you too, would face the consequences,” the former Democratic congresswoman explained.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing that he received a set of records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding Gabbard’s placement on “Quiet Skies” that confirmed federal air marshals surveilled her on domestic flights in 2024.
Paul noted that the air marshals reported back information related to the intelligence chief’s appearance and how many electronics she was observed using.
The TSA’s “Quiet Skies” program was established in 2010 to identify passengers for enhanced screening on some domestic and outbound international flights.
DHS said in an April 2019 report that individuals are flagged for enhanced screening based on aggregated travel data, intelligence, a trend analysis of the intelligence and suspicious activity.
The program has come under scrutiny over a lack of transparency and concerns about civil liberties violations.
“This ‘Quiet Skies’ program that the TSA, under the Department of Homeland Security, has tasked to federal air marshals to execute — not a single terrorist has been caught. Not a single one, for as long as this program has existed,” she said.
“So, instead, what is continuing to happen, so long as this program continues, is, every single day, 40 or 50 federal air marshals are tasked with surveilling everyday Americans for no purpose.”
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