Trump Is Ending TSA Surveillance Program that Targeted Tulsi Gabbard

Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons

Tulsi Gabbard has been vocal about the Biden administration's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) surveilling her through it's 'Quiet Skies' program.

That's right, the former congresswoman and current Director of National Intelligence was being spied on by her own government.

Now, it looks like the Trump administration is shutting down the program that allowed this.

CBS News reports, "Aides have debated how to shut down Quiet Skies without any lapses in security, another U.S. official said."

The report continued, "Quiet Skies works to identify travelers who could present an elevated risk to aviation security. The program, which began in 2010, employs analysts and undercover air marshals to monitor people in airports and during flights, using outstanding warrants, facial recognition software, identification of suspicious travel patterns and behaviors and other data to try to prevent terrorist attacks."

More, "It has caught up some high-profile people in its dragnet, including Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who is now Mr. Trump's director of national intelligence, and led to debates about what has appeared at times to be an uneven application of the rules."

According to the TSA's website, Quiet Skies is a tool that Federal Air Marshals use on “travelers who may present an elevated risk to aviation security."

Gabbard told Fox News' Sean Hannity last July, “This is only the information that we know. Obviously, I experienced a significant change in my travel when all of this began on July 23."

“My real question is, what don’t I know?” Gabbard continued. “This is the real pain and stress that’s been caused both to me and my family by this whole situation, day and night wondering if and what government institution and agency is monitoring my phone calls, surveilling me in my movement in my travels, knowing that they may be looking for some kind of excuse or derogatory action to come after me.”

Gabbard told Racket News reporter Matt Taibbi last August that both she and her husband were subjected to “random” airport searches lasting up to 45 minutes.

Gabbard said the searches happened every time she took flights.

If the the TSA or government can treat a woman of Tulsi Gabbard's prominence this way, imagine what it could do to the average citizen?

Donald Trump is right to shut this down. The sooner the better.