Estimated studying time: 4 minutes
At as we speak’s Senate Homeland Safety Committee listening to, journalist Matt Taibbi laid naked the total absurdity of the Transportation Safety Administration’s Quiet Skies program.
What he described was not a critical counterterrorism device, however a sprawling surveillance dragnet that trampled civil liberties, burned by way of taxpayer cash, and delivered nothing in return.
It’s gone time for this program — and something that remotely resembles it — to be completely dismantled.
No Outcomes, Solely Abuses
As Taibbi testified, the TSA spent $200 million a 12 months monitoring as many as 50 folks a day below Quiet Skies.
But in the whole historical past of this system, it by no means led to a single arrest or prevented a terrorist assault.
As a substitute, it created a tradition of surveillance for its personal sake. “That is what our authorities does now,” Taibbi mentioned. “It gathers info by itself residents as an finish in itself.”
One placing case concerned former Hawaii congresswoman and fight veteran Tulsi Gabbard, who, as Taibbi reported, was positioned below surveillance that included bomb-sniffing canine and groups of three Federal Air Marshals shadowing her on home flights.
The TSA stonewalled when requested for justification, insisting that “matching to a risk-based rule doesn’t represent derogatory info.”
In different phrases: being flagged doesn’t imply you probably did something incorrect — however we’ll deal with you want a suspect anyway.
Political Weaponization
Sen. Rand Paul, chairing the listening to, underscored how Quiet Skies went past waste and ineffectiveness into outright political focusing on.
Information revealed that Tulsi Gabbard was surveilled on at the very least 5 home flights — regardless of her recognized id as a sitting public determine.
“If this will occur to a fight veteran, a lieutenant colonel within the Military Reserve, and now Director of Nationwide Intelligence,” Paul mentioned, “it could possibly occur to anybody.”
It wasn’t simply Gabbard. Based on paperwork launched in Paul’s investigation, Quiet Skies was used to focus on Individuals for First Modification-protected actions.
SEE ALSO: Jacob Gray Drops the Nox 9
A Catholic schoolteacher from Texas was watch-listed as a “home terrorist” merely for attending Trump’s January sixth rally — despite the fact that location knowledge and facial recognition confirmed she by no means entered the Capitol.
Different Individuals have been flagged for eradicating masks on airplanes throughout COVID mandates. Extremely, three sitting Republican members of Congress have been additionally swept into the associated “Silent Associate” program.
This isn’t counterterrorism. That is the weaponization of federal sources to relax dissent and punish political opposition.
A Tradition of Unchecked Surveillance
The bigger downside is that Quiet Skies is just not an remoted case however a part of a post-9/11 drift towards normalizing warrantless mass surveillance.
Taibbi reminded senators of James Clapper’s notorious “least untruthful” reply to Congress about NSA knowledge assortment — a second that confirmed mendacity about home spying carries no penalty.
As soon as the federal government begins accumulating knowledge on harmless residents (particularly 2A supporters), it creates a perpetual justification to do it time and again.
One Federal Air Marshal put it plainly to Taibbi: “The air marshal’s job is to guard the cockpit and the pilots. Let any individual else do the intelligence.”
As a substitute, marshals skilled for essential safety missions have been conscripted into following abnormal Individuals round airports, clipboard in hand.
Shut the Door, Don’t Simply Change the Title
Biden’s TSA Administrator Pekoske and his cronies abused their authority and weaponized the federal authorities in opposition to the very folks they have been charged with defending.
Biden’s TSA wildly abused their authority, focusing on Individuals who posed no aviation safety danger below the…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) September 30, 2025
Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem has introduced the termination of Quiet Skies, however as Paul warned, that isn’t sufficient.
“We should make it possible for this program doesn’t come again below one other title,” he mentioned. Packages constructed on secrecy, obscure authorities, and political bias will all the time be tempted to resurface.
Ending Quiet Skies should be paired with accountability. Each official who directed surveillance of Individuals for political or expressive exercise must be faraway from workplace.
Transparency must be the default — not one thing received by way of years of congressional inquiry.
Conclusion
The Quiet Skies program epitomized what occurs when safety companies abandon the excellence between “dangerous ideas” and “dangerous acts.” It drained public sources, violated core constitutional rights, and undermined belief within the very establishments meant to guard us.
Out there on GunsAmerica Now
As Taibbi informed the committee: “It’s time to cease being numb to this outrage.” Eliminating Quiet Skies should be the start of reform, not the tip.
*** Purchase and Promote on GunsAmerica! ***
