US ending 'Quiet Skies' airline passenger watch list screening program

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is ending the Transportation Security Administration's "Quiet Skies" aviation security watch list program that designated some passengers deemed higher risks for enhanced screening.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the program costs $200 million annually and "was used to target political opponents and benefit political allies." TSA, which screens more than 900 million airline passengers yearly, will continue performing vetting functions tied to commercial aviation security, she said.

Some Republicans have raised concerns that the TSA briefly placed former lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard on the Quiet Skies list. Trump named Gabbard to serve as director of National Intelligence.

Representative Bennie Thompson, top Democrat on the panel, denied the program was political and criticized the move to end the program, saying "this shameful attempt to dismantle a national security agency that protects us from terror attacks will only make us less safe."

He added that Gabbard's listing "was automatic and well deserved. This process has worked the same under administrations of both parties, including the first Trump administration."

House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green praised the decision to end the program. "While the Quiet Skies program was intended to mitigate threats posed to U.S. aviation security, we know now that it ended up functioning solely as a political watch list," Green said.

People on the list are subject to enhanced screening, typically including a patdown, an explosives trace detection and physical search of a passenger’s property, electronics, and shoes.

A 2020 inspector general report criticized the program, saying the TSA did not "develop outcome-based performance goals and measures to demonstrate program effectiveness" and had software algorithm and system malfunctions "that resulted in passengers not being removed from the Quiet Skies List."
The American Civil Liberties Union in 2018 said the program amounted to "covert surveillance of innocent fliers" and said the TSA was "using secret criteria that include travel patterns and specific behaviors to determine which travelers to target."

The U.S. government sought to improve screening of potential threats following the 2009 attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to set off an explosive hidden in his underwear while aboard a U.S. airliner near Detroit.

In 2012, TSA began using risk-based factors to identify potentially higher-risk passengers and designate them for the Quiet Skies program. In 2018, the Federal Air Marshal Service began prioritizing the deployment of air marshals on flights with Quiet Skies members.