As if long security lines, invasive X-ray machines, and perverse pat-downs weren’t already enough when traveling, now comes word of the TSA Quiet Skies surveillance program.
Travel
If you thought airport security began and ended when you handed your ID over to a TSA official at the security checkpoint, think again. Jana Winter of The Boston Globe has exposed the Transportation Security Administration’s dirty little secret that it has been collecting secret profiles and conducting covert surveillance on you throughout the airport since 2010.
It’s called the TSA Quiet Skies surveillance program, which authorizes the agency to engage an unknown number of federal air marshals to target dozens of Americans at airports every day in order to keep an eye on their every suspicious move.
According to the exposé, “If you fall asleep or use the bathroom during your next flight, those incriminating facts could be added to your federal dossier. Likewise, if you use your laptop or look at noisy children seated nearby with a “cold, penetrating stare,” that may be included on your permanent record. If you fidget, sweat or have “strong body odor” — BOOM! the feds are onto you.”
Additionally, anyone who has recently traveled to Turkey, or is “possibly affiliated” with someone on a terrorist watchlist (which contains more than a million names) can also be targeted.
Whenever a person makes the TSA Quiet Skies list, an air marshal team is placed on his/her next flight. Marshals are reportedly given a file containing a photo and basic information of the “suspicious” traveler and instructed to carefully note whether the suspect’s “appearance was different from information provided” — including if they have “gained weight,” are “balding” or “graying,” has a beard or even any “visible tattoos.” Marshals then record and report any “significant derogatory information” on suspected travelers.
If that wasn’t enough, air marshals may also follow TSA Quiet Skies suspects outside of the airport and even make note of their license plate numbers. Marshals are instructed to determine if a “subject was abnormally aware of surroundings” or if they engaged in any nefarious activities once outside the airport. Or, in other words, someone could be following and watching you at all times and you’d never even know it.
Is the TSA Quiet Skies program a creepy but necessary safety precaution designed to protect us all during these dangerous times? Or is it complete overkill and a colossal invasion of privacy that goes much too far and provides the government with entirely too much information on our comings and goings?
Thanks for this DJ. I caught the tail-end of a discussion on this secret program, 2 days ago, on MSNBC. You asked: “Is the TSA Quiet Skies program a creepy but necessary safety precaution designed to protect us all during these dangerous times? Or is it complete overkill and a colossal invasion of privacy that goes much too far and provides the government with entirely too much information on our comings and goings?” I think it’s a bit of both. It definitely creeps me out but I also understand the government’s efforts to keep all of us safe. Unfortunately, the obvious dangers with a “secret” government program of this nature include: “Overkill and a colossal invasion of privacy that goes much too far and provides the government with entirely too much information on our comings and goings.” And frankly, given the current troubling state of Our federal government, I don’t… Read more »