Tulsi Gabbard Is on Terror Watchlist?

In a video announcement, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard claimed in September 2024 that the U.S. authorities had positioned her on a “secret terror watchlist.” 

Within the Sept. 4 video (archived), Gabbard defined how she got here to study that she had supposedly been flagged as a danger on the Division of Homeland Safety’s Transportation Safety Administration:

Simply earlier than boarding a flight on July 23 [2024], my husband and I had been pulled apart for added TSA screening. Our electronics had been swabbed for traces of explosives, and after we landed my husband was pulled apart for one more spherical of extra screening. 

On the subsequent a number of flights that we took, our boarding passes had been marked with the “quad S” and we had been subjected to in-depth searches by the TSA each single time, every time taking 30 to 45 minutes, each inch of our physique patted down, each merchandise in our carry-on searched and swabbed for explosive residue, and typically going by this another time on the gate earlier than being allowed to board the airplane. 

Each time this occurred, we had been informed by the TSA agent there: “That is only a random choice.” Now that may have been plausible if it had occurred simply a couple of times, however 5, six, seven, eight occasions in a row? There isn’t any manner. 

On Aug. 4, federal air marshal whistleblowers got here ahead with very disturbing info. They revealed that I had been added to a secret terror watchlist run by the TSA referred to as Quiet Skies on July 23. That is the exact same day my husband and I started to be subjected to these in-depth TSA searches. 

[…]

I later discovered that at the least three air marshals had been assigned to observe me each time I traveled within the airport and on the flight. TSA deployed explosive canine detection groups and a TSA explosive specialist. Now that is excessive by any measure. What had been they searching for? What sort of menace did they assume I posed, or are they afraid that I used to be going to do? None of this made sense till I put all of the items collectively.

She went on to stipulate her supposition that the explanation she’d allegedly been added to the TSA Quiet Skies watchlist was retaliation from the White Home. To bolster her argument, she added that on July 22, 2024 — the day after President Joe Biden left the presidential race — she had spoken out in opposition to Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview on Fox Information. Gabbard mentioned Harris was “harmful” as a result of she did “not have the energy to face as much as the army industrial complicated who’re making the most of us being in a continuing state of conflict.”

Snopes positioned a Freedom of Info Act request with the TSA, asking for any file of Gabbard’s alleged inclusion within the Quiet Skies program, in addition to any inside communications explaining the rationale behind it. Now we have given the declare the “Analysis In Progress” ranking, which we’ll replace if the FOIA request yields any related info.

In accordance with a number of respected news outlets, the 4 “S’s” — “SSSS” — on a boarding cross within the U.S. stand for “Secondary Safety Screening Choice.” Whereas the TSA doesn’t verify the procedures behind the “quad S,” as Gabbard referred to as it, a traveler is likely to be chosen at random on occasion, or it would occur repeatedly. Some claimed they owed their choice to buying a one-way ticket, to flying to high-risk nations or to having paid for his or her ticket in money. However typically the tag seems on the boarding passes of vacationers whose names both resembled or had been included on DHS watchlists. If secondary screening happens repeatedly, the DHS has created a course of referred to as Traveler Redress Inquiry Program by which the vacationers can have their instances reviewed and the flags eliminated.

In addition to that, the TSA has acknowledged the existence of a program called Quiet Skies, by which vacationers systematically undergo screenings in opposition to watchlists and different databases upon arrival to the U.S. Air marshals observe and verify flagged vacationers in response to 15 guidelines, in response to The Boston Globe, which first reported on this system. Although the company has by no means made the complete record of guidelines public, it has admitted to utilizing them. It additionally doesn’t usually share flagged names with the general public, citing safety issues. 

The TSA mentioned it makes use of the Quiet Skies program alongside its Secure Flight program, “a risk-based passenger prescreening program that enhances safety by figuring out low and high-risk passengers earlier than they arrive on the airport by matching their names in opposition to trusted traveler lists and watchlists.” In accordance with the TSA blog, Quiet Skies doesn’t discriminate primarily based on look or religion, however flags individuals solely primarily based on journeys they’ve taken previously and different details about them, together with behavioral clues:

TSA makes use of this program to cut back the danger on airplanes by figuring out passengers deemed to be increased danger in response to sure journey patterns and different intelligence-based components. Opposite to some reporting, this system doesn’t have in mind race or faith, and doesn’t designate people primarily based on their noticed behaviors onboard an plane. As skilled regulation enforcement officers, Federal Air Marshals observe passengers in accordance with their coaching. When FAMs are knowledgeable {that a} traveler recognized by the intelligence-driven situation guidelines shall be on a specific flight or within the airport, they can observe the traveler within the airport and on the flight. Passengers referred to this system could require extra scrutiny for a sure time frame; nonetheless, TSA routinely removes passengers from this system earlier than the prescribed interval if we turn out to be conscious of knowledge that signifies the passengers don’t signify a danger.

Gabbard raised questions when she traveled to Syria and Lebanon in 2017, when she nonetheless was a Democratic U.S. Home consultant from Hawaii (she has since left the social gathering). In Syria — which in 1979 the U.S. government deemed a “state sponsor of terrorism” — she reportedly met with President Bashar al-Assad, on whom the U.S. imposed sanctions in 2011 for his violent treatment of the Syrian people. “Assad will not be the enemy of america as a result of Syria doesn’t pose a direct menace to america,” Gabbard told MSNBC in 2019. 

However this journey and this declaration occurred almost seven and 5 years, respectively, earlier than her alleged inclusion on the Quiet Skies program. We contacted Gabbard’s crew to ask about newer journeys or particulars that will have resulted in such an motion from the TSA and can replace this text if we obtain a response. Now we have additionally reached out to the White Home to ask whether or not it could retaliate in opposition to a political opponent on this manner.

Sources