US ending ‘Quiet Skies’ airline passenger watchlist screening programme
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The Transportation Security Administration screens more than 900 million airline passengers yearly.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is ending the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) “Quiet Skies” aviation security watchlist programme that designated some passengers deemed higher risks for enhanced screening.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the programme costs US$200 million (S$257 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. Mr Trump named Ms Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence.
Representative Bennie Thompson, top Democrat on the panel, denied the programme was political and criticised the move to end the programme, 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 Ms 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 programme. “While the Quiet Skies programme was intended to mitigate threats posed to US aviation security, we know now that it ended up functioning solely as a political watchlist,” Mr 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 criticised the programme, saying the TSA did not “develop outcome-based performance goals and measures to demonstrate programme 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 programme amounted to “covert surveillance of innocent fliers” and said the TSA was “using secret criteria that include travel patterns and specific behaviours to determine which travellers to target”.
The US 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 US airliner near Detroit.
In 2012, TSA began using risk-based factors to identify potentially higher-risk passengers and designate them for the Quiet Skies programme. In 2018, the Federal Air Marshal Service began prioritising the deployment of air marshals on flights with Quiet Skies members. REUTERS
