A U.S. Senator placed a call to the TSA Administrator, and got her husband removed from watch lists. In fact, we now know that TSA has a VIP list that exempts people from getting flagged for additional scrutiny, and the Senator’s husband was added to this list.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)’s husband William Shaheen, a Lebanese-American attorney, received enhanced screenings at the Boston airport a couple of times. He’d been flagged as a ‘Known or Suspected Terrorist’ (“KST”) and was getting shadowed by undercover air marshals who flew with him on Las Vegas – Boston flights.
She rang up then-TSA Administrator David Pekoske directly to ask why her husband kept getting frisked. And the agency not only removed him from the ‘Quiet Skies’ list which was getting him followed in his travels, but he was moved onto the “Secure Flight Exclusion List” which is a special roster that blocks both random checks and algorithmic targeting.
Now that the story has become publicly, the TSA is saying that his special exemption has been rescinded. There is no way to verify when this happened, or if his special privileges were in fact rescinded. Meanwhile, other passengers may have to hire lawyers and wait years for redress. His case was turned around in 48 hours. As Mel Brooks said in History of the World, “it’s good to be king.”
The QuietSkies program sends air marshals to observe people in the airport nad inflight. In the Senator’s husband’s case he apparently sat beside someone who was flagged on an earlier flight. TSA admitted previously that after following thousands of Americans, it turned out not a single one was a threat.
Yet the agency kept filing reports on whether passengers boarded last, went to the lavatory or slept onbaord. The agency expanded the program.
Of course even Senators aren’t exempt from being messed with by TSA. The late Senator Ted Kennedy was repeatedly denied boarding because “T. Kennedy” matched an alias on the No-Fly List. It reportedly took five calls to Homeland Security for the senator to travel normally again. Most of us do not have that kind of access.
TSA, of course, costs over $10 billion a year, fails 90% of the time, and covers it up. What’s primarily protected us is that there aren’t actually active plots against aviation (as admitted by TSA itself), cockpits have been reinforced, and passengers would
no longer sit idly by.
Why was he on the list to begin with? I’m for No Fly Lists (like the drunk/drugged out people that fight airline personnel and airport police) but I’m also for making sure no one gets on that list that shouldn’t be. There’s a line between strong law enforcement and sentencing against thugs and an overbearing police state that terrorizes innocent people.
Since when is Shaheen a Lebanese-American surname (making this worthy of mention)? Unless the dude took his wife’s name…
Anyhow, nothing about this surprises me one bit.
@AngryFlier – The name Shaheen originates from Persian and means “falcon” or “peregrine”. It’s a name used in Persian, Urdu, and Arabic speaking communities
So, how does she vote on TSA and government spying on us going forward? Does she do something about it or just keep going with the flow because she knows she can make the call for HER family?
TSA sure likes acting like a rogue agency.
Since corruption is our new normal, and bias/fear defeated logic…
The Daily Show had a hilarious bit last night on ‘Racial Support Pilots’ that seems like several ‘regulars’ on here might appreciate:
https://youtu.be/s8aJmQCnXNw?feature=shared
As some day it may happen that a victim must be found
I’ve got a little list — I’ve got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
–W.S. Gilbert, “The Mikado”
Like a charge of conspiracy, when everybody may be guilty nobody is safe. Anyway a vast list means one thing: The TSA doesn’t trust its own people and procedures to do their job.
Gotta be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the argument seems to be here. My read of the article’s argument is that it’s bogus Shaheen was on the list to begin with but that it’s also bogus he was able to get off of it so quickly? In which case, I think the proper conclusion is that Shaheen (the Senator this time) should use her considerable power to push to amend federal processes to allow normal citizens more expeditious redress rather than the labyrinthine procedures they’re typically subjected to.
Who put Tulsi Gabbard on the TSA watch list?
I’m glad he was removed from the TSA’s watchlist so expeditiously.
Now, having been able to remove her husband from the TSA list in such a swift manner one would hope that Ms. Shaheen would advocate for similar speedy treatment for all flyers also erroneously judged.
First of all, I’m not a fan of these Big Brother government watch lists at all. Having said that…
If US Army veteran Tulsi Gabbard can be put on a no-fly list while a sitting congresswoman, and she still can’t find out who put her on the list, how can a sitting senator simply place a phone call to a TSA administrator to remove her husband from said list?
This ranks of special treatment – rules for thee, but not for me! Things like this are a reason that so many in this country dislike and distrust the federal government!
Shaheen is a first or last name in various parts of Africa and Asia that have been influenced by Arabic or Persian-communicating persons over the last 300+ years.
I knew some Jewish Persian Shaheens, and there are various Muslim and Christian persons who have a first or last name of Shaheen. I would guess that the majority of Shaheens in the world are from South Asia nowadays but many are from elsewhere.
The story taken at face value doesn’t indicate the Senator instructing TSA for favorable treatment. There was an inquiry, TSA acted on their own, and then the story became public. Was it the Senator who exposed this as a story? I mean her party is (should be) the opposition party to the current administration, so government misbehavior should be something on her watch list.
Framing the narrative as a privileged act sounds like plebeian irresponsibility.
It’s way past time to reign in the TSA et all on not the arbitrary, with little or no meaningful recourse for those innocent travels who wind up on these lists. More importantly, to implement an immediate expedited process to purge them from it when not warranted. Maybe Ted Cruz can take this on since he had no problem ramrodding a special exemption from screening to benefit him and his fellow politicians.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) budget for Fiscal Year 2024 was $11.2 billion, according to a Georgetown University report. This represents an increase of $1.6 billion over FY 2023. The budget includes funding for various aspects of TSA operations, including aviation screening, workforce, and technology maintenance. Here’s a worthy budget cut for the orange turd!
There is no longer a place for the free-thinking, regular Joe in this country anymore. Instead, people yearn to belong to a political tribe and have someone else do their thinking for them, perhaps because they are mentally lazy. Politicians are naturally eager to recruit them to serve as willing foot soldiers.
@ Left Handed Passenger
Dude — here’s a virtual dollar — now go buy a clue! The Democrat Senator ABSOLUTELY pulled rank to get special favors applied to hubby. Your ridiculous remark about “framing the narrative as a privileged act sounds like plebeian irresponsibility” makes you sound like an entitled privileged jerk — just like Senator Shaheen! The definition of irony.
@ Left Handed Passenger
Go peddle that liberal garbage to the thousands who are wrongly on these lists and cannot get off them. How ironic that less than 24 hours that this was exposed, the CURRENT administration has already moved to quash this horrible invasion of privacy of normal citizens!!
Disgusting.
This story should be included in every TSA super-max-prison search video played at airports, and on every airline security video played on seatbacks before take-off, to remind passengers that the government/airline cabal truly is mistreating us.
And now the whole Quiet Skies boondoggle is getting the axe.
Good riddance! (Is the shoe stupidity next?)