Homeland Security Terminates Controversial Airport Watchlist Program

The controversial program is gone — but questions remain.

The Department of Homeland Security says the Quiet Skies traveler surveillance program was overly politicized to either benefit or hurt specific people and ran a bill of roughly $200 million annually. According to DHS, the program kept a watchlist as well as a list of people exempted. The department says Quiet Skies has not prevented any terrorist attacks but will continue to use other methods to assure safe air travel.

“It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden administration —weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends. I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of U.S. national security,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

DHS pointed out a specific situation in which William Shaheen, the husband of New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, was removed from the list after reaching out to the former head of TSA during the Biden administration in 2023, according to CBS News. DHS said that he “traveled with a known or suspected terrorist” three times.

The senator’s office confirmed to CBS News she had reached out to TSA after her husband dealt with intense security obstacles while flying, but was unaware of any specific lists her husband was or was not on. The outlet reported that he was flying with an attorney was subject of the terrorism flag. (RELATED: Explosive Aviation Controversy Links Back To US Senator)

In 2018, the ACLU asked the Transportation Security Administration for more information about the program.

“The TSA is engaging in covert surveillance of travelers and raising a host of disturbing questions in the process. While the program’s existence is now public, the TSA has kept nearly everything else about the program secret,” Hugh Handeyside, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a 2018 news release.

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