State House Republicans defended former colleague, presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in a letter sent Sunday to the Transportation Security Administration demanding she be removed from the federal government’s terrorist watch list.
The letter, sent to David P. Pekoske, TSA’s director in Washington, D.C., noted that one of their “former Hawaii State House colleagues, one of Hawaii’s ‘favorite daughters’, former Congresswoman, former Presidential Candidate, and combat veteran is on your TSA terrorist watch list.”
“We understand that you are harassing her with your Air Marshals from flight to flight including her husband. As members of the Hawaii State House of Representatives listed below, we strongly urge you to immediately withdraw her name from the Quiet Skies program and/or provide full public transparency of the TSA’s reasons for maligning her name and reputation,” read the letter, signed by Hawaii house members Rep. Gene Ward, minority policy leader; Rep. Diamond Garcia, minority floor leader; Rep. David Alcos, assistant minority leader; and Rep. Elijah Pierick, assistant minority floor leader. “How can your Agency assume you have the power to put a Congresswoman on your Terrorist Watch List and not explain yourself? The people of Hawaii love Tulsi and your actions have offended us for your attempt to ruin her reputation without explanation.”
The letter reminded Pekoske that “this is not China or Russia and our government is not to overstep the boundaries that have been set by our US Constitution” and that government should never “weaponize its regulatory powers.”
“You have embarrassed the State of Hawaii in our eyes, and we plead with you to clarify this without hesitation,” read the letter to Pekoske.
Gabbard, in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, said that her inclusion on the watch list “is clearly an act of political retaliation.”
“It’s no accident that I was placed on the Quiet Skies list the day after I did a prime-time interview warning the American people about … why Kamala Harris would be bad for our country if elected as President and Commander in Chief. What hurts me the most is the fact that like so many Americans I enlisted because of the terrorist attack on 9/11, deployed to war zones to go after those terrorists, still serve in the US Army for over 21 years, and now my government is surveilling me as a potential domestic terrorist,” Gabbard said. “The real pain this has caused is the stress of forever looking over my shoulder, wondering if and how I am being watched, what secret terror watch list I’m on, and having no transparency or due process.”
Gabbard said it’s about more than her and that every American has “the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“They have taken that away from me and my family,” Gabbard said.
She told Racket News in a story published Aug. 7 by reporter Matt Taibibi that she and her husband, Abraham Williams, “encountered obstacles” on a flight from Rome to Dallas, then a connecting flight to Austin, Texas, and later on different flights for both to cities like Nashville, Tenn.; Orlando, Fla.; and Atlanta.
The couple’s boarding passes were marked with the “SSSS” designation, which stands for “Secondary Security Screening Selection,” Gabbard told Racket News.
Gabbard told the news site that she and Williams were forced into “extensive random searches lasting as long as 45 minutes.”
“It happened every time I boarded,” Gabbard told Racket News. “I’ve got a couple of blazers in there, and they’re squeezing every inch of the entire collar, every inch of the sleeves, every inch of the edging of the blazers. They’re squeezing or padding down underwear, bras, workout clothes, every inch of every piece of clothing.”
She told the news site that TSA agents unzipped the lining inside the roller board of her suitcase, patting down every inch inside the liner, and that they forced her to “take every piece of electronics out and turn each on, including her military phone and computer.”
In response to Star-Advertiser questions about Gabbard being listed as a terrorist threat, TSA said in a statement that officials use “multi-layered security processes to protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.”
“TSA’s Quiet Skies program uses a risk-based approach to identify passengers and apply enhanced security measures on some domestic and outbound international flights. To safeguard sensitive national security measures, TSA does not confirm or deny whether any individual has matched to a risk-based rule. These rules are applied to a limited number of travelers for a limited period of time. Simply matching to a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual,” read the statement.
TSA’s quiet Skies program is detailed under the TSA’s Secure Flight Privacy Impact Assessment.
The purpose of that program is to “screen individuals before they access airport sterile areas or board aircraft.”
The screening is designed to identify “known or suspected terrorists or other individuals who may be a threat to transportation or national security, to prevent some identified individuals from gaining access to airports and airplanes where they may jeopardize the lives of passengers, and to ensure that other identified individuals receive enhanced physical screening prior to accessing airport sterile areas or boarding an aircraft,” according to the TSA.
Secure Flight performs watch list matching on “carrier-provided traveler information” to the No Fly and Selectee portions of the Terrorist Screening Database maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center as well as “other watch lists to identify individuals” who might need additional screening or are prevented from travel.
