Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) appears to be the latest Biden critic to be targeted by federal surveillance and harassment. Gabbard, an outspoken opponent of America’s forever wars, is reportedly being tracked by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) air marshals as part of the agency’s covert “Quiet Skies” operation, which targets suspected threats to aviation.

After TSA whistleblowers were quoted as confirming the surveillance, Gabbard stated that her inclusion on the TSA Quiet Skies target list “clearly an act of political retaliation. It is no coincidence that I was put on the Quiet Skies list the day after I gave a prime-time interview warning the American people … why Kamala Harris would be bad for our country if elected president.” Gabbard lamented that despite serving 21 years in the U.S. Army, she is “now being monitored by my administration as a potential domestic terrorist.” She complained about “the stress of constantly having to look over my shoulder, wondering if and how I am being watched, what secret terrorist list I am on, and the lack of transparency or due process.” One wag on Twitter quipped, “The only thing Tulsi Gabbard hyped up was Kamala’s previous presidential run. That’s why she’s on a list.”

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to TSA chief David Pekoske complaining that the Gabbard surveillance “appears to be part of a larger pattern in which the TSA has misappropriated Quiet Skies to monitor individuals based on their political activities, even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.” Paul called on the TSA to immediately release “unredacted copies of all current policies, criteria, standard operating procedures, and related documents that govern the selection of individuals for TSA-administered lists and programs, including the Quiet Skies program.” Paul himself had epic run-ins with TSA officials at airports in 2012, and the agency has been paying the price ever since.

In response to a query from journalist Matt Taibbi about the Gabbard controversy, the TSA issued an official statement neither confirming nor denying the targeted approach to Gabbard: “TSA’s Quiet Skies program uses a risk-based approach to identify passengers and applies enhanced security measures on some domestic and international flights. To protect sensitive national security measures, TSA does not confirm or deny whether an individual meets a risk-based rule… Mere compliance with a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual.”

In fact, a primary purpose of Quiet Skies is to give federal agents the right to amass derogatory information about their targets.

Quiet Skies, first published in 2018 by the Boston Globetracks travelers under the flimsiest of pretexts. If you fall asleep or use the bathroom during your next flight, those incriminating facts could be added to your federal record. Likewise, if you stare at noisy children sitting near you with a “cold, piercing gaze,” it could be noted on your record. If you fidget, sweat, or have “strong body odor” –Boom! the government is on to you. Flight attendants also look for “facial flushing,” “gripping/white knuckles,” “face touching,” “wide-open staring eyes,” and “rapid blinking.” Heck, even “observing the gate area from a distance” sets off alarm bells for stupid bureaucrats.

What do you have to do to become a target of Quiet Skies? “The criteria for monitoring appear to be fluid. Internal emails from the agency show some confusion about the parameters and implementation of the program,” the globe noticed. Anyone who had recently traveled to Turkey was put on the list. Passengers become suspect if they change clothes or shave in the airport.

After a person is placed on the Quiet Skies list, a TSA Air Marshal team is dispatched on their next flight. Marshals receive “a file with a photograph and basic information” and carefully note whether the suspect’s “appearance differs from the information provided” – such as whether he has “gained weight,” has “balding” or “gray hair,” or has a beard or “visible tattoos.”

TSA flight attendants will track travelers and even take down their license plates to determine if a “person is unusually aware of their surroundings.” Does that include noticing a federal agent following them in the parking lot?

The marshals collect and report any “significant derogatory information” about suspects. If the TSA complied with the Freedom of Information Act, I could probably get a good laugh out of their files on me. (TSA chief John Pistole condemned one of my articles in 2014, and I’ve had some sticky encounters at airports in the years that followed.)

The TSA claimed the program was closely monitored, but no one in Congress knew of the program’s existence until the Boston Globe’s successful exposé. Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called Quiet Skies “the true definition of ‘Big Brother.'”

According to Sonya LaBosco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, whistleblowers have confirmed to the TSA that Gabbard is under heavy surveillance. LaBosco explained that Gabbard has several air marshals at his disposal. “on every flight, on every leg,” and dog teams “maneuver to the (boarding) gate area … and hover around to try to sniff out something.”

The surveillance operation is so blatant that it recalls the FBI’s tactics against Vietnam War protesters. FBI agents were encouraged to conduct frequent interviews with antiwar activists to “reinforce the paranoia widespread in such circles” and “drive home the point that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox,” according to an FBI memo from the time. But if intimidation is the goal, Tulsi is the wrong woman for the feds.

In fact, the TSA’s Air Marshal program is the equivalent of a ticking time bomb, just waiting for the next money-waster to explode. The TSA claims it only deploys air marshals on flights deemed high-risk for hijacking or terrorist attacks. But in 2021, insiders revealed that 900 air marshals—nearly half the active total—were designated as standby for flights of members of Congress. One veteran air marshal complained that the air marshals’ Washington DC field office was “dedicated almost exclusively to VIP congressional care.” The Air Marshal National Council officially complained that the TSA had turned its program into a “concierge service” and “babysitting” for members of Congress, who even took advantage of the program for private, unofficial flights.

Quiet Skies is just the latest failure of TSA air marshals. The TSA spends nearly a billion dollars on air marshals, and while they have never prevented a hijacking, they have made plenty of headlines. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) complained in 2015 about air marshals who “dressed up as porn producers, hired prostitutes, and used government-issued phones and other assets to film sexual encounters.” One air marshal was “convicted of kidnapping a female escort during a layover in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area,” another was convicted of bank fraud for attempting to cash a forged check for $11 million, and one was sent to prison for inciting someone to kill his ex-wife. An air marshal was arrested for taking upskirt photos of women, and numerous air marshals lost their weapons on flights and in airports. Republican Rep. John Duncan of Tennessee complained that the air marshal program had become “a symbol of everything wrong with DHS, with 4,000 bored cops flying first class around the country committing more crimes than they prevent.”

Quiet Skies is not even the tip of the iceberg of the federal government’s surveillance follies. In the decades following the 9/11 attacks, federal agencies vastly expanded their ability to target anyone who deviated from Washington’s conventional wisdom. What is certain is that the crimes and abuses of power were worse than Americans know. Unfortunately, we cannot expect Congress to tighten the reins on its own concierge service.