In April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio dropped the shocking, or maybe not-so-shocking, news that the Joe Biden administration had weaponized its own State Department, keeping files on United States citizens whom it deemed “purveyors of disinformation”—including people who are now a part of Donald Trump’s cabinet—with intentions of censoring them.
Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced something similar, and this one is a matter of national security.
William “Billy” Shaheen is the husband of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). He’s also a New Hampshire lawyer who served as the U.S. attorney for the state under Jimmy Carter. According to CBS, he is “active in the Arab-American community.” He’s also Lebanese-American.
According to DHS, on July 20, 2023, he “was a TSA Random Selectee on his flights from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS, Flight #1) to Washington-Reagan International Airport (DCA) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to BOS (Flight #2).” He was “flagged for the first time as [a] Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST).”
While DHS did not reveal who that KST was, his wife’s office did confirm that it was an “Arab-American lawyer,” though she would not provide that person’s identity.
After that, “Senator Shaheen’s office made an inquiry to TSA about her husband receiving enhanced screening on these two flights.” On October 18, 2023, he was flagged again, also as a Co-Traveler with a KST.
Again, his wife, a sitting senator, reached out to TSA, this time meeting with administrator David Pekoske. According to DHS, on October 20, 2023, Mr. Shaheen was “then approved by then Assistant Administrator for Intelligence and Analysis [Nancy] Nykamp…acting on then TSA Administrator Pekoske’s Authority, to be added to the Secure Flight Exclusion List,” meaning that “Shaheen was excluded from any future TSA Random Selectee designation, and Rules-based Selectee designation, such as Quiet Skies, Association Based Rule Selectee designation, or Silent Partner Selectee designation.”
On October 24, 2023, “TSA Legislative Affairs communicates with then Assistant Administrator for Intelligence and Analysis Nykamp, and refers to the action taken by Nykamp and/or Pekoske to add Shaheen to the Secure Flight Exclusion List.”
Mr. Shaheen had remained on the Secure Flight Exclusion List for eighteen months — until now. Despite flying with a KST at least three times, he was given a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption.
Related: You Won’t Believe What Rubio Found In Biden’s State Department Files
If you’re not sure what Silent Partners Quiet Skies is, it’s an aviation national security program that uses “Automated Targeting System (ATS) to identify individuals for enhanced screening during air travel through use of rules based on current intelligence as part of its Secure Flight vetting process.” It supposedly “add[s] another layer of risk-based security by identifying individuals who may pose an elevated security risk in addition to individuals on other watch lists maintained by the Federal Government, so that TSA can take appropriate actions to address and mitigate that risk.”
In other words, it’s supposed to be a national security program, but the Biden administration used it as some sort of friends and family program…unless you’re a political opponent.
You may have heard of it because the Biden administration placed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other U.S. citizens on it “with little to no visibility, awareness, explanation, or oversight.” For many Americans, it has led to long and exhausting legal fights to get their names off the list. (Hey, not everyone can marry a Democrat senator.)
But it wasn’t just Shaheen who found himself exempt. DHS said that “discovered documents, correspondence, and timelines clearly highlight the Biden’s inconsistent application of Silent Partners Quiet Skies and watchlisting programs, circumventing security policies to benefit politically aligned friends and family at the expense of the American people.”
Many “members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists” also somehow received a blanket exemption. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that none of them are Republicans.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had this to say on the matter:
It is clear that this program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration—weaponized against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends. This program should have been about the equal application of security, instead it was corrupted to be about political targeting. The Trump Administration will restore the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans, including aviation screening.
A spokesperson for Sen. Shaheen says that she only called TSA to understand why her husband “was subjected to several extensive, invasive and degrading searches at airport checkpoints.” (I mean, who hasn’t? Why is he special?)
She also claims she had no idea he’d been removed from the list. Sure.
Each day, it becomes clearer and clearer that the Biden administration was corrupt and the real enemy of U.S. citizens. The mainstream media will never cover the full extent of that, but we will.
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