Department Of Homeland Security Accuses Biden Administration Of Politicizing TSA Surveillance Program, Says Husband Of Democrat Senator Traveled With “Known Or Suspected Terrorist”

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused the Biden administration of politicizing the TSA’s watchlist program.

DHS said the husband of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) traveled with a “known or suspected terrorist three times in a single year.”

DHS also said the Biden administration surveilled political opponents, such as Tulsi Gabbard, months after.

According to Daily Caller, Sen. Shaheen reportedly lobbied Biden administration officials to remove her husband from the TSA surveillance program.

Per DHS:

After Senator Shaheen directly lobbied the former Administrator, Pekoske gave repeated, explicit direction to exclude Shaheen from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption despite Shaheen flying with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions.

All the while, Tulsi Gabbard, and many other Americans, were placed on the Silent Partners’ Quiet Skies list with little to no visibility, awareness, explanation, or oversight.

Billy Shaheen was hardly the only high-profile individual that was placed on this exclusion list. This list also included members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists. Shaheen’s blanket exemption has since been revoked.

“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,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

“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,” she added.

Daily Caller reports:

William Shaheen, the senator’s longtime husband and an Arab-American attorney, was added to the TSA’s “Quiet Skies” domestic surveillance program in October 2023. The senior New Hampshire senator spoke with then-TSA administrator David Pekoske about her husband being placed on a government watchlist and Mr. Shaheen was removed from the Quiet Skies list two days later.

CBS News first reported that the senator’s husband was being surveilled by the TSA’s Quiet Skies program, which subjects individuals to monitoring and searches by federal air marshals.

The TSA’s Quiet Skies list has also notably targeted Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was shadowed by air marshals when she and her husband were traveling in 2024.

The domestic surveillance program was initiated in 2010 in a purported effort to prevent terrorist attacks on domestic flights. The watchlist has come under fierce criticism for allegedly violating the civil liberties of Americans by monitoring citizens who are not suspected of any crimes nor have a criminal record.

Shaheen, 78, who is serving in her third Senate term, announced in March that she would not seek reelection in 2026. Trusts operated by William Shaheen acquired multi-million dollar properties on Florida’s Gulf Coast prior to the senator’s retirement announcement, the Daily Caller News Foundation was first to report.

Following the senator’s conversation with TSA officials about her husband being subject to “degrading” searches by federal air marshals, his travel profile was added to a “secure flight exclusion list,” according to CBS News. That list notably spares travelers from additional TSA surveillance, such as random searches.



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