Rand Paul is slamming the TSA for monitoring individuals who have not committed crimes. Paul describes the transportation authority as Big Brother-like when selecting innocent individuals for watchlists.
The Kentucky lawmaker has gone as far as requesting that the TSA provide documents detailing its methods for selecting people for surveillance.
The TSA is Likely Guilty of Surveillance Abuses
According to Paul and several other conservatives in Congress, the TSA is abusing its surveillance authority. As an example, the agency is unfairly surveilling Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, a conservative who ran for President as a Republican, is on the TSA watchlist for simply being a maverick.
Paul has requested that the TSA expeditiously hand over unredacted guidelines for Congressional review. Paul wants to read through the TSA’s:
Standard operating procedures
Criteria for placement on watchlists
Documents that determine how individuals are chosen for TSA surveillance
Paul has also requested information about the TSA’s Quiet Skies program. The controversial program employs Federal Air Marshals to randomly surveil travelers without just cause. Though the program is meant to provide security during times of elevated threats, the marshals who surveil flyers are nothing more than government spies in plain clothes.
Our tax dollars are being spent to covertly monitor fellow citizens without sufficient reason. It does not make sense to pay the government to watch us while we stroll through airports and fly the friendly skies.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth you should know: the amicable solo traveler seated next to you might actually be a Federal Air Marshall assigned to shadow you or others in your vicinity without probable cause.
It is Time That We Learn the Truth About Blacklist and Watchlist Programs
The TSA has been quite secretive of its blacklists and watchlists, insisting their methods and criteria are sensitive information. If Paul has his way, we’ll finally learn how the TSA zeroes in on individuals for surveillance including shadowing in airports and on flights.
“Recent disclosures from whistleblowers raise serious concerns that these mechanisms may have been improperly employed to target individuals based on their political views and participation in constitutionally protected activities, rather than legitimate security threat.” – Senator Rand Paul
Paul’s push for the truth about the inner workings of the TSA comes in response to numerous whistleblowers and high-profile cases. Such brave individuals stepped forward to criticize the TSA. Those whistleblowers alleged political renegades like Gabbard are being surveilled and subjected to travel limitations for rebelling against the state.
Gabbard and Paul Have Become Enemies of the State
Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii, is on the TSA’s terror threat list. Moreover, the lawmakers is also listed on the TSA’s aforementioned Quiet Skies program. However, few in their right mind consider Gabbard to be a threat to law enforcement personnel or everyday travelers.
To say it is alarming that Gabbard’s boarding pass was recently flagged with the Quad S designation would be an understatement. In TSA speak, SSSS is short for Secondary Security Screening Selection.
It appears the TSA believes Gabbard is a threat to security. As a result, she is more likely to be searched prior to boarding flights. Such searches have the potential to last nearly an hour.
Gabbard insists she has been targeted every time she has boarded a flight following her run for the presidency. Gabbard, a heroic veteran of the Iraq war, is a patriot worthy of reverence as opposed to invasive pre-flight baggage searches. TSA agents have also stated numerous Trump supporters unfairly received the Quad S designation.
Gabbard and Paul have both been patted down, searched and scrutinized while on their way to D.C. Such forms of detention are unconstitutional as the Constitution protects federal lawmakers from being detained while in transit to the beltway
"The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same…." – United States Constitution Article I, Section 6
Unwarranted Threat Classifications Must End
Paul’s hope is that the TSA will revamp its methods and practices in the spirit of preserving individual liberty. Though everyone is innocent until proven guilty, the TSA thinks otherwise. If the TSA were a person, it would be psychoanalyzed as highly paranoid and possibly even schizophrenic.
Trump, Paul and Gabbard should collaborate to overhaul or even eliminate the TSA, preventing the unjust classification of innocent taxpayers as domestic terrorists. Though there is an argument that the TSA has a role to play, that role should be limited.
At the absolute most, the TSA should be allowed to scan luggage and prevent known terrorists from boarding airplanes.
TSA NEEDS SHUTTING DOWN. 23 years of taking off our shoes and being molested to fly having to prove our citizenship while others walk over and don’t have to do anything get sent on buses and trains. It was all designed for us to give up a little freedom for safety we are the targets they want to control us.
The Good Major Gabbard is not a conservative or a Republican.
Until fairly recently, she was a Democrat and ran for president on the Democrat ticket in 2020.