OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:25 PM – Thursday, June 5, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced the termination of the Quiet Skies program, citing concerns that the initiative had become excessively politicized—used to benefit or target specific individuals—while incurring an annual cost of roughly $200 million a year.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) initiated the “Quiet Skies” program in 2010 under the leadership of then-TSA Administrator John Pistole while former President Barack Obama was in office.
According to the DHS, the agency was highly politicized to favor or harm specific people and incurred an annual cost of nearly $200 million. The department also noted that the program held both a watchlist and a list of those who were exempt.
The DHS emphasized that Quiet Skies has never even averted any terrorist attempts, but they will continue to use other techniques to ensure safe air travel.
In 2018, the program expanded to include more extensive surveillance, with air marshals observing selected passengers during flights. However, the program faced more criticism for its lack of transparency and infringement on civil liberties.
“It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration — weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends. I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
DHS went on to say that the list of exemptions of people who avoid “security policies” included “foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and favored journalists.”
The initiative was said to be a terror prevention strategy, though it drew criticism from both the left and right, including groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“TSA’s critical aviation and security vetting functions will be maintained, and the Trump Administration will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of traveling public. This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans,” Noem continued.
In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) requested additional program details from the Transportation Security Administration.
“The TSA is engaging in covert surveillance of travelers and raising a host of disturbing questions in the process. While the program’s existence is now public, the TSA has kept nearly everything else about the program secret,” Hugh Handeyside, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a 2018 news release.
“Travelers deserve to know how this surveillance is being implemented, what its consequences are for Americans, and for how long the TSA is retaining the information it gathers. What we’ve seen so far is troubling, which is why we’re demanding that the TSA hand over records it’s been hiding from the public. This is a much needed step towards transparency and accountability for an agency with a track record of using unreliable and unscientific techniques, such as ‘behavior detection,’ to screen and monitor travelers who have done nothing wrong,” he added.
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