According to a summer report from the Boston Globe, the TSA has a controversial Quiet Skies program that entails undercover air marshals following innocent people around who haven't been suspected of any crime, and who aren't on any watch list or terror list.
Such as whether or not they're
abnormally aware of their surroundings or if they might have slept during the flight. Agents who have been tasked with conducting the surveillance that's involved in this program, have allegedly spoken out about it; voicing their criticism.
Some air marshals admit that they have been following people who they didn't feel posed any threat.
One
air marshal who wanted to remain anonymous has recently defended the job, insisting that what he is doing is necessary to combat terror. However, there are
alleged to be dozens of air marshals who disagree, they aren't as supportive of the job duties.
Several of those air marshals have reportedly raised concerns with their colleagues and senior officials about it, some allegedly sought legal counsel as well on the issue.
Those with concerns were reportedly questioning the legality of what they have been doing.
This sort of unnecessary and seemingly illegal monitoring of innocent people has reportedly
been going on for years now. There are lawmakers and government workers who insist that the program is legal though, that it's under legitimate
authority, but we're told that as well over controversial legislation like the Patriot Act, civil asset forfeiture, and a variety of practices that seem to violate basic natural rights or rights that should supposedly be protected by the Constitution—yet aren't.
Once news started to widely circulate about this program several weeks ago, lawmakers started to seek answers to what many saw as a controversial program. The TSA has since responded by briefing congress on the program.
People are allegedly targeted or selected based on 'intelligence-driven scenario rules'. They've reportedly utilized the TSA's Secure Flight Program and the Protection Automated Targeting System used at the border, so that intelligence agents could put together a set of rules to guide the selection process. The Automated Targeting System that's used at the border allegedly looks at a myriad of data such as country of origin, driving record, the seat location on the flight, what someone ordered as a meal on their flight, how someone paid for their trip, and more. That system as well was alleged to have been implemented well before the public became aware of it. What it appears to be accomplishing is essentially assigning a risk assessment score to travelers.
At What Cost?
Recently, the TSA
has reportedly proposed eliminating a number of full-time air marshals in an effort to try and save money. The agency
has increasingly been referred to as one of the most
useless and unnecessary, and closing it down could save hundreds of millions of dollars.
the program hasn't helped to foil any terror plots and they've made no arrests.
Let's consider the other costs, aside from the hundreds of millions that have been funneled toward this endeavor. While tracking innocent and 'ordinary people' they've no doubt contributed to
missed flights, missed meetings, and a myriad of delays. Those law enforcement agents could also be spending their time on more pressing matters,
investigating real crimes. Instead, they seem to be making a problem where there isn't one and it's costing heavily.
At the moment it's estimated that there are between 2-3000 air marshals that reportedly fly on roughly 5 percent of flights. It's estimated that the agents follow and conduct surveillance on about 35 Quiet Skies passengers every day or more.
Not only are these sorts of programs and the agencies who run them wildly expensive but they are also arguably profoundly inefficient.
They've caused hundreds of thousands of passengers to be delayed and who knows
at what ultimate cost that has come. Is it worth the billions that are continually spent on this
illusion of security at the airport? It isn't the
only option thankfully, and there could be some
better alternatives out there that could be explored which might be cheaper and bring about more impressive service results.
Pics:
Pixabay
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