WASHINGTON: The Trump administration announced on Tuesday it is removing five senior officials over suspicions they targeted former president Joe Biden’s political opponents using a now-abolished aviation security watchlist.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was referring the matter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and to Congress for further investigation.
The Transportation Security Administration’s “Quiet Skies” program, which was scrapped in June, had required enhanced screening for air passengers deemed higher security risks.
Noem, whose department includes the TSA, stated the program cost 200 million dollars annually and had been used to target political opponents and benefit political allies.
Her department revealed that under Biden, the program watchlisted and sometimes denied boarding to passengers who resisted Covid-era mask mandates on airplanes.
The program also targeted individuals linked to the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which aimed to prevent Biden’s 2020 election win from being formalised.
Trump forced out the head of the TSA on January 20 and has not yet named a permanent replacement for the position.
Many Republicans in Congress had strongly criticised the Quiet Skies program during its operation.
The TSA continues to screen more than 900 million airline passengers yearly and performs vetting functions for commercial aviation security.
Those being removed include the TSA’s executive assistant administrator for operations support and the deputy assistant administrator for intelligence and analysis.
Among others affected, the TSA briefly placed then-lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard, now Trump’s director of national intelligence, on the Quiet Skies watchlist.
A 2020 inspector general’s report found the TSA had failed to develop benchmarks to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness.
The same report noted that software and system malfunctions meant passengers were not removed from the list when they should have been.
The U.S. government initially developed enhanced screening measures after the 2009 attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive hidden in his underwear aboard a U.S. airliner near Detroit. – Reuters