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Boston Globe Outs Secret TSA Tracking Program 'Quiet Skies' At Airports (bostonglobe.com) 259

Posted by BeauHD from the domestic-surveillance dept.
The Boston Globe reports of a previously undisclosed program, called "Quiet Skies," that targets travelers who "are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base." The insights come from a TSA bulletin in March that describes the program's goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft "posed by unknown or partially known terrorists. The program "gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked," reports The Boston Globe. From the report: But some air marshals, in interviews and internal communications shared with the Globe, say the program has them tasked with shadowing travelers who appear to pose no real threat -- a businesswoman who happened to have traveled through a Mideast hot spot, in one case; a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, in another; a fellow federal law enforcement officer, in a third. It is a time-consuming and costly assignment, they say, which saps their ability to do more vital law enforcement work. TSA officials, in a written statement to the Globe, broadly defended the agency's efforts to deter potential acts of terror. But the agency declined to discuss whether Quiet Skies has intercepted any threats, or even to confirm that the program exists.

Already under Quiet Skies, thousands of unsuspecting Americans have been subjected to targeted airport and inflight surveillance, carried out by small teams of armed, undercover air marshals, government documents show. The teams document whether passengers fidget, use a computer, have a "jump" in their Adam's apple or a "cold penetrating stare," among other behaviors, according to the records. Air marshals note these observations -- minute-by-minute -- in two separate reports and send this information back to the TSA. All US citizens who enter the country are automatically screened for inclusion in Quiet Skies -- their travel patterns and affiliations are checked and their names run against a terrorist watch list and other databases, according to agency documents. The bulletin highlights 15 rules used to screen passengers. If someone is selected for surveillance, a team of air marshals will be placed on the person's next flight.
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Boston Globe Outs Secret TSA Tracking Program 'Quiet Skies' At Airports More

Boston Globe Outs Secret TSA Tracking Program 'Quiet Skies' At Airports

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  • Using a computer (Score:5, Funny)

    by Calydor ( 739835 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @10:19AM (#57028098)

    Yes, using the hours on an airplane to write up a report, play some small games or whatever else one can do on a computer is certainly cause for alarm.

    Why don't they just make stasis pods mandatory on flights already.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • If travelling to and from terrorist areas meant that authorities would rifle through your bank account records, that would be a fourth amendment issue. If red flags mean that an air marshall physically looks at the person while in public on the plane - meh. Sounds like standard, proper investigation and protection to me.

  • The TSA itself (Score:5, Informative)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @10:44AM (#57028244)

    has stopped exactly ZERO terrorist attacks. Congress has flat out asked them and the TSA claims they can't say for security reasons. Yeah that number is zero.

    • Re:The TSA itself (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @11:00AM (#57028316)

      has stopped exactly ZERO terrorist attacks

      It's harder to tell how many it discouraged...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The US mil is getting them well before the USA part.

    • Re:The TSA itself (Score:5, Insightful)

      by w3woody ( 44457 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @11:17AM (#57028388) Homepage

      Exactly.

      The two changes made immediately after 9/11 which had the biggest effect on airline safety was (a) hardened cockpit doors, and (b) changing airline passenger awareness on how to respond to a terrorist--from one of being a passive passenger during a hijacking to actively resisting the terrorist.

      All the rest has been a waste of money, time and effort with "security theater" as the government plays cops and robbers on the taxpayer dime.

      • (b) changing airline passenger awareness on how to respond to a terrorist-

        This was not an awareness campaign. It was a change in doctrine. Prior to 2001, flight attendants were told to cooperate with hijackers (because it was always a kidnapping/hostage situation), and to instruct passengers to comply with the hijackers.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by quenda ( 644621 )

        The two changes made immediately after 9/11 ... (b) changing airline passenger awareness on how to respond to a terrorist--from one of being a passive passenger during a hijacking to actively resisting the terrorist.

        After? More like during. Flight 93 crashed after fighting in the cockpit an hour after 2 WTC was hit.
        The creation of the TSA was one of the terrorists greatest successes, after of course the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    • The beefed up presence could have had an effect.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      To the extent that it's trying to prevent another 9/11, it's a complete waste of money.

      Those attacks worked because a,
      a) they were methodically planned and researched, and
      b) relied on us being trained to sit through hijackings, as usually your simply ended up at the wrong airport, although occasionally a single person would accidentally get shot.

      b) broke down *completely* by the fourth plane.

      As such, that type of attack wouldn't work again. Further, anyone capable of a) would take lack of b) into account.

      T

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dknj ( 441802 )

        Senators are on record saying they know TSA is a shame, but they wouldn't want to be around the day an attack happened after they voted to get rid of TSA.

        And it's probably the same thing with your job. You don't NEED to security test going from DEV to QA, but the moment there is a hack in QA your name is on the chopping block.

    • Re:The TSA itself (Score:5, Insightful)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @11:47AM (#57028576) Journal
      It seems passengers have stopped most terrorists.....like the shoe bomber.

    • And they claim a significant number - though that is for all terrorist incidents, not just plane related. However the fact that they do does suggest the TSA has got something to hide...

    • "stopped exactly ZERO terrorist attacks."

      They caught Ted Kennedy. Surely that counts for something.

  • omg staying awake on my next transatlantic flight is going to be hard, and my bladder will hate me

  • No wonder this game is so easy... I was wondering why I always saw them!

    • Re:Spot the Air Marshal (Score:4, Funny)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @12:02PM (#57028660)

      No wonder this game is so easy... I was wondering why I always saw them!

      Well. given the criteria... pretty much any Slashdotter is screwed:

      ”The teams document whether passengers fidget, use a computer, have a "jump" in their Adam's apple or a "cold penetrating stare," among other behaviors, according to the records.”

  • The list (Score:3)

    by AHuxley ( 892839 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @10:58AM (#57028306) Journal
    The wrong movements could show waiting to join another person, see if fake paper work was good and not about to be questioned further.
    The appearance part is a classic attempt to get past some nations later layers of security.
    Embassy staff often try that with amusing results on camera.
    Appearance changes is another attempt to use altered, fake documents, shared documents.
    The person using the documents clean digital past is not who the documents got created for.
    The sleeping part would tell if a person claimed to be on a flight for the first time in a long time but was like a well traveled person. Past digital information about travel on the used documents does not match real actions.
    Great to see the licence plate part. Chat downs and documents can show a person rents a vehicle but their faith group, cult is waiting.
    The penetrating stare is usually a sign of a war zone stressors. Not normal for normal people with normal reasons to travel and no listed war zone past.
    Someone went to a combat zone, for a longer time and the digital documents did not show that.

    The idea that staff need to be told about the suspicion of actual wrongdoing just shows another US agency could be tasking a parson of interest and does not want to talk about the why.
    The other agency has no ability to trust what the TSA was created out of. But needs the domestic surveillance work done.
    Very much like the GCHQ and UK mil used the UK police for issues in Ireland. Never talk of method and all secrets stay safe.

  • As someone on the spectrum (Score:5, Interesting)

    by burningcpu ( 1234256 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @10:59AM (#57028308)
    I tend to become the focus of 'that guy looks weird' profiling, because I tend to look, weird.

    My comfortable state of a dead-eyed, nearly unblinking stare. I find eye contact to be invasive.

    The upshot of this is that I have to pretend to be normal. I have to jiggle my eyes around. Remember to blink.

    I don't like having to 'fake normal.' But if I don't fake it, I get hassled by every authoritarian-leaning personality I encounter.

  • waste of funds? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @11:10AM (#57028362)

    I'd rather they spend/waste their money on expensive, labor intensive HUMINT than spend it on more databases, better nudie scanners, etc and so forth. If they want to send a bunch of agents on wild goose chases writing reports, so be it. At least they might be there when someone gets blind drunk on a flight and starts harassing other passengers.

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:"Partially known" (Score:5, Interesting)

      by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc...famine@@@gmail...com> on Sunday July 29, 2018 @12:23PM (#57028762) Journal

      So your "solution" is to take everyone who might be against us, put them all in the same place, and make them miserable? Great idea!

      Do you want jihadists? Because that's how you get jihadists.

      Here's a better idea: Socialize these folks. Show them that what they think they hate isn't what they think it is. Listen to them. Figure out why they are angry. Work to assuage their fears, and make sure that they have what they need to live happy, comfortable lives.

      And sure, this won't work for 100% of people. Adios is indeed the solution to them. But it will work for a damn good number of people. What you don't seem to realize is that immigrants aren't going to another country because they're happy and having a great time in their country. They're leaving because they are threatened, impoverished, or otherwise unable to have a fulfilling life in their home country.

      If you shit all over those people, you're just making enemies. If you can make them feel welcome, you've not only gotten a friend, but you've now got ambassadors who can reduce the amount of hatred in their home country for yours. That's how you reduce all of the issues you identify, instead of increasing them they way your suggestions would actually function.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tgeek ( 941867 )
        When the fuck did it become my job to give these wackos "happy, comfortable lives"?

        • When you decided that you wanted to live in a civil society and not a police state beholden to a military industrial complex sucking up all your tax dollars.

          Or is that what you're looking for?

      • >"Here's a better idea: Socialize these folks. Show them that what they think they hate isn't what they think it is. Listen to them. Figure out why they are angry. Work to assuage their fears, and make sure that they have what they need to live happy, comfortable lives."

        It might be a "better" idea, but it is completely and utterly impractical. Most are going to reject anything you try to show them. Some you might sway. But the reality is, it sounds like state-supported brainwashing (albeit of a relati

        • That worked in every other mass immigration to the US so far. Why don't you think it would work in modern times?

          Or are you still worried about the Irish?

          • >"That worked in every other mass immigration to the US so far. Why don't you think it would work in modern times?"

            Because in the past we weren't a PC welfare state and people very much wanted to assimilate into the "American Dream." Sadly, that seems to be disappearing now (well, for quite a long time now). Divisiveness, isolation, distrust, identity politics, government overbearing, and victimhood are beginning to take their toll (perhaps even more on generations of existing Americans than recent imm

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • There is a difference between "immigrants" and "foreigners".

    • The risk of terrorism is not high enough that I'm willing to weaken the free speech protections. I'm only willing to limit speech in the most extreme cases.

      You, are I are both far more likely to die while drooling and soiling ourselves in a nursing home bed, than we are to be killed by terrorists.

    • Replace "Deport all...." with Send all to MikeRT's place to get to know each other.

  • Because it it's the number of drinks consumed in the airport bar, I'm going to be their prime target of the day. /s?

  • they have had no success with sensible approaches and they have infinite amounts of money to waste. They may as well track people at random until they build up the capability to dedicate 3 armed undercover agents to every traveller (including the other undercover agents). They are bound to get results this way eventually, it's like investing your 401k in lottery tickets. I thought the planes were getting crowded, seems these are not fellow travellers after all.
  • Since I'm old and fat, I hope they're forced to check. I'll work on my "cold penetrating stare," although in the past, I've found that the penetrating part is in the illumination, The stare perceives the reflected illumination, but by then any penetration is already done.

  • Where have I seen this before? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by paiute ( 550198 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @11:27AM (#57028456)
    On 8 February 1950, East Germany saw the establishment of the Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), commonly known as the Stasi.[7] The Stasi sought to "know everything about everyone".[8] Its annual budget has been estimated at approximately $1 billion.[8] Out of a population of 16 million, the agency kept files on nearly 6 million of its citizens.[8] The Stasi had 90,000 full-time employees who were assisted by 170,000 full-time unofficial collaborators (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter); together these made up 1 in 63 (nearly 2%) of the entire East German population. Together with these, a much larger number of occasional informers brought up the total to 1 per 6.5 persons.[9][10][11][12][13][14] People in East Germany were subjected to a variety of techniques, including audio and video surveillance of their homes, reading mail, extortion, and bribery.[15]

    • When I see large, milataristic structures (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @03:57PM (#57029660)
      like the Stasi my first thought is, well, that's one way to do socialism.

      One of the problems modern civilizations have is there's not enough work to keep everybody busy 16 hours a day. Not only that, but you've got to figure out how to give out food and shelter to people who, well, just plain aren't needed anymore. You can let them starve, but then they find themselves a strongman and he uses them for a coup. You can just give them food, but that pisses off anybody still working.

      America's solution was the Military Industrial Complex. The excess productivity made possible by modern farming and manufacturing goes into an endless war machine. Given the scale of the Stasi that's probably what's going on. I know for a fact China's doing exactly that to absorb all the engineers they kept training.

    • I thought the same.

      I guess it's impossible to spell "Stasi" in the US without T, S, A...

  • Once again (Score:3)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @11:47AM (#57028572)

    This is why I don't fly. I am not a criminal and don't appreciate being treated as one. Considering the TSA misses up to 95% of all fake bombs [go.com]taken on board planes, they have other issues to worry about than harassing people.

  • They kept the program secret because they knew that if you found out, you'd just spend time fretting about it.

    Keeping it secret just shows that your happiness is their primary concern.

  • Overbooked flights (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pgn674 ( 995941 ) on Sunday July 29, 2018 @01:26PM (#57029030) Homepage
    Maybe sometimes airlines don't overbook their flights. Maybe sometimes when the gate desk claims the flight was overbooked, it's actually that air marshals are forcing their way onto the flight at the last minute.

    • If that's the case then they should be bumping the person the Marshall is concerned about. That way the flight is "safe" and the taxpayers don't have to pay for the overtime, flight, hotel, or anything else.

      Or maybe they are and it's you. :)

  • ... less air marshals tracking guys with beards, muttering 'Allahu akbar' and more following parents dragging ornery children around airports.

    Yeah. Got that.

  • ...And simply put armed air marshals on every flight? That way they can cover 100% of *possible* cases. And without all that pesky, constitutionally-raping without-probable-cause surveillance.

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