As explained in an Oct. 12 column from UncoverDC, the Quiet Skies program is being weaponized against J6ers—like 20-plus-year military veteran Bryan Smith, who peacefully attended the Jan. 6 protest to contest the 2020 General Election. Quiet Skies is an undisclosed TSA program that "targets travelers who are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base," according to Smith. Like Smith, all three travelers, including Fischer's infant, were assigned the dreaded "SSSS" designation stamped below on the bottom right of his boarding pass because he was traveling with his father. Fischer is also a veteran, having served in the Air Force between 2013 and 2017.
"SSSS" is a concerning designation because it puts in motion a whole set of potentially unwarranted actions on the part of the airlines, TSA, and Federal Air Marshals that result in "enhanced screening" of the targeted individual. The enhanced screening is time-consuming and extensive because it involves swabbing every zipper, pocket, and hem of the targeted individual's belongings. Targeted individuals are strip-searched and required to open and power up every device they possess. The process can take hours to complete.
Aside from the potentially unconstitutional and invasive procedures, the enhanced screening often results in missed flights. In Fischer's case, the extended screening resulted in his purchasing all new flights for his family. Fischer told UncoverDC he and his fiancee were "harassed and treated disrespectfully, missed our flight, and had to buy a new one. The ticket counter took 45 minutes to issue our tickets because they couldn't check us in. Then TSA took over an hour to search us. They knew our flight was boarding and leaving. We had to buy new tickets on a different airline, leave the gate, and go through it all again. It is the epitome of Dinesh's police state."
Fischer also shared it wasn't the first time he and his fiancee were targeted for the extra screening.
"My fiancée and I were subjected to this SSSS harassment and codes on our boarding pass months prior while she was pregnant when flying to Arizona. Because my fiancée didn't attend J6 and has no involvement in anything related to my actions or activism, we were instructed at that time to book flights separately so she wouldn't be flagged.
We did that this time; she booked her own reservation with our 8-week-old son, and I booked my own ticket at a later date. They were still SSSS'ed. The TSA pat-downs and search of our belongings caused us to miss our flight. We pleaded with the agents to hurry up as we watched the clock tick down until the flight departed. They wouldn't even allow us to change our son's soiled diaper, and my fiancée and son were in tears."
We did that this time; she booked her own reservation with our 8-week-old son, and I booked my own ticket at a later date. They were still SSSS'ed. The TSA pat-downs and search of our belongings caused us to miss our flight. We pleaded with the agents to hurry up as we watched the clock tick down until the flight departed. They wouldn't even allow us to change our son's soiled diaper, and my fiancée and son were in tears."
In early October, UncoverDC spoke with retired Federal Air Marshal Sonya LaBosco, who elaborated on the Quiet Skies program and its associated screening and tracking procedures. She says many on the Quiet Skies watchlist do not deserve to be there. In April 2023, LaBosco wrote an article for UncoverDC detailing the way the wife of a "20-plus-year Federal Air Marshal Service veteran" was labeled a "Domestic Terrorist" and placed on the Quiet Skies watchlist even though "she had never been charged with any crime" related to J6. LaBosco writes, "The TSA paperwork noted Bill's wife broke into the United States Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021." However, while "his wife had been in D.C. on Jan. 6, she was nowhere near the Capitol building and could prove it with her GPS locations, Uber, and hotel receipts." Concerning Fischer's experience, LaBosco explains the nuts and bolts of Quiet Skies in action:
"Sometimes they put things on these lists to say, well, they are potential domestic terrorists because they labeled them with having broken into the Capitol. So, what happens anytime that person books travel? They cannot check in remotely. You know the online services that you can check in online or check your bag in online and then give it to the curb? All that stuff is done. It's over. Once you're on this list, you cannot check in remotely.
Then, when you go to the ticket counter, you're going to see the ticket counter person kind of freak out because it's going to be like it's going to show on a computer that you're one of those bad, bad people. They're not going to let you take your own luggage from the ticket counter. TSA will come and get your luggage for you. They're going to take your luggage if you're going to check it in, and then they're going to follow and escort you to the security line. Then they will put you through special, extra security.
After security, they're going to have people watching you going through to your gate. When you get to the gate, TSA's going to reverse screen you again. They're going to come to the gate and only pull you and your family. Whoever you're flying with now is on the list, too, so your entire family. So if you've got small kids or grandmothers or whoever is flying with you, they're all going to be on the list because they're flying with him.
There will be a connector too. They're gonna rescreen at the gate, take your luggage, go back through it, and you're going to have a minimum of three air marshals on the flight, a minimum of three on every flight you take. And if he's on standby, if he's one of these guys that takes standby, we've had nine air marshals on standby in one day for an elderly lady, one lady, a grandma. Didn't even do anything. She wasn't even at the capital. She was in another place at the rally in D.C. Nine Air Marshall standing by in a day."
Then, when you go to the ticket counter, you're going to see the ticket counter person kind of freak out because it's going to be like it's going to show on a computer that you're one of those bad, bad people. They're not going to let you take your own luggage from the ticket counter. TSA will come and get your luggage for you. They're going to take your luggage if you're going to check it in, and then they're going to follow and escort you to the security line. Then they will put you through special, extra security.
After security, they're going to have people watching you going through to your gate. When you get to the gate, TSA's going to reverse screen you again. They're going to come to the gate and only pull you and your family. Whoever you're flying with now is on the list, too, so your entire family. So if you've got small kids or grandmothers or whoever is flying with you, they're all going to be on the list because they're flying with him.
There will be a connector too. They're gonna rescreen at the gate, take your luggage, go back through it, and you're going to have a minimum of three air marshals on the flight, a minimum of three on every flight you take. And if he's on standby, if he's one of these guys that takes standby, we've had nine air marshals on standby in one day for an elderly lady, one lady, a grandma. Didn't even do anything. She wasn't even at the capital. She was in another place at the rally in D.C. Nine Air Marshall standing by in a day."
Alarmingly, LaBosco says many travelers have no idea they are being tracked. LaBosco, who now advocates for Air Marshals in her work with a private association called the Air Marshal National Council (AMNC), says Air Marshals come to her all the time with their horror stories. LaBosco says:
[American citizens have] "no clue half the time that they are being tracked. Marshals will sit between/by you in the airport or between you on the plane. They will sit and talk with you to get information from you. And Air Marshals will tell me, 'This person is harmless. They should probably realize not to talk so much to somebody they don't know. They spill the beans, and it lets you know they have nothing to hide. They don't realize they are being followed.' And sometimes we are following them from their houses. It isn't just at the airport or on the plane. We are going door-to-door for them.
Active Air Marshals reach out to me when stuff goes wrong because they know I will scream at the top of my lungs to make sure we avoid another 9/11. However, they are also often embarrassed and question their jobs because of who they are following and what they are being asked to do. They will often tell me, 'It doesn't feel right to be following certain people. They feel like they are violating their constitutional rights."
LaBosco says Americans in the program are in a national database with a photo. So every time an Air Marshal has a flight, he or she will "have a picture of the suspect. It will have personal information. There will be a code designating them to be suspected domestic terrorists. It will list their offense and category, and then everyone will say they broke into the Capitol. They lied on so many of these people."
According to LaBosco, "Everyone who flew into D.C. and its surrounding area on or around Jan. 6 is a potential terrorism suspect," a terrifying thought, to say the least. LaBosco elaborates on measures that went into place in Jan. 2021. "The FBI came to TSA, in the beginning, asking for every manifest for every traveler who flew in and out of the National Capitol Region that day. The TSA got the list to the FBI and ingested it into the TSA's national security database. I have seen the records," LaBosco continued, "I can prove it. The TSA actually went one step ahead and put that this person or that [person] broke into the Capitol on their internal sheet."
LaBosco says Quiet Skies is a waste of a program because it has yielded "zero terrorists" since its inception in 2010. Instead, she adds, "TSA has wasted about $394 million on a program that doesn't work and is just a big lucrative [TSA] domestic surveillance grab on travelers who pose no threat to national security."
Moreover, LaBosco states that while Air Marshals are law enforcement, they are not being treated as such. Instead, she says, "This is just theatre." The way things stand now, says LaBosco, "it is just more bureaucratic red tape to jump through, and it isn't keeping us any safer." LaBosco says the way Air Marshals are treated is also causing record suicides because of low morale. LaBosco added:
According to LaBosco, "Everyone who flew into D.C. and its surrounding area on or around Jan. 6 is a potential terrorism suspect," a terrifying thought, to say the least. LaBosco elaborates on measures that went into place in Jan. 2021. "The FBI came to TSA, in the beginning, asking for every manifest for every traveler who flew in and out of the National Capitol Region that day. The TSA got the list to the FBI and ingested it into the TSA's national security database. I have seen the records," LaBosco continued, "I can prove it. The TSA actually went one step ahead and put that this person or that [person] broke into the Capitol on their internal sheet."
LaBosco says Quiet Skies is a waste of a program because it has yielded "zero terrorists" since its inception in 2010. Instead, she adds, "TSA has wasted about $394 million on a program that doesn't work and is just a big lucrative [TSA] domestic surveillance grab on travelers who pose no threat to national security."
Moreover, LaBosco states that while Air Marshals are law enforcement, they are not being treated as such. Instead, she says, "This is just theatre." The way things stand now, says LaBosco, "it is just more bureaucratic red tape to jump through, and it isn't keeping us any safer." LaBosco says the way Air Marshals are treated is also causing record suicides because of low morale. LaBosco added:
"We are experiencing real issues, and internally, there is so much pressure because we can't do our jobs right. Our job is to get terrorists, and that happens on the aircraft while we are sitting on the plane. We are trained to intervene while strapped to a 12,000-gallon weapon of mass destruction that was used on 9/11. Our job is to get from point 'A' to point 'B' with nothing happening in between. That is the Air Marshal's job, and we are not allowed to do that job now."
Many of our resources are being taken out of the sky being deployed to the border, and then we have Quiet Skies. Most of the people in Quiet Skies are January 2021 folks. And I don't even say J6ers because many of the people on the list weren't even at the Capitol that day. We are not doing any preventative flights for real terrorists or for people who might be flagged that way. We are not following Antifa or BLM. We are not following Al Qaeda or ISIS, despite how many times Christopher Wray comes out saying we have to be careful. It is sad. Air Marshals are being misused in what is now a dangerous distraction."
Many of our resources are being taken out of the sky being deployed to the border, and then we have Quiet Skies. Most of the people in Quiet Skies are January 2021 folks. And I don't even say J6ers because many of the people on the list weren't even at the Capitol that day. We are not doing any preventative flights for real terrorists or for people who might be flagged that way. We are not following Antifa or BLM. We are not following Al Qaeda or ISIS, despite how many times Christopher Wray comes out saying we have to be careful. It is sad. Air Marshals are being misused in what is now a dangerous distraction."
