Tulsi Gabbard was placed on TSA watch list over her foreign travel and connections, says report

Nominee to be director of national intelligence visited Syrian dictator in 2017 and has made statements echoing Russian propaganda

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be his director of national intelligence, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, was briefly put on a watchlist by the Transportation Security Administration, according to CNN.

The list leads to certain individuals being chosen for additional screening before flights. She was added to the list after her patterns of travel and foreign connections triggered a government algorithm this year, three sources told the network.

But Gabbard was soon removed from the list, called “Quiet Skies.” Her removal came after she publicly claimed that she had been put on a “secret terror watchlist.”

While Gabbard claimed she was put on the list because of her criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris during an appearance on Fox News when Harris was the Democratic nominee for president, CNN reported that two sources rejected this version of events.

“The TSA placed me on the Quiet Skies domestic terror watchlist in what I can only describe as the ultimate betrayal,” Gabbard said on X in September. “The Harris-Biden regime has now labeled me a domestic terror threat. Why? They see me as a threat to their power.”

Security officials have noted Gabbard’s irregular travel patterns and relationships abroad, such as in 2017, when as a member of Congress she went to Syria to meet with the country’s dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Tulsi Gabbard waves as she arrives to speak during a campaign rally for Donald Trump at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024. She was briefly placed on a TSA watchlist (AFP via Getty Images)

The sources noted that Gabbard being put on the list may not be for any harmful reasons. But several officials told CNN that a nominee for a top intelligence position being on such a list is unusual, possibly unprecedented.

One official said that Gabbard would usually have to account for her foreign travel and contacts during a background investigation, something Trump has indicated that he may try to avoid for his top nominees. This means that Gabbard may not be assessed by national security officials to look into whether she could pose a risk.

While the Quiet Skies algorithm looks at travel patterns, foreign connections, and other information and may trigger additional screening, it has nothing to do with the terrorist watchlist maintained by the FBI. Quiet Skies has far looser standards for including people on the list, CNN noted.

The TSA told CNN that the list “is not a terrorist watchlist” and that the agency “uses multi-layered security processes to protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.”

“TSA’s Quiet Skies program uses a risk-based, random, unpredictable approach to transportation security, to include identifying passengers and applying enhanced security measures,” the agency added. “TSA’s Quiet Skies program, which is not a terrorist watchlist, leverages USG intelligence information and databases to apply screening measures to a limited number of passengers for a limited period of time. Simply matching to a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual.”

Some Republican Senators are likely to be uneasy voting for Gabbard, particularly for her past comments appearing to echo Russian propaganda in relation to the war in Ukraine.