The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen acted to shield her husband, a prominent New Hampshire lawyer and Democratic activist, from enhanced TSA scrutiny after he allegedly travelled with an unidentified person who was on a terrorist watch list in mid-2023.
The Department of Homeland Security’s public focus on the Shaheens, in the form of a press release Wednesday, follows a CBS News report earlier this week that said after the senator interceded with TSA, in October 2023, her husband was moved from a TSA list subjecting him to more scrutiny at airports — known as the “Quiet Skies” list — and placed on a different list that excluded him from enhanced screening and random airport security checks.
Shaheen and her husband, William Shaheen, are taking issue with the allegations and say they did nothing wrong.
"I was the former U.S. attorney, a former judge, a former captain in the Army, and for them to say, in some way, I was involved with a terrorist is delusional," William Shaheen told WMUR.
In its press release, Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem blamed the Biden administration for using the TSA watchlist program as a weapon “against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, William Shaheen was selected for a random TSA checks on two flights between Boston and Washington in July 2023. DHS says he was flagged because his travelling companion was on a list of known or suspected terrorists.
Sen. Shahee’s office contacted TSA after those searches, according to DHS. On October 18, 2023, William Shaheen was flagged again by TSA ahead of another flight. That prompted a second intervention, by Sen. Shaheen herself. Some time after, William Shaheen’s name was placed on the list excusing him from enhanced screening, according to DHS.
In its statement, Sen. Shaheen’s office said the senator did not play any role in that decision but said the purpose of Shaheen’s involvement was to understand why her husband had been subjected to “extensive, invasive and degrading searches at airport checkpoints.”
“Senator Shaheen sought to understand the nature and cause of these searches. Any suggestion that the Senator’s husband was supposedly included on a Quiet Skies list is news to her and had never been raised before yesterday. Nor was she aware of any action taken following her call to remove him from such a list.”
William Shaheen is a Lebanese-American who is active in Arab-American groups. Sen. Shaheen’s office said his travelling companion during the flights was also Arab-American. CBS News reported that unidentified person was removed from the TSA watch list two years ago.
The methods employed by TSA to place names on its watchlist have been criticized for being opaque and overly broad in their application. The Trump administration announced this week that it is ending the Quiet Skies surveillance program
