Are You on a Terrorist Watch List?

(AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

I find this shocking, and still have some hope that this is an exaggeration. But I fear it is not.

Sonya LaBosco, Director of the Air Marshal National Council, was on Fox News last week discussing the lack of Air Marshals available to fly over the Thanksgiving weekend due to their being deployed at the border to process illegal migrants streaming into the country.

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If the lack of Air Marshals flying wasn’t bad enough, she dropped what to me seemed to be a bombshell: the only Marshals flying were those tasked to follow suspected terrorists, including everybody who had flown into Washington DC on or around January 6, 2021.

Uh, wut? There is a special list of everybody who flew to the DC region for any reason, and the Air Marshals are tasked to follow them?

Make it make sense.

So many things about this are shocking, not the least of which is that LaBosco wasn’t even there to discuss this shocking fact. It simply came out as part of the larger discussion about the lack of Air Marshals available to fly due to the border crisis. This wasn’t a whistleblower dropping a bombshell, but a labor advocate criticizing the Administration for diverting Marshals to a task that is not their primary focus.

Oh, and, by the way…if you flew into DC on January 6th the government is following you when you fly.

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WTF?

Air Marshals have been deploying to the border for a while to help with the processing of illegal border crossers. At first, the deployments were voluntary, but as the crisis escalated the deployments became mandatory, angering Marshals and sparking concerns that air travel security was being compromised.

“Clearly…we’re not flying right now. The only missions that we’re doing are quiet skies missions, and those are missions that are following the January 2021 people,” she continued, meaning a group in the industry are dedicated to following those who flew to the U.S. Capitol region around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, regardless of whether they were present at the Capitol.

We’re either on the border for illegal immigrants or we’re following folks from January 2021. We’re not doing our regular missions where we’re out there looking for the bad guys. So right now, on most flights, you’re not going to have air marshals.”

Later, she warned that travelers should be “very concerned” while boarding planes.

Frankly, I am less concerned that there are fewer Air Marshals flying right now than that the government has created a terror watchlist focused solely on people who visited the capital region on a certain set of days. That is insane.

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This goes beyond the insanity of classifying everybody who went to the January 6th protests as a potential terrorist. We are talking about Air Marshals monitoring anybody who visited DC for any reason.

Only a small fraction of the people at the Capitol protest went into the building, and only a small fraction of those were violent rioters. Focusing efforts on watching people who committed crimes is logical, although I suspect that few are at all dangerous in reality. But post-9/11, law enforcement keeps tabs on potentially dangerous people. But we have entered Minority Report territory here.

Did you visit DC? Precrime cops may be following you.

Welcome to East Germany, where the Stasi are watching your every move.

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