TSA calls reports that he is monitoring ordinary Americans "ridiculous"

Transportation Security Administration pushes back on report on a secret surveillance program targeting travelers who are not suspected of a crime or who have links to terrorism

"Quiet Skies "is a program that has existed since 2010, but has been criticized after a report released this weekend by the Boston Globe.

The Globe reported that federal commissioners monitor ordinary US citizens and gather information about their movements and behavior.

TSA Assistant Public Affairs Administrator Michael Bilello confirms that the program exists and that it is necessary to protect against another "September 11 attack", but he added that the idea that TSA targets ordinary Americans is "ridiculous."

Average Americans would not be close to qualifying for inclusion in this program. If you are being monitored by a federal air commissioner as part of this program, it is because you have travel habits and other activities.

Passengers pass through airport security. and the activities correspond to information on current threats. A human team then checks the information, and if there is a red flag in the background of the traveler, that person can be followed during his trip and watched.

The internal documents unveiled by the Globe show a checklist asking if the passenger in question is grabbing or "white" their bags, have a "jump" in their Adam's apple or a "cold penetrating look." "

Hugh Handeyside, Senior National Security Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union The project criticized these "behavior detection techniques" because of their subjective nature, noting that a nervous traveler might present these same qualities.

The TSA did not comment on the list but defended this technique; Bilello said: "You are observed when you enter the airport.I do not think anyone is surprised by this.If you are surprised by this, you are not careful when you go through a TSA checkpoint. – they observe behavioral detection. "

The ACLU asks for more information, filing a law request on access to information this week to make sure that TSA does not use "agents" to identify travelers based on race or religion.

Handeyside said, "These concerns and the need for transparency are all the more acute as TSA uses unreliable and unscientific techniques." Legal experts like George University's Constitutional Law Professor Washington, Jonathan Turley, said the program raised serious privacy concerns and warned against the creation of a "fish society." Surveillance and observation. "

Turley pointed out that the plane is a public space with little expectation for privacy: "However, legal issues could be raised if TSA is assembling a type of digital file on the citizens on their movements, associations and preferences, and if such surveillance is used to restrict travel, it may raise an issue that may be considered by the courts. "

Given these constitutional concerns, the TSA maintains that the program is closely monitored by legal and civilian experts. Congress has even been informed about the program four times in the last two months.

Fox News' Lea Gabrielle contributed to this report.