(LifeSiteNews) — The Biden administration placed some Americans who resisted mask mandates on a no-fly list typically reserved for suspected terrorists, an investigation has revealed.
As Fox News reported, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have uncovered that the Biden administration placed some Americans who had resisted mask mandates on a no-fly list, in addition to some individuals who were present at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Joe Biden’s TSA initiated “Operation Freedom to Breathe” in September 2021, even though the CDC had already relaxed its mask mandate six months prior. The operation placed 19 Americans on watchlists with various levels of restriction, with more than half being added to a no-fly list usually reserved for suspected terrorists.
Eleven of those individuals remained on the watchlists until the nationwide mask mandate, issued by the Biden administration, was lifted in April 2022.
“Biden’s TSA Administrator [David] Pekoske and his cronies abused their authority and weaponized the federal government against the very people they were charged with protecting,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in comments given to Fox News Digital.
“Biden’s TSA wildly abused their authority, targeting Americans who posed no aviation security risk under the banner of political differences,” she added. “President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against the American people, and we are making good on that promise.”
The investigation by the agencies also revealed that the TSA, under Biden, placed about 280 individuals allegedly involved in the Capitol protests on January 6 on watchlists. Five of these individuals were put on the highest severity no-fly list.
Fox News Digital cites internal documents that show senior intelligence officers warned the Biden administration that putting individuals on the list for resisting mask mandates “is clearly unrelated to transportation security,” and that “TSA is punishing people for the expression of their ideas when they haven’t been charged, let alone convicted of incitement or sedition.”
One TSA intelligence officer expressed concern about placing individuals on watchlists who had been arrested at the Capitol on January 6. He said most people who were arrested “are technically curfew breakers,” and that “I hope we don’t end up adding them [to a watchlist] on just the arrest.”
The internal emails reveal that the TSA primarily relied on the George Washington University Program of Extremism academic database and social media to determine who would be placed on the watchlists, rather than the FBI or local police.
The investigation also revealed that some individuals were placed on no-fly lists despite not being present at the Capitol on January 6, due to bad intelligence from the FBI under Biden.
Noem said that the DHS will be “referring this case to the Department of Justice and for Congressional investigation.”