Report: Federal Air Marshal Service curtailing surveillance

BOSTON — The Federal Air Marshal Service says it’s curtailing a domestic surveillance program that’s been accused of spying on thousands of unwitting passengers who are not suspected of a crime or appear on a terror watch list.

The agency’s new director, David Kohl, tells the Boston Globe that air marshals are “no longer capturing” any “routine passenger behaviours on a plane that would be seen as normal behaviour.”

The changes follow a series of reports by the newspaper that found thousands of ordinary citizens had been swept up in “The Quiet Skies” program and watched by armed, undercover agents through airports and on flights.

Agency officials say marshals no longer document travellers’ minor movements and behaviour, such as whether they use the restroom during a flight or fidget in the airport.

The Associated Press