An aviation expert told Insider that if the rioters are considered a national threat, it shouldn't be "controversial" to say they deserved a place on the confidential federal no-fly list.
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After violence and chaos ensued at the US Capitol building in Washington DC earlier this month lawmakers have called for those involved to be added to the federal no-fly list.
The controversiallist is described as "a small subset of the US government Terrorist Screening Database (also known as the terrorist watchlist) that contains the identity information of known or suspected terrorists," as Insider's Sophie-Claire Hoeller previously reported citing TSA.
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"The way you get on the list is not public," due to national security, Bryan Del Monte, founder of Aviation Agency and former appointee to the US Department of Defense, told Insider.
"The way most people are going to find out that they're on the watchlist is they're going to buy a ticket and attempt to board an aircraft, and they're going to get stopped at screening at a checkpoint. And that may the first time they find out they are not allowed to fly," Del Monte said.
"We are here today because the folks, the people, the insurrectionists who breached the US Capitol, fall under the definition of threats to the homeland and should be immediately added to the TSA no-fly list," Schumer said during a press conference on Jan. 12.
FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director In Charge Steven D'Antuono told reporters that adding rioters to the federal no-fly list was a possibility less than a week after the Capitol breach.
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"As for the no-fly list, we look at all tools and techniques that we possibly can use within the FBI, and that is something that we are actively looking at," D'Antuono said during a press conference.
Capitol rioters "that represent a threat to law and order and the government, the FBI and others are considering placing them from the list in order to preclude them from using the national infrastructure," Del Monte told Insider also stating that because of the "unique nature of their criminal acts in representing a domestic threat to national security, they are good candidates to be placed on the list."
The FBI has called on the public for assistance to find the suspects involved in the riot. Images and videos of the insurrection flooded social media, leaving a digital paper trail that has helped authorities identify the suspects.
Del Monte told Insider the purpose of the no-fly list is more of a preventative measure, rather than hold individuals criminally liable for their acts.
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"Whether or not anybody winds up on the list," he said, "should be driven by what the intelligence and what the facts tell us about whether or not they represent an enduring threat to the national security of the United States," Del Monte said.
Del Monte continued: "Now I happen to think those people that were willing to go as far as rifling through the Capitol and stealing Capitol property and waving neo-Nazi and white supremacists materials and who were armed and had handcuffs and clearly had designs to kidnap or kill the vice president, the speaker ... those people represent a unique threat to national security and I don't think it should be particularly controversial to say that those people should not be allowed to fly ever again."
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