Don't look a gift plane in the mouth
Two former officials explain the counterintelligence risks of Trump accepting a gifted jet, from potential Qatari surveillance to Chinese parts.
“Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our country,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media this week, after ABC News reported that Qatar would be giving him a Boeing 747-8 — just your average $400 million gift. The president said the aircraft will serve as “a temporary Air Force One,” while he waits for the official “red, white, and blue”-painted jet which he ordered in his first term. “Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE from a country that wants to reward us for a job well done,” he asked.
Two former intelligence officials tell me there is almost certainly a cost. One of them, who specialized in counterintelligence, said, “The government that’s giving this to the U.S. would be fools not to try and install electronic surveillance.”
The United States would know. Back in 2002, an American plane made for Chinese President Jiang Zemin was reportedly bugged with at least 20 listening devices, “including one bug embedded in the headboard of the presidential bed on board.”
The devices in that Boeing 767 could be operated remotely through satellites. What puzzled the Chinese was how the Americans did it. The aircraft was apparently under 24-hour watch by Chinese guards.
And speaking of China, “I wonder how likely is it that the Qataris have a pristine supply chain,” the other former intelligence official, with a technical background, told me.
The remark brought me back to a night last year, when I was walking through a glowing market in Doha. Next to nothing I picked up was made in Qatar — a vendor and I even joked about how Qatar produces items from China and India.
“Potentially, you could have Chinese-manufactured or tampered with code or equipment that’s in the plane,” that former official said, adding that Qatar is allies with everyone, including China.
The person was talking cameras, mics, as well as communications and navigation systems. “They could record for a while and turn off and then burst — dump their take at a later date or place.”
Vetting the plane would take years, both told me. Likely longer than it would take for Boeing to deliver Trump a new one. And it would require extremely careful examination, taking apart the entire aircraft.
“What [a foreign government] would probably do is install things and then put them to sleep so they aren’t transmitting or recording until they tell it to start recording. Even doing electronic sweeps are not going to be efficient. That’s how this kind of work happens.”
A foreign government would not care if it was collecting intelligence outside of Air Force One’s presumed SCIF, a room built to securely process classified information. “Anything the president says in a private, unguarded conversation is of huge value to a foreign government because you get the sense of the private persona versus the public… Anything that comes out of the president’s mouth — I mean it moves markets for God’s sake and that’s the stuff that he puts on Twitter or says in a press conference — think about what he says behind closed doors to close advisers. We’d love to have that information from a Putin.”
In 1999, the Russians planted a bug inside a seventh floor conference room of the U.S. State Department — removing and then replicating a piece of wall molding (with the wrong wood, mind you). The new piece contained a listening device, giving Russia’s SVR access to rehearsal presentations before they were given to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
That was just a piece of wood. With a jumbo jet, what’s being called a palace in the sky, “the possibilities are practically unlimited,” one of the former officials said. “I would be stunned if the entire intelligence community is not thinking about that.”