Why Trump’s freebie Qatar jet is the stuff of nightmares in spyworld
Legal and ethical qualms aside, the luxury Boeing 747 would present a prime opportunity to bug, track and surveil the US president
Aside from any legal and ethical qualms about Trump accepting the plane – an 89-seater with a sumptuous French-designed interior – there are technical and security concerns too.
Experts say any such gift on a foreign government’s behalf presents opportunities for surveilling, tracking or compromising communications of the president and anyone travelling with him.
“If we had built the plane, knowing it was going to a foreign government, we would probably have bugged it,” said Thad Troy, a former station chief with the Central Intelligence Agency.
He recalled serving in Cold War-era Moscow when the American embassy was being dismantled brick by brick to remove a tangle of surveillance devices embedded into the very concrete of the building.
