Qatar’s plans to gift a luxury Boeing 747-8 to President Donald Trump’s administration to use as Air Force One risks “significant espionage and surveillance problems,” Sen. Ted Cruz warned Tuesday.
“I’m not a fan of Qatar,” the Texas Republican told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah. And that’s a real problem…we’ll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns.”
Qatar’s royal family offered the plane, which is valued at $500 million, to Trump and the United States before his trip to the Middle East, where he is visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump intends to use the jet as Air Force One through the rest of his term, and has argued that only a “stupid person” would refuse the gesture.
According to Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s Media Attaché to the U.S., the transfer of the aircraft has not been made official and remains under consideration between the Qatar Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense. He added that the transfer is also being reviewed by the legal departments in both countries.
But several experts and lawmakers are questioning not only the legality of accepting the gift, but whether it can be swept for foreign intelligence equipment or eavesdropping, reports The Hill.
Using the plane would “pose immense counterintelligence risks by granting a foreign nation potential access to sensitive systems and communications,” warned Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Further, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it would be extremely difficult to check the jet for potential security issues, considering its electrical systems.
“It is completely negligent and, as far as I’m concerned, reckless to think that Air Force One where the president is asked to function as our commander in chief in a situation room, making life-or-death decisions, is on a plane given to us by a foreign government with 200 miles of wiring in it,” Durbin said.
He also said he is concerned about espionage.
“Two hundred miles of wiring in this plane? We’re going to go through every square inch of that to make certain the Qataris or some other government doesn’t have access to the most important decisions made by our president? This is irresponsible,” Durbin said.
The senator added that he wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before Congress about approving the gift.
“Remember, she was a paid agent of the Qatari government, a lobbyist, before she became attorney general,” he commented.
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