Dubai — Businesses around the world bearing US President Donald
Trump's name face an increased risk now that he is in the White House, security
experts warn, especially as several are in areas previously targeted by
violence.
As Trump remains a brand overseas, criminal gangs or militants
could target buildings bearing his name in gold, abduct workers associated with
his enterprises for ransom or worse, they say.
"They may kidnap a Trump worker and not even want to
negotiate," aiming for publicity instead, said Colin P. Clarke, a
political scientist with the RAND Corporation who studies terrorism and
international criminal networks.
Predicting an attack keeps police, intelligence agencies and
security experts awake at night around the world — and, by its very nature, it
remains speculative.
US brands have been targeted in overseas violence before, but they
never belonged to a president. That's the difference. Trump becoming America's
45th president presents a unique challenge given the range of his international
business interests.
Asked about security issues, the Trump Organization said in a
statement it has "extensive protocols in place at our Trump-owned and
-managed properties" in the United States and abroad.
"Our team continues to work very closely with local law
enforcement," the statement said. "We are also working in tandem with
the local developers at Trump-branded properties worldwide to ensure that all
residents, guests and associates remain safe and secure."
The organisation did not
elaborate.
Trump name stays on
projects
While Trump has said he will put his business assets in a trust
and hand over management control of his company to his two adult sons and a long-time
Trump Organization executive, it's still his name on the projects.
That hasn't worried Kim Ok Kyu, who lives in a Trump-branded
apartment tower in Seoul, South Korea. She said security at her building is
quite good, with many guards and strict restrictions on outsiders entering the
building
"Terror? I don't think about it. I just hope my home price goes
up," Kim said.
But other properties are in areas that have seen violence, like
Trump Towers Istanbul, the Turkish city hit hard by a string of bomb and gun
attacks carried out by the Islamic State group. Flags and banners around the
site bear the president's name, while private security guards man X-ray
machines and metal detectors at its entrances, a standard practice in the city.
In Bali, where bombs planted by the Islamic extremist group Jemaah
Islamiyah targeting bar-goers killed 202 people in 2002, Trump's organisation has licensed the president's name
to a planned luxury resort. Bali police spokesman Hengky Widjaja said no one
had requested extra security for the property and authorities had no plans to
increase their presence there.
A Trump-named residential tower is under construction in the
Indian city of Mumbai, which was hit by a 2008 terror attack blamed on the
Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that killed 166 people. Mumbai police
spokesman Ashok Dudhe said he had no
knowledge of any additional security around the tower.
Another tower is being built in Manila in the Philippines, a
nation where Abu Sayyaf militants conduct frequent kidnappings for ransom and
where President Rodrigo Duterte wages a brutal crackdown on drug dealers that
has killed thousands. Philippine police say they haven't monitored any specific
threat toward Trump properties, though a tower rising in Manila sits in an area
under an intensified security watch after Duterte declared a "state of
lawlessness" following a September bombing.
Golf course could be
target
Even Trump's soon-to-open golf course in Dubai in the United Arab
Emirates could be a target, despite the fact the Gulf Arab nation has largely
escaped the violence gripping its Mideast neighbours.
In the UAE's capital of Abu Dhabi, an American school teacher was stabbed to
death in a mall bathroom by an extremist in December 2014. Authorities also
have imprisoned others over disrupted terror plots in the country, which hosts
some 5 000 members of the US military.
Dubai police have declined to discuss safety on the golf course
while the developer says it plans no additional security there. The US Embassy
in Abu Dhabi did not respond to questions about the golf course, which Trump's
children are expected to soon visit.
All of the Trump properties should be looked at by outside
security consultants, said Christopher A. Hagon, a managing partner of The
Incident Management Group and a former London police officer with experience in
diplomatic security. However, he acknowledged such commercial properties can't
be surrounded by concrete blast walls and controlled like a US Embassy.
"There is no complete answer to these things unless you've
got a military encampment and you can do anything you like," Hagon said.
"You've got to make compromises, but hope those compromises won't weaken
the overall approach."
Away from the properties themselves, employees could be
threatened, robbed or held captive, experts warn. Under US law, the Secret
Service is authorised to protect the
president, the vice president and their immediate families. That would include
his sons Eric and Donald Jr., who will run the Trump Organization under the
plan announced by the president at a news conference last week.
Duty to warn
Already, the Secret Service and the New York police have provided
security in and around Trump Tower in Manhattan as the president lives and
works there.
When asked about the Trump Organization, Secret Service
spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said the agency does "not comment on our
protective operations." However, that Secret Service protection extends
anywhere the president and his immediate family travels.
The US intelligence community already has a duty to warn American
citizens and others if it uncovers information about impending threats, which
would include Trump's businesses.
In 2015, National Intelligence Director James Clapper set formal
guidelines for how the intelligence community does that if it learns of
impending threats of killing, serious bodily harm or kidnapping.
"This includes threats where the target is an institution,
place of business, structure or location," according to Clapper's
directive.
Those threats become more serious if Trump's work intersects with
his duties in the Oval Office and a militant group decides to "mock,
torment or tease" him with a kidnapped employee, Clarke said.
He added: "If an executive from Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan or
Exxon Mobil gets kidnapped, it's news, but it's not the president's
company."
