The Trump administration is planning to demolish the entirety of the White House's East Wing as early as this weekend, two senior administration officials said, part of a ballroom project championed by President Trump.
I wonder how difficult it will be for some capable state actors to embed listening devices or other fancy spy gear into the revised construction in a way such that they will never be found.
Surely the machinery of nonpolitical professionalism will have a lock on this whole construction process, so that such a thing would be impossible
I wouldn’t expect normal rooms to be secured anyway. Foreign dignitaries, tourists, and administrative employees come and go all the time. There is some performative security to keep out low-effort attempts to bug the place, but Donald Trump has been in office twice. The building was already compromised.
I wonder how difficult it will be for some capable state actors to embed listening devices or other fancy spy gear into the revised construction in a way such that they will never be found.
Surely the machinery of nonpolitical professionalism will have a lock on this whole construction process, so that such a thing would be impossible
I wouldn’t expect normal rooms to be secured anyway. Foreign dignitaries, tourists, and administrative employees come and go all the time. There is some performative security to keep out low-effort attempts to bug the place, but Donald Trump has been in office twice. The building was already compromised.
Australia bugged the Chinese embassy during construction without them knowing, so it’s certainly doable and probably has many time in many places.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/chinas-payback-to-asio-the-latest-in-a-tradition-of-spookery-20130528-2n8wm.html