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Trump
staff,
properties
face
terror
risk
with
presidency
By JON
GAMBRELL
ap.org
DUBAI,
United
Arab
Emirates
-
Businesses
around
the
world
bearing
U.S.
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.
U.S.
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
organization
did not
elaborate.
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
longtime
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
prices
go 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
organization
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.
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
neighbors.
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
U.S.
military.
Dubai
police
have
declined
to
discuss
safety
on the
golf
course
while
the
developer
says it
plans no
additional
security
there.
The U.S.
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
U.S.
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
U.S.
law, the
Secret
Service
is
authorized
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.
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 U.S.
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."
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