A pair of scenarios for your consideration:

Scenario One: US-made fighter planes from two warring countries are engaged in a pitched aerial battle. The airframes, avionics, armaments, and technical capabilities of the American-made military aircraft are identical in every way. With one exception: Technicians at the US aircraft plant have hidden electronic devices deep within the planes sold to the country "less friendly" to the United States. When triggered by a secret signal from an American satellite, these devices completely disable the "less friendly" aircraft, making them easy to shoot down.

Scenario Two: The head of a foreign government flies his American-made transport plane to an international conference where he will negotiate sensitive defense, trade and other foreign policy issues. Unbeknownst to the foreign leader, the US government has secretly planted surveillance devices throughout the aircraft. The "bugs" enable the American intelligence community — and their allies — to eavesdrop on the head of state’s most private conversations.

If you think these scenarios are works of fiction, think again: Last week, the Peoples Republic of China revealed that it had discovered more than 25 listening devices on the new American-built aircraft of the Chinese President. The bugs were found throughout Jiang Zemin’s customized aircraft, including in the headboard of the presidential bedroom and his bathroom. The Chinese president’s Boeing 767 was built for $30 million at the aircraft company’s Seattle plant before undergoing a luxury refit to Beijing’s specifications in San Antonio, Texas.

Chinese officials accuse the US intelligence services of planting the bugs, saying the listening devices are highly advanced and can be activated remotely by a communications satellite. Dee Howard Aircraft Maintenance, the Texas-based company hired to complete work on the custom-made 767, was paid an additional $10 million to equip the plane with earth-tone leather chairs that convert into beds, a large presidential suite, satellite communications, and anti-missile defense systems.

Needless to say, the White House, the US Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), America’s lead intelligence agency, have all refused to comment on the issue. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, used his appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press" to attempt to diminish the significance of the episode, saying he had "no knowledge" of the incident, but added that he doubted that it would affect relations between Washington and Beijing. "We are two big countries. We have lots of interests in common, and I suspect life goes on," said Rumsfeld.

Foreign policy experts worry the discovery of listening devices aboard the Chinese presidential plane threaten to overshadow President George W. Bush’s long-awaited state visit to China next month.

However, there is deeper concern among many trade and intelligence specialists that the scandal could create doubt in the minds of foreign buyers about the security, airworthiness and safety of American-made aircraft.

"If a satellite can secretly trigger a surveillance device onboard the Chinese president’s Boeing 767, it could just as easily trigger a device that can disable the radar or flight controls of a military fighter like an F-16," a US Air Force official tells Strategic Policy.

"The triggering device would not have to be any larger than a shirt button and it could be hidden anywhere in the aircraft’s airframe or within its miles and miles of wiring harnesses." The Air Force official says foreign buyers of American military aircraft are usually required to sign a second contract with manufacturers for all the aircraft’s maintenance work, thus making it unlikely foreign governments would examine the aircraft very closely.

"These planes are sophisticated, so there isn’t much chance of a foreign aviation technician nosing around inside too deeply. Even so, they’d have to know exactly where to look to find it."

Despite the Air Force official’s assurances, experts in American arms exports are alarmed at the prospect of such disabling devices being discovered inside military aircraft. "If such devices existed, and were found, they would dramatically affect foreign interest in US arms exports," says Steven Aftergood, Director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists.

"There is a disincentive for the US to market defective merchandise.

"There is still a lot we don’t know about the planting of these devices," adds Aftergood. "But from the way it is reported, it could cause a lot of people to rethink their participation in similar

Robert D. Steele, a former CIA officer and author of On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World, believes foreign buyers are entitled to be skeptical about other American-made technology, not just US-manufactured military and transport aircraft. "Computers and communications technology going to foreign countries are also immediately suspect," says Steele.

Steele believes the CIA’s botched effort to bug Jiang Zemin’s presidential airplane "not only hurts hurt’s Boeing, it is also — and this is more important — transactions." A stark confirmation that American intelligence is moving in the wrong direction.

"President Bush should understand that his intelligence managers are obsessed with technology at the expense of all else. For what we spent for that plane, the CIA could have hired 100 Chinese scholars to read all the newspapers in China for a year," says Steele. "The Chinese episode should be kick in the behind for the president: Wake up! Your people are too busy spending money playing esoteric technical games." Send comments and questions to: [email protected]