Hey, do you remember the Chinese spy balloon that was allowed to travel half way across the United States before it was finally shot down? I think that happened like, oh, two months ago or something like that? Well, a new report from TheBlaze has revealed that the balloon managed to scoop up some sensitive intelligence from a few U.S. military sites and all of the efforts that were employed to try and prevent it from picking up this information failed spectacularly, according to NBC News.
The report is based on the information that was provided by two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration that the outlet did not provide a name for.
“Rather than visual imagery, which is easily gathered from other readily available sources, the craft gathered data from electronic signals, which were transmitted in real time to Beijing, the three officials told the outlet. Those electronic signals include communications from base personnel and signals that can be picked up from weapons systems,” TheBlaze said. “Notably, the high-altitude craft, which Chinese officials claimed was a civilian balloon that strayed off course, flew over Malmstron Air Force Base in Montana. That base stores some of the United States’ nuclear assets.”
So what’s in Montana that would be of interest to the Chinese Communist Party? Try the 341st Missile Wing. It’s headquartered at the airbase and “operates, maintains, and secures the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.”
According to the unnamed officials, the balloon could have actually gathered up a lot more intelligence if the Biden administration had not “move[d] around potential targets and obscure[d] the balloon’s ability pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.”
So, again, why didn’t they just shoot this thing down? It seems to me there were plenty of opportunities to blast the balloon out of the sky over areas where there wouldn’t be any threat to the safety of the American people. This is still a big, huge blight on the current administration.
“The high-altitude surveillance craft entered U.S. airspace over Alaska near the Aleutian Islands on January 28, according to a timeline provided by the New York Times. It drifted into Canada briefly before re-entering U.S. airspace over Idaho on Jan 31. Calls to down the craft ensued as Biden administration Cabinet members and military officials decided how to address the situation,” the report said.
“After the balloon made its way across the country for a week, an F-22 from Langley Air Force Base took down the Chinese craft with a Sidewinder air-to-air missile off the coast of South Carolina February 4. It was flying at an altitude of 60,000-65,000 feet. The U.S. Navy then worked to retrieve the debris,” it continued.
Five days after the craft was finally shot down, the Biden administration revealed that it was capable of picking signals intelligence, according to a report published by the Associated Press.
“It’s not a major breach. I mean, look … it’s a violation of international law. It’s our airspace. And once it comes into our space, we can do what we want with it,” President Biden went on to tell Telemundo Noticias February 9.
Not a major breach? I mean, what’s this guy even trying to say? Is he really trying to downplay this? We have a foreign nation that brazenly sent a spy balloon over our nation’s military installations to collect intelligence and that’s not a big problem? I don’t think so. This balloon is a provocative act to say the least. What does it say to the rest of the world, especially our enemies, when our leadership is too weak to even shoot down a spy balloon?
Nothing good.