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Keyword: balloons

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  • Some Chinese Spy Balloon Parts Were Made in the USA; Six Companies Placed on Trade 'Blacklist'

    02/12/2023 8:17:22 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 14 replies
    Red State ^ | 02/12/2023 | Jennifer Van Laar
    The U.S. intelligence community claims that they jammed the spy balloon’s signals, mitigating any damage as it flew over sensitive sites.In appearances on two Sunday talk shows, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) said that China sending a high-altitude spy balloon across the continental United States “was an act of espionage in plain sight” and revealed that the balloon had a greater capability than satellites to gather and collect imagery, and left open the possibility that these signals and images were still transmitted to Beijing even though US intelligence officials claim that they “mitigated” the damage.On “Sunday...
  • Pentagon Confirms Shot-Down Objects Aren't Balloons, Makes an Even Weirder Admission

    02/12/2023 8:19:37 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 38 replies
    Red State ^ | 02/12/2023 | Bonchie
    Alright, maybe I was too quick to dismiss the possibility of aliens.The Pentagon gave a briefing on Sunday evening after yet another unidentified flying object was shot down, this time in US airspace over Lake Huron. Reports began to circulate that the object was an “octagon” and that it didn’t appear to be a balloon.That set off some speculation that the recent rash of UFOs were balloons, likely from China, but that they were simply shaped differently than one would expect. In a pretty shocking statement, though, Gen. Glen VanHerck made it clear that’s not the view of the US...
  • Schumer: Chinese ‘humiliated’ and ‘caught lying’ with suspected spy balloons

    02/12/2023 7:53:43 AM PST · by ChicagoConservative27 · 48 replies
    The hill ^ | 02/12/2023 | Stephen Neukam
    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday blasted China in the wake of the U.S. shooting down a suspected spy balloon, saying the Chinese were “humiliated” and “caught lying” after the incident. “I think the Chinese were humiliated,” Schumer said on ABC “This Week.” “I think the Chinese were caught lying. I think it’s a real step back for them.”
  • Chuck Schumer: Latest flying objects shot down were likely balloons

    02/12/2023 7:41:50 AM PST · by ChicagoConservative27 · 20 replies
    BBC ^ | 02/12/2023 | By Thomas Mackintosh & Kathryn Armstrong
    Washington has been on high alert since its military destroyed a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. While he didn't say specifically that the two latest objects were Chinese, Mr Schumer told ABC on Sunday that Beijing was likely using a "crew of balloons" that had "probably been all over the world". Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that the latest object was shot down on Saturday over the Yukon in north-west Canada.
  • U.S. Only Recently Developed Secret Balloon Tracking Tech, Explaining Why Trump Had No Idea Flights Occurred During His Tenure

    02/12/2023 7:01:14 AM PST · by george76 · 58 replies
    Red State. ^ | February 11, 2023 | Bob Hoge
    The US intelligence community developed a secret technology to track China’s fleet of surveillance balloons only in the last year ... Although they won’t say how we’re doing it, the sources claim that the US can now even track past balloon flights—which is why the news only recently came out that the lighter-than-air craft crossed American airspace during the Trump administration. Like a scene out of “Back to the Future,” the Pentagon only recently realized that these intrusions had occurred. Despite the Biden administration’s insinuation that somehow Trump knew about these flights and did nothing about them, the truth is...
  • 'Object' Shot Down Over Canada Similar to Alaska One; Pilots Divulge More Concerning Info

    02/11/2023 7:48:33 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 48 replies
    Red State ^ | 02/11/2023 | Nick Arama
    There’s more breaking news about that “object” that was just shot down over the Yukon in Canada by USAF F-22 Raptor.According to the description by the Canadian officials, the description of the object was very similar to that of the object downed over Alaska on Friday. “We have no further details about the object at this time other than it appears to be a small, cylindrical object” pic.twitter.com/ocB4FnEVTQ— Acyn (@Acyn) February 12, 2023The official described it as “small, cylindrical,” and smaller than the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the U.S. military last week.It also appears to have...
  • Americans On Edge, "Triggered" By China Balloon Overflights

    02/10/2023 12:34:27 PM PST · by llevrok · 19 replies
    02/10/2023 | me
  • The Soviets Built Bespoke Balloon-Killer Planes During The Cold War

    02/08/2023 9:43:10 AM PST · by Yo-Yo · 8 replies
    The War Zone ^ | FEB 7, 2023 | PIOTR BUTOWSKI |
    With high-altitude surveillance balloons back in vogue, it’s worth taking a look at how the Soviets considered fighting these tricky targets.From 1956 onward, the reconnaissance balloons that drifted at high altitudes from the Western nations into the territories of the Warsaw Pact states had become a serious nuisance for the Soviet military authorities. Balloons of this kind might be carrying propaganda leaflets, but they could also be carrying reconnaissance equipment or even a bomb. A full 67 years before a U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after it...
  • General Mattis Speaks Out — No Chinese spy balloons on my watch…

    02/07/2023 6:18:40 AM PST · by Red Badger · 70 replies
    Citizen's Free Press ^ | Posted by Kane on February 7, 2023 2:13 am
    Brand new video | Turn up the volume fran henig @FranHenig · Follow 🚨Breaking: Just now in Vero Beach, FL General Mattis denies having any knowledge of CCP balloon flying over continental US on his watch. VIDEO AT LINK..............
  • Balloon With 3 Hypersonic Missiles Tested by China in 2018

    02/06/2023 10:14:55 PM PST · by george76 · 20 replies
    The Epoch Times ^ | February 6, 2023 | Andrew Thornebrooke
    Chinese state-owned television aired footage of a high-altitude balloon dropping hypersonic weapons in 2018. The stunning footage displays a high-altitude balloon, not dissimilar from the one that traversed over the United States last week, carrying three hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) into high altitude and dropping them for testing. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on the weapons test in September 2018. The footage has since been deleted from Chinese media, but photographs and short clips can still be found online. In one post from 2018, a Twitter user shared footage from Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, which shows the balloon lifting...
  • The time a wayward Canadian balloon caused an international stir — and thwarted 3 air forces

    02/06/2023 7:46:54 AM PST · by jerod · 11 replies
    CBC News ^ | Feb 05, 2023 | Catharine Tunney
    The Sask. weather balloon survived more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition back in 1998China isn't the only country to face questions about a curious balloon. Back in 1998, a 25-storey high runaway weather balloon proved to be an international headache for Canada. The helium-filled balloon — about five football fields long when deflated— was launched out of Vanscoy, Sask. on Aug. 24 with an innocent-enough task: measure ozone levels. But according to reports at the time, the instruments on the balloon failed to detach at the end of the test. The backup system also failed — sending the balloon aloft....
  • 1944: Bombs Fall on Oregon (Japan launched over 9,000 balloons bombs)

    02/05/2023 9:46:04 AM PST · by aspasia · 37 replies
    Oregon Secretary of State ^ | viewed Feb 5, 2023
    By November 1944, almost in a cruel and desperate afterthought to what seemed a lost cause, balloons launched from Japan and carrying explosive and incendiary bombs drifted east on the jet stream to the United States. Once again, the goal was to start forest fires and wreak devastation. On December 6 after a "mysterious explosion" in Wyoming, officials found balloon parts and bomb casing fragments from what had been a 33 pound high explosive bomb. During the next several months, Japan launched over 9,000 balloon bombs resulting in over 342 incidents registered throughout western United States and Canada. Oregon alone...
  • Dry Run: Balloons Called Top ‘Delivery Platform’ For Nuclear EMP Attack

    02/04/2023 11:00:20 AM PST · by Enlightened1 · 90 replies
    MSN ^ | 02/03/23 | Paul Bedard
    High altitude balloons, like the one China has floated over mountain state military bases this week, are considered a key “delivery platform” for secret nuclear strikes on America’s electric grid, according to intelligence officials.Spy balloons, used by Japan to drop bombs during World War II, are now far more sophisticated, can fly at up to 200,000 feet, evade detection and carry a small nuclear bomb that if exploded in the atmosphere would shutdown the grid and wipe out electronics in a many-state-wide area.The threat of balloon launched electromagnetic pulse attacks was warned about by a congressional EMP commission and inside...
  • Dem congressman compares Chinese spy balloon to DHS blimp monitoring US-Mexico border

    02/04/2023 8:22:10 AM PST · by Right Wing Vegan · 25 replies
    Fox News ^ | 2/3/2023 | Adam Shaw
    A Democratic congressman made a comparison on Friday between the balloon being flown over the U.S. by the Chinese communist regime, and the move by the Department of Homeland Security to fly blimps over over the Arizona border to monitor smuggling and trafficking along the southern border. "People are outraged by a Chinese surveillance balloon, but when @DHSgov puts up a surveillance blimp in Arizona border communities without community consultation," Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., tweeted, followed by a silenced emoji and a "sssh" emoji. He later edited the tweet to clarify that people are "rightfully" outraged.
  • Israeli military launches airstrikes in Gaza in response to incendiary balloons launched from the coastal enclave

    06/16/2021 3:44:25 AM PDT · by Libloather
    CNN ^ | 6/16/21 | Oren Liebermann, Ibrahim Dahman, Ruba Alhenawi
    (CNN) - The Israeli military struck targets in Gaza overnight Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, citing incendiary balloons launched from Gaza earlier in the day. According to reports in Israeli media, incendiary balloons launched from Gaza sparked multiple fires in southern Israel. WAFA, the official Palestinian News Agency also reported the airstrikes in Khan Younis and said "material" damage occurred. The news agency also reported on another site south of Gaza City being targeted and said there were no casualties from both incidents. The airstrikes are the first in Gaza since a ceasefire went into...
  • Incendiary, explosive balloons from Gaza continue to hit southern Israel

    08/13/2020 8:07:35 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 11 replies
    Jeruselum Post ^ | AUGUST 12, 2020 | TZVI JOFFRE
    On Wednesday, at least 24 fires were sparked by incendiary balloons in southern Israel in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council and in the Eshkol Regional Council. On Tuesday, over 68 fires were sparked by incendiary and explosive balloons throughout the Gaza envelope, burning about 200 hectares of land. "We won't allow Israel to change the rules of the game; we will respond to every attack by it," said the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Wednesday. "Balloon launches are part of the national operations and this will continue in order to place pressure on Israel to carry out what was...
  • Innovative laser system to intercept incendiary balloons

    12/27/2019 12:03:52 AM PST · by Eleutheria5 · 15 replies
    Arutz Sheva ^ | 26/12/19 | Mordechai Sones
    Police have developed a laser-based defense system, similar in essence to the Iron Dome system and intended to thwart incendiary balloons and drones launched from Gaza toward Israel, Yisrael Hayom reported. The laser system is known as the "Light Blade", and police say it is the first in the world to demonstrate operational capability to blast balloons and drones. The balloons and kite threat from Gaza that sparked fires in the south and hilly localities and that have the capability to carry payloads and other explosive devices, led the Border Patrol and the Police Means Development Department - in collaboration...
  • Not just Party City: Why helium shortages worry scientists and researchers

    05/18/2019 12:23:47 PM PDT · by EdnaMode · 78 replies
    NBC News ^ | May 18, 2019 | Mary Pflum
    This month’s announcement from Party City that it’s closing more than 40 stores as it grapples with new challenges, including diminishing helium supplies, likely came as unwelcome news to customers who count on the store for their balloon and event planning needs. But for scientists like Mark Elsesser, the announcement was something of a relief, inflating hopes that the public, and the government, might start paying closer attention. “When it comes to helium, we’re at a tipping point,” said Elsesser, who is the associate director of government affairs at the American Physical Society, a nonprofit association of physicists. “Party City...
  • Proposed bill would ban of the distribution of all balloons (Massachusetts)

    11/05/2019 1:27:41 PM PST · by ConservativeStatement · 38 replies
    Oct. 15, 2019 ^ | Morgyn Joubert, Lindsey Kane
    SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- A bill to ban balloons in Massachusetts is attracting attention. Environmentalists nationwide are pushing for bans on plastic bags, plastic straws and now, balloons. Environmentalists said that balloons can be deadly when they are released into the air because pieces fall back Also, locally, a bill was heard at the State House today that pushes to ban the sale, use, and distribution of all balloons. to earth and are eaten by birds and turtles and they have said creatures can also get tangled in the strings.
  • Israel confirms deal with Hamas: 'The violence will stop'

    06/28/2019 3:08:02 AM PDT · by Eleutheria5 · 23 replies
    Arutz Sheva ^ | 28/6/19
    Israel confirmed Friday morning that it had reached an agreement for a truce with the Hamas terror organization, hours after Arab media outlets reported on the deal. A senior Israeli official confirmed to Army Radio – Galey Tzahal that the Israeli government had indeed signed on to the deal, which would soften economic sanctions on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in exchange for an end to incendiary bomb attacks on Israeli border towns and farm land. As part of the agreement, Israel will expand the fishing area open to Gazan boats to 15 miles from the shore. Dozens of boats confiscated...