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U.S. tracked Chinese spy balloon from the start but held off on attack, NORAD commander says
washingtontimes.com ^ | 2/6/2023 | mike glenn

Posted on 02/06/2023 7:01:03 PM PST by bitt

NORAD, the Pentagon‘s command defending North America, was tracking the Chinese surveillance balloon well before it entered U.S. or Canadian airspace, its commander said Monday, noting that at about 200 feet tall and carrying a payload the size of a jet airliner, it would have been hard for trackers to miss.

But Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD, said that as the suspected spy surveillance craft made its way across Alaska and Canada before crossing back into U.S. territory last week, there wasn’t much the military could do without a presidential order to act, given there was no imminent threat seen to the homeland.

“The domain awareness was there as it approached Alaska. It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical or military threat to North America,” Gen. VanHerck told Pentagon reporters on Monday. “I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating a hostile act or hostile intent.”

After the large, white balloon drifted across the U.S. for several days, including over a number of sensitive military sites, a US F-22 jet fighter shot the balloon down over the Atlantic Ocean off the South Carolina coast. The Navy sent the USS Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, and the USNS Pathfinder, an oceanographic survey ship, to search an area of a little under a square mile for any debris.

Conditions were too rough on Sunday but the search effort was well underway on Monday, Gen. VanHerck said.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chineseballoon; nonads; norad
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1 posted on 02/06/2023 7:01:03 PM PST by bitt
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To: null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; ...

get the hook.

matter of fact, get a barrel full of hooks.


2 posted on 02/06/2023 7:02:03 PM PST by bitt (<img src=' 'width=50%>)
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To: bitt

Even Panetta said this thing should have been shot down over our Aleutian Islands.


3 posted on 02/06/2023 7:03:51 PM PST by Jane Long (What we were told was a “conspiracy theory” in 2020 is now fact. 🙏🏻 Ps 33:12 of day. )
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To: bitt

Now that everyone knows they can’t track a balloon it’s time to concoct another fairy tail


4 posted on 02/06/2023 7:03:58 PM PST by NWFree (Somebody has to say it 🤪)
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To: bitt

meanwhile,

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-state-tv-showed-balloon-carrying-hypersonic-missiles-in-2018_5037040.html

Balloon With 3 Hypersonic Missiles Tested by China in 2018


5 posted on 02/06/2023 7:04:33 PM PST by bitt (<img src=' 'width=50%>)
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To: bitt

Better to err on the side of caution. It should have been shot down in the Pacific....and never permitted to cross the country....NEVER....


6 posted on 02/06/2023 7:06:08 PM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: bitt
How'd this idiot rise so high in command??!!

An identified balloon from an identified enemy power is approaching your country.

Should it have dropped bombs first??

Would we have let Soviet Bears penetrate that far into our air space during the Cold War??

He should be immediately removed.

7 posted on 02/06/2023 7:06:59 PM PST by ealgeone
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To: Jane Long

I noticed his comment, too....Didn’t he shut down the skies on 9-11?


8 posted on 02/06/2023 7:07:00 PM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: bitt
its commander said Monday, noting that at about 200 feet tall and carrying a payload the size of a jet airliner, it would have been hard for trackers to miss.

But they failed to detect the three balloons that arrived during the Trump Administration? Oh - okay?

9 posted on 02/06/2023 7:07:51 PM PST by ALPAPilot
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To: bitt

U-2 Spy Planes Snooped On Chinese Surveillance Balloon

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-2-spy-planes-snooped-on-chinese-surveillance-balloon

Doesn’t the U2 fly about the same height as the balloon?

Wasn’t the military gaining intelligence from intercepted signals?

They had days to prepare.

There’s more to this story.


10 posted on 02/06/2023 7:07:57 PM PST by packagingguy
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To: bitt

They waited until the balloon finished its mission.


11 posted on 02/06/2023 7:13:45 PM PST by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism.)
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To: bitt
..... Question .... How do we know that nothing was released into our atmosphere???? I suppose time will reveal the answer.

.

12 posted on 02/06/2023 7:14:04 PM PST by R_Kangel ("A nation of sheep will beget a nation ruled by wolves")
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To: NWFree

tail tale

Haha spellcheck fun!


13 posted on 02/06/2023 7:15:12 PM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

“They waited until the balloon finished its mission.”

Waiting on the check to clear????


14 posted on 02/06/2023 7:18:36 PM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't. )
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To: bitt

It was a UFO, no it was a weather balloon...


15 posted on 02/06/2023 7:20:58 PM PST by JJBookman (Same BS story different decade. )
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To: bitt

Biden must be adhering to William Prescott’s orders at Bunker Hill of “Don’t Fire Until You see the White of Their Eyes.”


16 posted on 02/06/2023 7:21:17 PM PST by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: bitt

So again it comes down to the fact that Biden ALLOWED it.


17 posted on 02/06/2023 7:21:26 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: NWFree

Yep, let’s change the story again. That’s the ticket.


18 posted on 02/06/2023 7:23:34 PM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: bitt

Sort of like Pearl Harbor 2023.


19 posted on 02/06/2023 7:30:13 PM PST by Toespi
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To: bitt
Maybe the DoD was afraid they'd hit one of their own balloons.

Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US [From 2019] FR thread 2/3/2023

And here is a current sit-rep on the hundreds of surveillance balloons the U.S. government is keeping an eye on us with. Notice that they're not looking at the border with Mexico much.

Saturday Special SITREP 2.4.23 - Balloons Everywhere! Monkey Werx US video 14:32

20 posted on 02/06/2023 7:32:52 PM PST by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
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