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Keyword: balloongate

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  • China Demands U.S. Abandon Taiwan and Apologize for Shooting Down Spy Balloon

    02/20/2023 4:25:00 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 46 replies
    PJ Media ^ | 02/20/2023 | Catherine Salgado
    After claiming its spy balloon was a harmless weather balloon and angrily condemning the Biden administration for shooting the balloon down (after it crossed the continental U.S.), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is now not only demanding that the U.S. take all the blame for the incident but also that the U.S. abandon its unofficial ally Taiwan. As usual, the genocidal CCP is uninhibited by any interest in truth or justice.CCP state propaganda outlet Xinhua News published a statement from a Chinese Foreign Ministry (FM) spokesman on Feb. 19. The spokesman said that China acceded to a U.S. request and...
  • 'Shoot. It. Down': Republicans call for Chinese spy balloon to be blown out of sky

    02/03/2023 10:50:48 AM PST · by Right Wing Vegan · 308 replies
    Washington Examiner ^ | 2/3/2023 | Virginia Aabram
    GOP lawmakers are calling for the United States to shoot down the alleged Chinese spy balloon found floating over Montana on Wednesday. The Pentagon said it would not shoot down the balloon, arguing it "does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time," and China blamed the incursion into U.S. airspace on a civilian aircraft that had deviated off course. Montana is home to sensitive nuclear military installations. "It was a mistake to not shoot down that Chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area," Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), the...
  • Superiority by Arthur C Clarke

    02/17/2023 6:29:16 AM PST · by texas booster · 8 replies
    Open Source ^ | 1951 | Arthur C Clarke
    (Posted before the memory of Balloongate, and other government idiocy, starts to fade) IN MAKING THIS STATEMENT—which I do of my own free will—I wish first to make it perfectly clear that I am not in any way trying to gain sympathy, nor do I expect any mitigation of whatever sentence the Court may pronounce. I am writing this in an attempt to refute some of the lying reports broadcast over the prison radio and published in the papers I have been allowed to see. These have given an entirely false picture of the true cause of our defeat, and...
  • Humor: Amazon Weather Balloon Reviews Troll Biden's 'Operation Balloon Pop'

    02/17/2023 4:29:36 AM PST · by TigerClaws · 16 replies
    VANITY
    These reviews are your LOL of the day. For this product: Nballoon 28 ft / 336 inch 1000g Giant Professional Weather Balloon For Meteorological Investigation Aerial Video Holiday Party Decoration Entertainment Toys Huge Balloons, Natural 3.0 out of 5 stars Vulnerable to airstrikes Inflated well, no punctures prior to flight. Helium was expensive. When I got to around 60,000 feet some guy in a F22 showed up and ruined my kids birthday party. Tethered my new iPhone to it by putting it in a potato chip container. Was shot down by a AIM-9X missile. Lost all my scientific measurements and...
  • Biden says three aerial objects US shot down likely not related to China surveillance

    02/16/2023 11:40:46 AM PST · by RoosterRedux · 31 replies
    foxnews.com ^ | y Chris Eberhart
    The president said the three objects shot down after the military's take-down of the Chinese spy balloon is most likely from private entities and not believed to be related to China or other surveillance operations. The intelligence committee is still assessing the three unknown aerial objects, President Biden said during a press briefing on Thursday. "I gave the order to take down these objects, and couldn't rule out the risk of surveillance," Biden said. *snip* The U.S. is in the process of recovering pieces of the Chinese balloon, officials said. But debris from the three other objects shot down over...
  • Illinois hobby club fears its balloon was shot down by the USAF

    02/16/2023 1:51:13 PM PST · by navysealdad · 78 replies
    In the days since the U.S. Air Force shot down three unidentified objects out of the sky, questions linger about just what these objects actually were. On Thursday, a report by Aviation Week offered an intriguing hypothesis about what one of those three objects could be: a "missing in action" globe-trotting balloon belonging to an Illinois-based hobbyist club. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s (NIBBB) silver-coated, party-style "pico balloon" reported its last position on Feb. 10 at nearly 40,000 ft. off the west coast of Alaska.
  • Biden planning to deliver most extensive remarks yet on aerial objects military shot down

    02/16/2023 8:21:10 AM PST · by 1Old Pro · 28 replies
    NBC ^ | 2/16/23 | Peter Nicholas and Kristen Welker
    Biden will use his address to explain how the administration intends to deal with aerial balloons and other objects spotted in the future, based on a study conducted by a series of government agencies. The exact timing of Biden’s remarks has not yet been settled. The president is due to take a physical exam Thursday that could last several hours.
  • Oh, So That's the Explanation the Biden Team Offered About the Three UFOs We Shot Down

    02/14/2023 10:05:25 AM PST · by SeekAndFind · 36 replies
    Townhall ^ | 02/14/2023 | Matt Vespa
    The Biden administration was caught unawares regarding a Chinese spy balloon that breached US airspace earlier this month. It was detected over Montana and floated for days before being shot down off the Carolina coast. It was a device launched from Central China, and there were multiple opportunities to shoot down this surveillance vehicle. It was not seen as a threat, so everyone moved like molasses. Also, I’m betting that the Biden administration felt no one would care, which was a gross miscalculation. When the White House press pool is all wondering the same thing, like how could this spy...
  • Biden White House announces Interagency Team to address 'Unidentified Aerial Objects'

    02/13/2023 7:32:11 PM PST · by Macho MAGA Man · 65 replies
    NBC News ^ | February 13, 2023 | Rebecca Shabad
    WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is forming an interagency group to address the recent spate of objects in the skies above North America, the White House announced Monday. "The president, through his national security adviser, has today directed an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a White House briefing. "Every element of the government will redouble their efforts to understand and mitigate these events," he said. Kirby said the national security team's task is...
  • UFOs? Airborne objects? What we know about 4 recent shootdowns

    02/14/2023 7:51:56 AM PST · by BenLurkin · 29 replies
    NPR ^ | 02/16/2023 | BILL CHAPPELL
    Feb. 12: Lake Huron Location and altitude: The object was around 20,000 feet, soaring near the eastern portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It was shot down over Lake Huron, "about 15 nautical miles east of the Upper Peninsula," VanHerck said. Size and shape: "It presented as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernable payload," a senior Biden administration official said. What shot it down: An F-16, firing an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. Reason given: "We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground," the North American Aerospace Defense Command said, "but...
  • Thanks to Schumer We Know Why They Didn't Take Out Balloon Instantly - It's What We All Feared

    02/13/2023 11:50:14 AM PST · by Tench_Coxe · 43 replies
    China’s intelligence capability may be even greater than we’ve feared.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that the spy balloon that crossed the continental United States this month was redundant from an intelligence perspective, speaking on ABC News’ This Week Sunday. (snip)If Schumer is incorrect, or being deliberately deceitful
  • U.S. F-22 shoots down “high altitude airborne object” over northern Canada,

    02/11/2023 2:18:42 PM PST · by janetjanet998 · 127 replies
    U.S. F-22 shoots down “high altitude airborne object” over northern Canada,
  • Another UFO shot down as US Senator confirms incident over Lake Huron

    02/12/2023 1:04:17 PM PST · by thegagline · 221 replies
    The Mirror ^ | 02/12/2023 | Ryan Merrifield
    Another UFO has been shot down after a US Senator confirmed an 'incident' over Lake Huron today. We'll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.
  • Object Shot Down Over Lake Huron Was “Shaped Like an Octagon”: Wall St. Journal and Rep. Bergman Report

    02/12/2023 2:48:28 PM PST · by Macho MAGA Man · 63 replies
    The Gateway Pundit ^ | February 12, 2023 | Kristinn Taylor
    The Wall Street Journal reported the object shot down over by U.S. planes Lake Huron Sunday afternoon was “shaped like an octagon.” Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) said in an interview with Fox News a few minutes ago the object shot down by an F-16 that fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile was an “octagonal structure” over Lake Huron at about 20,000 feet. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) implied in a statement the object was the same one tracked over Montana Saturday night (tweet posted further down in article. UPDATE: ABC confirms, and that Biden ordered shootdown
  • Another Chinese balloongate? Well, the Chinese have done it again...or have they?

    02/12/2023 9:36:57 AM PST · by SeekAndFind · 11 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 02/12/2023 | Ned Barnett
    Well, the Chinese have done it again...or have they? Recently, Biden's spokespersons announced the shoot-down of an "object" over far Northeastern Alaska, shot down where it would land on an ice floe in Prudhoe Bay. The Pentagon was quick to "not call it" a balloon, just as they were careful not to call where it crashed down "ice." Instead, they called the balloon an "object" and called it "frozen water." Why did Biden permit a massive balloon, with an equipment pod as large as a commercial airliner, to overfly the entire United States — including our nuclear missile silos in...
  • NYT Plants False Claims Over China's Balloon Communication

    02/06/2023 8:26:26 AM PST · by Kazan · 6 replies
    Moon of Alabama ^ | February 06, 2023
    The New York Times carries a weird 'news analysis' by its somewhat neoconned White House and national security correspondent David Sanger about the recent Chinese weather ballon incident. Sanger asserts that China has failed to communicate on the issue:[B]eyond the made-for-cable-news spectacle, the entire incident also speaks volumes about how little Washington and Beijing communicate, almost 22 years after the collision of an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter about 70 miles off the coast of Hainan Island led both sides to vow that they would improve their crisis management. ...This was hardly a life-threatening crisis. But the fact...
  • US Officials Say Chinese Spy Balloon Was Able To Monitor Communication Signals

    02/09/2023 7:43:04 AM PST · by Conservativetpa · 30 replies
    The Free Press-Tampa ^ | 02/09/2023 | Mike Jenkins
    A senior State Department official with the Biden administration to CNN that the Chinese surveillance balloon, which was shot down by an F-22 Raptor on Saturday, was operating with electronic surveillance technology capable of ‘monitoring’ US communications. The balloon “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations” and was part of a fleet that had flown over “more than 40 countries across five continents.”
  • Biden tangles with GOP in raucous State of the Union — barely mentions China

    02/07/2023 9:04:34 PM PST · by bitt · 46 replies
    nypost ^ | 2/7/2023 | STEVEN NELSON
    WASHINGTON — President Biden’s State of the Union promised a call for unity but his repeated pokes at Republicans — and at least one glaring falsehood — saw the speech devolve into a near-shouting match Tuesday night. Republican members of Congress vocally disputed several of his claims about them — but especially when Biden said the GOP was plotting Social Security cuts. And in the 70-minute speech — which also drew jeers blaming the president for the rise in fentanyl deaths — Biden barely mentioned China, just days after a spy balloon from the communist aggressor traversed the US last...
  • Biden Admin Doesn't Appear to Have Evidence of Trump-era Spy Balloons

    02/07/2023 6:36:35 PM PST · by conservative98 · 21 replies
    PJ Media ^ | FEBRUARY 07, 2023 | MATT MARGOLIS
    Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who serves on House Foreign Affairs Committee, was, to say the least, unimpressed by the Biden administration’s classified briefing on the China spy balloon and blasted the briefing as “unspecific, insufficient, and backward-looking.” Senior administration officials conducted the briefing in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF). Not only did the briefing fail to provide adequate information on the spy balloon that was shot down, but no evidence of Chinese spy balloons taking place during the Trump administration was presented. “What I took away from this briefing confirmed that this administration and not the previous one had...
  • White House: Improved surveillance caught Chinese balloon

    02/06/2023 1:31:47 PM PST · by Oldeconomybuyer · 114 replies
    The Associated Press ^ | February 6, 2023 | By ZEKE MILLER, LOLITA C. BALDOR and AAMER MADHANI
    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Monday that improvements ordered by President Joe Biden to strengthen defenses against Chinese espionage helped identify last week’s spy balloon — and determine that similar flights were conducted at multiple points during the Trump administration. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that after Biden took office, the U.S. “enhanced our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.” Speaking at the event hosted by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Sullivan added that as part of those...