Free Republic

JUST IN - U.S. is tracking an unidentified high-altitude balloon over the Western part of the country — CBS

By the time a Chinese spy balloon crossed into American airspace late last month, U.S. military and intelligence agencies had been tracking it for nearly a week, watching as it lifted off from its home base near China’s south coast, an earlier sighting of the balloon than has been previously known. U.S. monitors watched as the balloon settled into a flight path that would appear to have taken it over the U.S. territory of Guam. But somewhere along that easterly route, the craft took an unexpected northern turn, according to several U.S. officials, who said that analysts are now examining...

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..............

In a very lame appearance on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg gushed that the military had done a "terrific" job regarding the Chinese balloon, and generally praised his boss's handling of the matter. But one member of the show's panel had a decidedly different take.David Urban, a CNN commentator and former adviser to Donald Trump, called the balloon: "A three-story, giant middle finger floating across America, courtesy of the Chinese government, right? And I think that's really what Americans take umbrage at. The notion that the Chinese can come here and just say,...

UNITED STATES - After the United States Air Force carried out the operation to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon, efforts underway to study and scrutinize both the balloon and its payload.... The statement added, "The balloon fell approximately six miles off the coast in about 47 feet of water. No one was hurt".

EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump and a number of his top national security and defense officials refuted Biden administration officials' claims that Chinese surveillance balloons briefly transited the continental United States during the Trump administration, saying it "never happened." A defense official on Saturday said Chinese spy balloons briefly traveled over the United States at least three times during the last administration.But Trump and his officials said that did not occur and criticized the Biden administration for spreading disinformation."This never happened. It would have never happened," Trump told Fox News Digital on Sunday morning, adding that Beijing "respected us greatly" under...

Talking heads on cable TV are up in arms about the Chinese spy balloon that was floating across the continental U.S., before it was shot down Saturday afternoon. Conservative commentators have insisted President Joe Biden should’ve ordered the balloon be shot down earlier and that a foreign balloon flying over U.S. territory never would’ve happened under President Donald Trump. But it did happen under Trump, according to several new reports. The Chinese government claims the balloon, which was first spotted by civilians on Wednesday over Billings, Montana, was actually just a weather balloon that was blown off course. But the...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated that the Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. is “gathering intelligence” and that the U.S. either needs to intercept it or shoot it down if that’s the last alternative and that simply letting the balloon go out to sea is not an option. Panetta said, “I think the United States has to take control of this balloon. There are two things that are of great concern here: One is that it’s been determined to be a surveillance balloon, which means that it’s gathering intelligence. That’s the purpose...

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.

The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois. Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation,...