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CNN: US Pilots approaching object shot down over Alaska said the aircraft interfered with their plane’s sensors, another said they ‘could identify no identifiable propulsion system and they did not know how it was actually staying in the air

Once more, the sad reality that America regularly builds up its own enemies demonstrates that our greatest enemy comes from within. Republican Senators Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska) put pressure on the Biden administration after officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the State Department would not dismiss the possibility that the recent Chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the United States was made with the help of U.S. manufacturing. Members of the Senate on Thursday participated in a briefing with officials from the three agencies. During the...

The alleged Chinese spy balloon that U.S. fighter jets shot down Saturday was likely capable of listening in on Americans’ communications and pinpointing the location of those conversing on the ground, according to the U.S. State Department. As the massive white balloon traversed the continental U.S. last week, drifting over several sensitive military sites along the way, it carried equipment that was designed to intercept sensitive communications, said a State Department official, who provided a statement on the condition anonymity to discuss the information. “It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geolocating communications,” the...

Green laser scan, 1-28-23 (Credit: Subaru-Asahi Star Camera/YouTube) I’m not entirely sure where to begin with this one. First, in all the kerfuffle over China’s wandering weather spy balloon which, coincidentally (or not), initially entered US airspace on January 28th, I (we?) missed out on the news that on that same date, bright green lasers shot over the night sky in Hawaii. No, really. Initially, the lasers were thought to have come from a NASA spacecraft:A camera attached to a telescope on Hawaii’s tallest peak recently captured footage of a series of eerie, bright green lines that shot across...

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.”

The media report of a Chinese-sponsored high-altitude balloon, the follow-up reports of its flight path over U.S. geography, and the "shoot-down" event that followed are all subject to factual testing, but on its face, the story represents one overwhelmingly incoherent assertion: that a slow-moving midlevel atmospheric balloon could violate U.S. airspace. How could a Chinese (or any other) foreign object enter U.S. national airspace (the "NAS" or national airspace system, controlled by the DOD and the civilian FAA) without its presence known far beforehand, and its flight path not tracked and projected? And if a very slow-moving balloon, let alone...

Sailors of EOD Group 2 retrieve wreckage of Chinese spy balloon. Public Domain image. CREDIT EOD GRU 2 Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/EODGRU2/. Tuesday, sailors from the US Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2, based a Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story and working from aboard the dock landing ship USS Carter Page, started recovery operations at the site of the downing of a Chinese spy balloon about six miles off the coast of Myrtle Beach, SC in less than 50-feet of water.It was brought down by a flight of F-22 Raptors, using the callsigns FRANK01 and FRANK02 in honor of...

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...

Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD, takes questions on Chinese spy balloon. Was asked about previous balloons administration says crossed US in Trump years. Has very little to say. Then asked: If you didn't know about them then, how do you know now? Has even less to say. pic.twitter.com/fA4Ri2Q1Up— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 6, 2023------------------------

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

A slightly different story emerged in the Washington Post, which reported that the Pentagon knew of "past Chinese surveillance balloons near Florida and Texas." Wait a minute: Near Florida and Texas? What does near mean? Were the balloons over those states? Were they offshore but over U.S. territorial waters? The Washington Post suggested the Pentagon was not being entirely clear. "The Defense Department was not specific about where in each state the previous incursions occurred," the paper reported, citing Rep. Michael Waltz, a Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. "[Waltz] added that officials did not say whether the balloons...

Transportation Secretary and Chasten’s wife — er, husband, Pete Buttigieg, went on NBC’s Meet the Press on Feb. 5 to preview Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. During that appearance, Buttigieg claimed that Joe Biden is just so wildly successful as president that his accomplishments cannot be easily distilled — hence Biden’s low approval ratings. Yes, Mayor Pete actually said Biden is extremely unpopular because he’s too good at his job. Buttigieg rambled out a justification of the Biden administration allowing an apparent Chinese spy balloon to cross the U.S. before shooting it down over the ocean (where, quite...

What are the motives and significance of the Chinese spy balloon penetration of U.S. territory, and why now? First the backstory:China’s military capability may soon rival that of the United States. What holds back Chinese President Xi Jinping from moving militarily on Taiwan are two things: First he may think that time is on his side, with Biden’s America in decline and a perception that a two-year window remains for action. Second, what holds Xi Jinping back is of course his concern that if the invasion fails, he would be removed by the CCP.So, Xi continues to build Chinese military...

Former Deputy Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Cliff Sims on Monday ripped Politico for publishing a “fake headline” that claimed the “Biden admin offers to brief Trump officials on past Chinese spy balloon incursions.” To distract from President Joe Biden’s hesitation to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon until it crossed the continental United States, the establishment media has claimed in recent days that at least three Chinese spy balloons flew over U.S. airspace during the Trump administration. Former Trump administration officials have denied those claims. The Politico article from Sunday alleged the “Biden administration is willing to brief former...

As the American people pay attention to a suspected Chinese spy balloon being shot down by a U.S. military fighter aircraft on Saturday after floating across the whole United States, it has been revealed that this has all been made possible by President Joe Biden. In 2018, 45th President Donald Trump put in place a program that identified and prosecuted Chinese threats to national security just like the Chinese spy balloon. In February 2022, The Biden administration ended Trump’s program, named the “China Initiative,” because it was called racist by Asian-American groups. “We helped give rise to a harmful perception...

The Biden administration has been trying to plug a gigantic hole in their story about Chinese spy balloons flying over U.S. territory during the Trump administration with no one in the government aware of it. Initially, the Biden administration sought to deflect attention from their failure to shoot down the balloon by noting that Chinese spy balloons transited U.S. territory three times during the Trump years. But when several Trump administration officials hotly denied that charge, Biden administration officials changed their story. They claimed that the balloons were only over U.S. territory briefly — skirting Hawaii and flying over part...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday appeared to fumble when asked whether there have been other Chinese surveillance missions flown over the United States during Biden’s presidency. The exchange came during a White House press briefing, two days after the U.S. military shot down the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. A reporter asked Jean-Pierre whether the Chinese balloon, carrying sensors and surveillance equipment, was the first one identified flying over U.S. airspace under the Biden administration. Jean-Pierre did not answer the question directly, saying "Chinese surveillance balloons have been around for some time" and...

After the Biden administration reportedly said they would like to brief former Trump officials of three alleged prior Chinese spycraft flyovers of North America, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed he had never heard of such operations while he was in office and demanded answers. On "The Story," anchor Martha MacCallum reported Biden officials have disclosed three prior flyovers of Chinese surveillance balloons, with the caveat that they were not discovered until after President Joe Biden took office in 2021. [cut] "I can speak for myself: I certainly never became aware that there was a three-bus-sized floating device coming...

The Chinese spy balloon that traversed US airspace before being shot down over the weekend was roughly 200 feet tall, weighed thousands of pounds — and may have carried explosives meant for self-destruction, a top US general revealed Monday. The since-obliterated spy craft’s payload was approximately the size of a regional jet airliner, Air Force General Glen VanHerck, head of US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command (NORCOM), said as he disclosed fresh details about the surveillance device. “Of the payload itself, I would categorize that as a jet-airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet such...

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Biden administration's slow response to a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States is the latest example of failing to do "the simple things to protect the country." Pompeo, considered a potential contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appeared on Hugh Hewitt's podcast on Monday and was asked if he had been "amazed at the incompetence" of President Joe Biden's team in dealing with the balloon. "I am but we've seen this," Pompeo told Hewitt. "This isn't the first demonstration of the inability to do the simple things to...