China’s spy balloon that crossed U.S. airspace in January and February 2022, was able to gather sensitive intelligence from several American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to prevent it, according to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official.
The balloon was controlled by China, which made multiple passes over sensitive sites, including Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where the U.S. stores nuclear assets.
The intelligence gathered by the balloon was primarily from electronic signals that can be picked up from weapons systems or communications from base personnel.
The three officials said that China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the administration’s efforts to obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.
However, the Defense Department maintained that the balloon had “limited additive value” for intelligence collection by the Chinese government “over and above what [China] is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low earth orbit.”
National Security Council spokesperson Kirby John declined to answer questions about what kind of electronic signals or communications the balloon could have accessed.
Montana Sen. Steve Daines and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., were critical of the administration’s handling of the situation, with Wicker saying, “We have consistently learned more from press reports about the Chinese surveillance balloon than we have from administration officials. … I intend to hold this administration accountable.”
China has maintained that the balloon was an unmanned civilian airship that accidentally strayed off course, and that the U.S. overreacted by shooting it down.
The balloon had a self-destruct mechanism that could have been activated remotely by China, but it’s not clear if that didn’t happen because the mechanism malfunctioned or because China decided not to trigger it.
The U.S. government waited to shoot the balloon down until it was over the ocean to avoid any damage or casualties on the ground.
Officials are still analyzing the debris that was retrieved, trying to reconstruct the balloon.
The Chinese government has not revealed which company, department, or organization the balloon belonged to, despite several requests for comment by NBC News.
Just normal blundering by Hitlerite Communist Jokementia Bribery…
With Joe Biden being a paid puppet of Xi anything can happen and Joe Biden will cover it up which makes him more dangerous that Ethel and Julius Rosenburg. They were executed for Treason. The Democrats, Deep State and NWO, are protecting him as he is but a puppet to their efforts to bring the USA under their direct control, take away guns, eliminate your rights and privileges and turn this nation into a Socialist to Communist society. Mean while citizens are blissfully going about their little lives with little care about what is going to happen.