What Has Happened to China Since the Foundry of a High-Altitude Balloon? President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address
President Joe Biden said in a new interview that the recently recovered Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental US did not damage bilateral relations between the two countries.
Shooting down a balloon that is gathering information over America makes relations worse. A day after his State of the Union address, Biden spoke with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff.
The chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, was not aware of the balloon until it crossed into Alaskan airspace on January 28.
Finally, what is the political impact of this string of incidents. Biden was criticized by Republicans for citing the possibility of injury to civilians or damage to buildings on the ground for waiting so long to shoot down the Chinese balloon earlier this month. He forcibly warned China in his subsequent State of the Union address that he would defend US sovereignty. His aides styled his response to the incidents as that of a commander in chief. This shows that the White House understands the political peril in wait if Americans were to perceive he was not doing everything to defend the homeland.
Biden administration officials have stressed that the meeting was not canceled, but instead delayed until a later date. The date hasn’t been set.
“Everybody assumed that China would be all in with Russia in Ukraine. Biden said that they were not all in. This is not a threat, I told him this summer. What has happened to Russia? Six hundred American corporations have pulled out of Russia, from McDonald’s to Exxon. The reason for a relationship with Europe and the United States is because they want to invest in China. I said, ‘Who is gonna invest in China if you engage in the same kind of deal? You’ll notice there’s not been much going on there.’”
The Biden administration has said that they will benefit from having the ability to collect information about the balloon and the Chinese intelligence capabilities, bothduring its flight and in the recovery of it’s debris from the ocean.
The Chinese Communist Party use of a high-altitude surveillance balloon over United States territory as a brazen violation of U.S. sovereignty is what the House will vote on Thursday according to the office of Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
The delayed US defense officials’ refusal to act is explained by this previously unreported timeline of events. The lack of urgency has become a big political issue in Congress, where some Republicans say the administration did not sound the alarm sooner.
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And he detailed a telling observation he shared with Xi last year as US officials warned China not to provide military support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
The report – also known as a “tipper” – was disseminated through classified channels accessible across the US government. Top defense and intelligence officials who saw it weren’t immediately alarmed, according to sources. The report said that the White House wasn’t made aware of the report and that the president wasn’t briefed on it.
Instead of treating it as an immediate threat, the US moved to investigate and collect intelligence on the object.
Kirby said it wasn’t clear what this object was doing over Alaska, unlike the Chinese spy balloon. There was a spy balloon at 65,000 feet, but this new object was much lower at 30,000 feet.
I believe that Jon Tester is looking into why it takes so long for us to know about these balloons. I support that. It should be looked at by Congress. That’s the question we have to answer,” he said. The military and intelligence are doing a great job. I feel a lot of confidence in what they’re doing. As far back as the Trump adminstration, did anyone know about this?
The political blame game is heating up. Turner said that the Republican claims that Biden is not protecting the border were linked to the incursions of US air space. And he also adopted a novel critique of Biden given claims that the president didn’t act quickly enough before.
Detection of a Heavy Unidentified Object with NORAD by F-22 Jets in Alaska, and Recovery of an Airborne Object by US President Jonathon Biden
Two F-22 fighter jets from Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson, Alaska, were sent to help monitor an object that was detected by NORAD.
Military officials said it is not necessarily surprising that the president was not briefed until January 31, given the expectations for the balloon at the time.
As more information about the administration’s decision-making process on the balloon has continued to trickle out, Congress has taken a keen interest.
“There are still a lot of questions to be asked about Alaska,” a Senate Republican aide told CNN. “Alaska is still part of the United States – why is that okay to transit Alaska without telling anyone, but [the continental US] is different?”
One pilot took a selfie in the cockpit that shows both the pilot and the surveillance balloon itself, these officials said – an image that has already gained legendary status in both NORAD and the Pentagon.
After US officials determined that it was a reasonable threat to civilians due to it flying at 40,000 feet, the military shot it down over Alaska. The object was brought down by aircraft assigned to the US Northern Command, and Biden referred to it as a success. Recovery teams are now attempting to retrieve the debris that is sitting on top of ice in US territorial waters.
With the North American Aerospace Defense Command on heightened alert, US fighters have now blasted three objects out of the skies since Friday following the shooting down of the Chinese balloon off the South Carolina coast on February 4:
On Friday, an F-22 shot down another unidentified craft over Alaskan airspace . US pilots were the first to see the object before it was shot down, and they reported that it did not appear to be carrying anything.
The object, which did not appear to be manned, was shot down because it was posing a risk to air traffic and because officials do not know who it was.
According to Kirby, Biden was first briefed on the object on Thursday evening, as “soon as the Pentagon had enough information.” It “did not appear to be self-maneuvering,” Kirby said.
Kirby said that they were able to get some fighter aircrafts up and around it before the order to shoot it down.
The military was ordered to down the object by Biden at the recommendation of the Pentagon. Fighter planes assigned to the US Northern Command brought down the object after it came inside territorial airspace. It fell over the frigid waters of the northern latitudes, near the Canada and northeastern Alaska. The US expects to recover the debris.
The Alaska Command coordinated the operation with help from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Investigation of the Deadhorse, Alaska, Object that Biden and the US Navy shot down in the last three days over the Airspace in the United States
“We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now. We don’t know who owns it, whether it’s a state-owned company or a private one.
The object first came to the attention of the US government “last evening.” Biden was first briefed Thursday night “as soon as the Pentagon had enough information,” Kirby said.
“This thing did not appear to be self-maneuvering so therefore at the mercy of prevailing winds, it was much less predictable. The president just wasn’t willing to take that risk,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction Friday in the area around Deadhorse, Alaska, as the military took action against the object.
The national security officials on the continent remain on high alert, despite there not being any indication that the objects have anything to do with the balloon. The air space over Montana was briefly closed on Saturday after a radar abnormality caused a jet to investigate and give the all-clear.
He said that it was hard for the pilots to glean a lot of information due to the size and speed of the aircraft.
An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace.
There was not a significant concern about damage to people or property if the object was shot down, which was the primary reason the Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to traverse the continental US last week.
While officials have given no indication so far that the object shot down over Alaska is at all related to the Chinese spy balloon, details have been scarce.
The China’s Balloon-Detected Object Shocking over Alaska, and “Measurements on the Recovery Mechanism” by The American and Canadian Governments
Recovery teams have mapped the debris field, and are in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor.
“While I won’t go into details, I can say that we have located a lot of debris so far that will aid in our understanding of this balloon and its capabilities.”
The lessons learned from China’s balloon helping in detecting an object shot down over Alaska were not a whole lot of apples and oranges.
Ryder’s statement said that while Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations, the FBI will be “working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand tweeted Saturday that she had discussed the incident with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “and reaffirmed that we’ll always defend our sovereignty together.”
“Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice,” the statement said. We don’t have any further details about the object at this time.
The object was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday. It was “octagonal” with strings hanging off and no discernible payload, according to the official and another source briefed on the matter.
The White House said both the US and Canadian leaders approved the shoot down on Saturday.
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Pilots gave different accounts of what they observed after coming near the object, a source briefed on the intelligence told CNN; some pilots said it “interfered with their sensors,” but other pilots said they didn’t experience that.
Turner preferred the US shooting down unknown objects over the weekend in order to allow them to travel the country.
Turner told CNN that the Biden administration appears to be “triggered-happy”, although it is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon came over some of our most sensitive sites.
The policy discussion should be more focused on the fact that we need to make clear that we are going to defend our airspace. And then we need to invest,” the Ohio Republican said. There are some problems and gaps that we have. We need to fill those as soon as possible because we know there is a threat.
This administration is particularly annoyed by this. He said the Biden administration should stop using television to inform Congress and instead come and brief us. “I do think that there needs to be more engagement between the administration and Congress.”
The High-Altitude Objects That Were Taken Down: The U.S. Navy During the Super Bowl and Beyond
They were taken down out of an abundance of caution according to the assistant secretary of defense.
Dalton said that high-altitude objects can be used by a range of companies, countries, and research organizations for “purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research.”
Even at the height of last century’s Cold War, when US jets often headed off Soviet aircraft testing North American and European defenses, pilots weren’t typically sent off to shoot down unidentified objects over the US and Canada. Americans are used to their President firing off orders to blast unknown objects out of the sky during the Super Bowl.
Canada’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre, also made mention of a “balloon” when describing instructions given to the team that worked to take down the object.
The objects shot down on Friday and Saturday were objects, and did not seem like the PRC balloon, noted the deputy Pentagon press secretary on Sunday. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you.”
The United States has been able to develop a consistent technical method for the first time because of the findings, which allowed them to track balloons in near-real time across the globe.
NORAD, China, and the Global Security Mystery: Three Days of a Crowded Search for Unidentified Far-Infrared Objects
As officials work to fully understand the sequence of events, there could be new speculation and criticism. CNN’s Natasha Bertrand reported on Sunday that NORAD had recently readjusted the filters it uses to sift data, which had previously concentrated on spotting fast-moving objects below a certain altitude. Birds and weather balloons have been avoided by early warning filters according to a source briefed on the matter.
If the latter situation is the case, is NORAD now picking up more objects that are potentially hostile given a state of heightened alert after the Chinese balloon crisis? If the objects are suspicious is there a sudden spike in such flights or did such objects fly across the continent with impunity in the past? Is this a new problem that the aviation industry should be worried about?
A US F-16 jet shot down an object on Sunday at the direction of President Joe Biden, according to the Pentagon.
According to CNN, Slotkin received a call from the Department of Defense saying the US military had a close eye on an object above Lake Huron.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill want answers. Politicians on both sides of the aisle met the news of further objects being shot down with a range of responses Sunday.
Turner’s Democratic counterpart on the Intelligence panel, Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he had “real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows,” before adding, “My guess is that there’s just not a lot of information out there to share.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, said Congress needs to investigate why it took so long for the US to catch on to the Chinese government’s use of spy balloons.
A deepening national security mystery is threatening a political storm after US fighter jets scrambled three days in a row to shoot down a trio of unidentified aerial objects high over the North American continent.
The intrigue is unfolding amidst a tense global situation, with the US leading the way in a proxy war against Russia in Syria and China becoming ever more hostile to the US.
“What’s gone on in the last two weeks or so, 10 days, has been nothing short of craziness,” Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS, hours before an airborne object was shot down over Lake Huron.
NORAD commander Gen. Glen VanHerck said recent objects were probably the first that NORAD had taken against an airborne object over US airspace.
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In a fast moving situation, the government might not know a lot more than it is saying. But the piecemeal emergence of details is adding to the confusion. The administration has had a difficult time controlling a media narrative about the discovery of vice presidential documents and the Chinese balloon.
If they are not related to China, are they the latest strange objects flying over North America linked to a hostile power? Are they even connected to one another or are they simply the result of coincidences at a time of heightened awareness and tensions?
Such speculation may be premature. Biden has changed his tolerance for unknown aerial objects due to the political debate over the balloon.
Biden, who didn’t address the new intrusions at a black-tie event with state governors on Saturday, has yet to speak to Americans in person about the trio of incidents over the weekend.
The lack of specificity is unlikely to quell speculation or partisan maneuvering in Washington. At the beginning of a new presidential election cycle, and in a political age where social media is used to spreading conspiracy theories, this odd series of incidents puts fresh pressure on Biden, who has come under fire for waiting until the Chinese balloon had crossed the country before shooting it down.
They are getting a lot of positive things that they didn’t get before. Most of that is going to be airplanes, whatever it may be,” said Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
“What we can’t answer now is, is this bigger aperture picking up lots of stuff that has essentially been forgiven, around in the skies, because it didn’t pose a threat, or is it part of something organized for whatever surveillance?”
There was more confusion on Sunday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on ABC’s “This Week” that the two objects shot down over Alaska and the Yukon were balloons but smaller than the original Chinese intruder, after saying he had earlier been briefed by Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser.
Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana appeared to make a direct link Sunday on “CNN Newsroom” between the Chinese balloon and the latest objects, even if there is no confirmation so far that they are connected.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/politics/unknown-objects-leaders-response/index.html
Cumulative Data in the Early 1990s: How Much Should We Concern About the Limits and Implications for Nuclear Reactors?
“It doesn’t give me much safe feelings knowing that these devices are smaller,” he said. Cumulative data is something I am very concerned about. I need answers from the American people.