Kirby, Schumer, and the Biden Administration: What Do We Need to Know About a Possible Space-Jaw Spy Balloon?
The object was tracked over Alaska at an altitude of 40,000 feet over the past 24 hours, Kirby told reporters at the White House briefing. It was deemed to pose a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flights and that Biden ordered it be shot down out of an abundance of caution.
Recovery units are trying to retrieve the unidentified objects so intelligence officials can determine what they are. Recovery efforts are also underway for the debris left after an F-22 shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, and officials said on Monday that crews had recovered “significant debris” from the craft that included “priority sensor and electronics pieces.”
Schumer told ABC that he had been briefed by a White House national security adviser that the object shot down over Canada was likely another balloon.
“Given its size, which was much smaller, and the capabilities on the fighter aircraft themselves, the speed at which they were flying, it was difficult for the pilots to glean a whole lot of information,” he said.
It was much less predictable due to the fact that this thing didn’t appear to be self-maneuvering. He said that the president wasn’t willing to take that risk.
The Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, prefers the US shooting down objects in the air to allowing them to cross the country.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Turner said he would like the Biden administration to beruder-happy, but that they wouldn’t know if it was just the administration trying to change headlines.
“What I think this shows, which is probably more important to our policy discussion here, is that we really have to declare that we’re going to defend our airspace. And then we need to invest,” added Turner. “This shows some of the problems and gaps that we have. We need to fill those as soon as possible because we certainly now ascertain there is a threat.”
Both sides of the aisle have called for more transparency from the Biden administration. After Tuesday’s classified briefing with intelligence officials, many senators urged the president to speak directly to the country to allay concerns.
The senior Biden officials were asked pointed questions from members of the Congress in public hearings and classified briefings as Congress demanded more information about the suspected spy balloon.
“It’s certainly a new, recent development that you have China being so aggressive in entering other countries’ airspace and doing so for clear intentions to spy with very sophisticated equipment. Turner said that the scale of the balloon and the technology that was used to spy on the United States is unprecedented.
Three mysterious aerial devices were shot down over the past few days and have been consuming areas of the federal government. The administration hasn’t been able to say with certainty what they were doing, where they were from or even what type of craft they were – conditions ripe for conspiracies.
In a news briefing Monday following the extraordinary three-day stretch, the White House made clear the many things it still did not know. It was not certain whether the three downed objects had any abilities to surveil. With how fast the fighter jets would have traveled, it was difficult to say what these objects looked like. It was not known where the three objects had come from or who they belonged to.
Oscillations in the U.S. Airborne Object Shootdown: The Case for President Biden and the Defense of the Southern Border
The intrigue is also unfolding against a tense global situation, with already difficult relations with rising superpower China becoming ever more hostile and with the US leading the West in an effective proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
“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.
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:
When the Cold War began in the 1960s pilots weren’t usually sent off to shoot down objects over North America. It’s not normal for Americans to settle down for the Super Bowl with their president firing off orders to blast unknown objects out of the North American sky.
Recently, objects shot down were likely the first of a number of actions that NORAD and the US Northern Command had taken against airborne objects.
There are serious national security and political questions that can only be assessed after more details are understood about the last few days.
If they are not related to China, are the latest strange objects flying over North America linked to some other hostile power or group, corporate or private entity? Are they connected to each other or are they the result of coincidences at a time of heightened awareness and tensions?
As officials understand the sequence of events and objects, new speculation could be premature. According to CNN, NORAD has recently adjusted the filters it uses to find objects that are moving fast below a certain altitude. Early warning filters had previously been set to avoid picking up other objects, including birds and weather balloons, a source briefed on the matter said.
Speculation or partisan maneuvering in Washington will not be deterred by the lack of specificity. This odd series of events is putting fresh pressure on Biden, in a political environment with a lot of rumors and conspiracy theories, and at the start of a new presidential election cycle.
The political blame game is heating up. Republican Leader of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Turner of Ohio accused Biden of failing to protect the southern border on “State of the Union” due to GOP claims that he was not briefed enough. And he also adopted a novel critique of Biden given claims that the president didn’t act quickly enough before.
“I think one thing that this shows is certainly the fallacy of the argument of the Biden administration saying that the height of the Chinese balloon caused them to have no concern because certainly, as we know, whatever goes up can come down.”
At a black-tie event for state governors Saturday, Biden did not address the new intrusions or any other incidents that occurred over the weekend.
Kirby, Mosdale, and Mosdale Revisiting the Objects of the Day after the First Airborne Heavy Ion Collision
John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said Monday that the most recent objects did not pose “any direct threat to people on the ground, and we are laser-focused on confirming their nature and purpose.”
“They are getting lots of positives that they did not get before. Kayyem was 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?”
The Idaho senator said the last three objects shot down were much smaller than a car, and that it was a new phenomenon. He said at least one of the three objects carried a payload, but declined to give details.
If there is a direct link between the Chinese balloon and the latest objects, it is probable that Rep. Matt Mosdale made that on CNN on Sunday.
He said he doesn’t feel safe knowing that the devices are smaller. “I am very concerned with the cumulative data that is being collected. I need to know what the American people want to know.
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One lawmaker who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee told CNN on Monday morning that they had not received any communication from the administration over the weekend about the objects and that they did not expect to get much information until the fallen debris was recovered and assessed.
One lawmaker who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee had told CNN on Monday that it would be prudent for Biden to directly address the public, particularly given that the situation was ripe for conspiracy theories.
Uncertainty is a fuel for conspiracy theorists, and I hope that information is shared quickly. “Something truthful is more important than something reassuring. Communication from government is required for trust in government.
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado democrat who is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that he is looking for more information from the administration about the situation.
Biden answered a CNN question about the operation to shoot down a high altitude object in Alaska on Friday, saying that it was a success.
Another person familiar with the matter said Biden’s aides thought that delivering remarks without a full picture of what they were could cause more concern. Biden has been deeply engaged behind the scenes, personally ordering each of the objects be shot down.
The president was expected to receive regular updates on what officials are learning about the objects that were gathered after shoot-down as his public schedule was empty on Monday.
The Recovery of Chinese Spy Balloon Debris from the Space Flight. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, praised the White House
The intelligence community is considering a leading explanation as to why the balloons may be tied to a commercial or benign purpose.
The White House, recognizing the potential for the spread of outlandish theories, has sought to tamp down on fears the objects could have originated from a hostile state or even from outer space. A top White House official said they were probably harmless.
After receiving a classified information on the objects, senators were reassured that they were not a threat to the American people.
“There are a lot of these things that are up in the air from time to time, some commercial, some government and maybe there’s some things we don’t know,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, adding he wasn’t worried “in the slightest” that the objects themselves pose a threat to the American people.
Administration officials are trying to recover the debris and find out more about the objects’ nature since they were shot down over North America in recent days.
It would be worth a lot to have investigators look at the debris and determine what the objects were, and what their purpose was. Kirby said that they are going to continue intensive recovery efforts.
So far, those efforts have been hampered by what he described as “pretty tough conditions,” exacerbated by the geographic challenges on Lake Huron, in the Yukon wilderness and on sea ice north of Alaska.
The Chinese spy balloon debris recovery was hampered by high sea levels in the Atlantic Ocean due to the time of year, while the weather conditions were pretty tough, Kirby said.
Defending the possibility of extraterrestrial activity from the airborne devices: a brief briefing by the government of Canada and the United States
Kirby said the government was relying instead on information and expertise from the Federal Aviation Administration and the intelligence community to glean what they could about the mysterious airborne devices.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday the search area in Yukon was a “fairly large area” in dense wilderness. Other Canadian officials were candid Monday about the difficult task of recovering debris from high-altitude objects shot down over Canada and the US.
“We are working very hard to locate them, but there’s no guarantee that we will. The terrain in the Yukon is rather treacherous right now so it could pose some significant challenges to us in in terms of our recovery efforts the same could be said about what’s taking place in Lake Huron, the marine conditions are also not conducive at the moment,” said Sean McGillis, a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The object that was shot down was first detected in SouthernAlberta. Canadian officials said that they have sent investigators with Bombs, chemical, biological, and radiological expertise because of the risk.
One statement from the White House press secretary was definitive, and it was the fact that the US military had not shot down aliens from outer space.
There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent take- downs. We are going to make sure that the American people know that. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it.”
Officials have been particularly sensitive to the inherently mysterious nature of the airborne objects, and how ripe the recent series of events was for conspiracy theories.
There is a risk in the lack of information, but one official said that everyone wants answers at the moment.
A determination was made that even in the absence of much concrete information that could be shared with the public about the three recently downed objects, it would be prudent to publicly rule out – as quickly as possible – the possibility of extraterrestrial activity, sources said.
Administration officials continue to say their goal is to provide as much information as they can about the objects, but they have noted the circumstances are less than ideal for effective communication.
Mr. Kirby made his comments as Gen. VanHerck and other high-ranking Pentagon and intelligence officials made their way to the Senate to deliver a message. The briefing was the latest effort by the administration to update lawmakers on the series of strange floating objects shot down in recent days.
But the admission that the administration had more questions than answers about three of the objects prompted a fresh wave of frustration among lawmakers, who criticized not only the slow recovery effort but also the administration’s lack of clarity about what was floating overhead in the first place.
The first time we have ever seen these things, everyone is talking and acting like it. It isn’t. The ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee questioned if the craft should have been brought down.
“The only way you’re going to get answers to that is not just to retrieve whatever is leftover, but to understand how it compares to the hundreds of other similar cases,” Mr. Rubio said.
Reply to the Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on the Tracking of Airborne Objects
Mark Warner, who chairs the committee, said the tracking of airborne objects needs to be improved and there is not anything close to a formal process.
“I have a better understanding, but the American people deserve and need to know more,” said Sen. Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I am not afraid of the possibility of physical harm to our homeland, no matter what happens.” That’s my way of thinking. But the American people need to be reassured with more facts.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters that U.S. officials don’t have confirmation yet about any surveillance capabilities on the aerial objects, but added that, “they certainly didn’t pose any kinetic threat to the United States.”
Murphy argued that since the objects were operating in civil aviation space and weren’t registered with the FAA that was reason alone to make the case they needed to be taken down.
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton expressed concern that intelligence officials are providing “contradictory” explanations — that while they do not know the origin of the objects, they are confident they do not pose a threat.
Murphy said it was smart for the president to get more information before he made a statement, because he understood people wanted to hear from their commander in chief.
GOP Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina told reporters he supported the administration’s response so far and said it’s a complex issue to sort out. “They’ve done a good job of getting our situational awareness to where it is today and we had no situational awareness a month ago,” he said.
“Ninety-five percent of what was discussed in that room today could be made public without compromising the security of this country,” he said. We have to ask, what are these things? Who sent them here? And what are they doing here?”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said officials are learning more about the objects “hour by hour.” He said the approach of the administration was very careful. It was very thoughtful, given the sensitive nature of the investigation.
“I think some of our Republican colleagues are being at the very minimum premature, and often just very political,” Schumer said. “There’s a lot of information to assess, there’s a lot of information to recover. And the administration is on top of this, and done a very very good job.”
“I sleep very comfortable at night knowing what I know. The American people should do the same.” But he echoed the push to share more information more quickly given the intense public interest.