[Aces4]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

What is also embarrassing is that we have been allowing Chinese grad students into our most prominent research universities since the 1980's!! Intimately learning our most advanced R&D before it gets to Boeing, Lockheed, etc.

For over a decade, there have been Chinese birthing rings that send Chinese nationals to our country (Irvine, CA is a HUGE destination) under the guise of organized tourism. They lie at Customs that they are not pregnant, and then overstay their visa until they give birth to new American citizens who will go back to China weeks after birth to be raised by the CCP but with full access to the US and full home-birthed, non-naturalized citizens.
Thousands have been born this way in recent years. China has set up their own "police" stations in the U.S. to exert oversight, threats and influence over their citizens in the United States.

Here's the most frightening variable: You get one baseball player or Olympic gymnast from Cuba into the U.S. and they defect. You have hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals living in the U.S. (especially in Southern California) and not a single defection. Why do you suppose this is? I suspect it is because they are all members of or families of Chinese government and military officials. China will imprison and torture (indoctrinate) their family members for not doing exactly what the CCP wants them to do while they are in the U.S.

Most don’t want to think or worry about the fact that the Chinese want us gone as we stand as a nation. It’s takes too much time away from playtime.

[Tvflguy]

Outrageous that our leaders did not act on this promptly. Allowing it to track over out country is maddening. And now China is chastising US for overreacting to nothing. As all of our enemies do, they all lie.

What’s even more worrisome is that we now find out that China has done this before. If it wasn’t for eagle-eyed public in Montana this could have been covered up by our gvt again.

Whose side are the on??? Isn’t there primary responsibility to protect us all???

As I said maddening and worse. Grrr

[blueash]

Originally Posted by Aces4

And Nero fiddled while Rome burned…

So you believe, likely sincerely, that temporary inaction as was advised by the Department of Defense and likely our spy agencies is equivalent to fiddling while Rome burned? And is it just possible that we gained more information about Chinese capabilities than they did about what can be seen on Google Earth?

But certainly previous administrations if confronted by a Chinese balloon about to enter or actually entering US territory especially the mainland, not just some tiny island in Alaska would have warned us and taken rapid decisive action?

F-22 Safely Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off South Carolina Coast > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News

The US Department of Defense on its official government website begs to differ with that assessment.

"The balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. Still its intrusion into American airspace over several days was an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty. The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration. "

[Tvflguy]

Originally Posted by blueash

So you believe, likely sincerely, that temporary inaction as was advised by the Department of Defense and likely our spy agencies is equivalent to fiddling while Rome burned? And is it just possible that we gained more information about Chinese capabilities than they did about what can be seen on Google Earth?

But certainly previous administrations if confronted by a Chinese balloon about to enter or actually entering US territory especially the mainland, not just some tiny island in Alaska would have warned us and taken rapid decisive action?

F-22 Safely Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off South Carolina Coast > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News

The US Department of Defense on its official government website begs to differ with that assessment.

"The balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. Still its intrusion into American airspace over several days was an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty. The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration. "

“The Official” as in the last paragraph. I don’t believe much of anything this gvt says anymore. “Russia Russia Russia”. And always deflect and blame others. It is sickening. Our poor grandkids…

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by blueash

So you believe, likely sincerely, that temporary inaction as was advised by the Department of Defense and likely our spy agencies is equivalent to fiddling while Rome burned? And is it just possible that we gained more information about Chinese capabilities than they did about what can be seen on Google Earth?

But certainly previous administrations if confronted by a Chinese balloon about to enter or actually entering US territory especially the mainland, not just some tiny island in Alaska would have warned us and taken rapid decisive action?

F-22 Safely Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off South Carolina Coast > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News

The US Department of Defense on its official government website begs to differ with that assessment.

"The balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. Still its intrusion into American airspace over several days was an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty. The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration. "

If you are absolutely relaxed about Chinese flotation articles coming and going over the USA, you have my admiration.

I do not trust China not to float biological weapons, nuclear devices or even thoroughly map water, electrical grids, etc while freely floating over our country. I do not have confidence that our government knew exactly what was in that huge flotation.

But it appears some Americans, like yourself, are perfectly comfortable with China accessing our country this way.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by kansasr

Hmmmm.....

Yeah, they were over Hawaii for a minute. And China had alerted the US that their balloons were off course...

But it's EXACTLY the same thing as one traversing the ENTIRE COUNTRY...

[Caymus]

Originally Posted by blueash

So you believe, likely sincerely, that temporary inaction as was advised by the Department of Defense and likely our spy agencies is equivalent to fiddling while Rome burned? And is it just possible that we gained more information about Chinese capabilities than they did about what can be seen on Google Earth?

But certainly previous administrations if confronted by a Chinese balloon about to enter or actually entering US territory especially the mainland, not just some tiny island in Alaska would have warned us and taken rapid decisive action?

F-22 Safely Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off South Carolina Coast > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News

The US Department of Defense on its official government website begs to differ with that assessment.

"The balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. Still its intrusion into American airspace over several days was an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty. The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration. "

Please provide a time stamped photo. They are very easy for citizens to observe.

[Caymus]

Originally Posted by kansasr

Hmmmm.....

Please provide time stamped photos to prove it is not a lie.

[manaboutown]

"I don’t know of any balloon flights by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I’d never heard of any of that occurring before I joined in 2018," Bolton said. "I haven’t heard of anything that occurred after I left either."

Bolton said that if the Biden administration has "specific examples, they need to tell Congress."

He added, "I can say with 100% certainty, not during my tenure."

Robert O’Brien, who served as White House national security adviser from 2019 to 2021, told Fox News Digital that he had no knowledge of anything like this occurring.

"Unequivocally, I have never been briefed on the issue," O’Brien said, telling Fox News Digital that his team, which included Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser, and Allison Hooker, who served as senior adviser to Asia, also were not briefed on these activities.

Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, who led the intelligence community at the onset of the COVID pandemic, told Fox News Digital that he did "one of the biggest intelligence deep dives on China, their spying and the origins of COVID" during his tenure.

"It never came up," he said. "If a balloon had come up, we would have known. Someone in the intelligence community would have known, and it would have bubbled up to me to brief the president."

And former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who led the National Intelligence office after Grenell and through the end of the Trump administration, also refuted the claim.

"It's not true. I can refute it," Ratcliffe said on "Sunday Morning Futures." "The American people can refute it for themselves. Do you remember during the Trump administration when photographers on the ground and commercial airline pilots were talking about a spy balloon over the United States that people could look up and see, even with the naked eye, and that a media that hated Donald Trump wasn't reporting?"

He added, "I don't remember that either because it didn't happen."

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Heino Klinck told Fox News Digital that he also was unaware.

"I can’t rule out that things occurred that I was unaware of, but I do think something like this, I would have been aware of," Klinck said.


Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper also said he was never told about Chinese surveillance balloons above the United States during his time at the Pentagon.

"I don't ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States," Esper said during an appearance on CNN. "I would remember that for sure."

And former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who had previously served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, also told Fox News that he had never heard of a Chinese spy balloon while he was in government."

"Never heard a whisper, and I have to think if anything like that happened that would have been a huge issue," Miller told Fox News Digital. "No. Absolutely never heard of anything like that while I was in government or at the Pentagon."

It is unclear, at this point, if these activities did take place and if it was military leadership that chose not to brief civilian leadership on the matter.

But a senior administration official told Fox News Digital on Sunday that "U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration, but U.S. intel assesses PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time."

"They went undetected. And this is part of a larger pattern. These balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries," the official said. "These kinds of activities are often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army."

"Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted over countries across five continents, including in East Asia, South Asia and Europe," the official said.

The official added, "Two things can be true at once: this happened, and it wasn’t detected."

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

The balloon was shot down on Saturday off the coast of South Carolina after traveling for days over the continental United States.

From: Trump, top national security officials refute claim that Chinese spy balloons transited US under his admin | Fox News

[Boffin]

Originally Posted by RICH1

Launched from China and we noticed them over Montana!
Dry run? Embarrassing

Likely detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) boundary. Also likely determined by the national intelligence agencies to be more valuable to observe than to immediately shoot down. There are many details that civilians do not need to know; nor should they be told. Simply leave those details out of the media and let folks believe whatever they want to. In other words, let the civilians deceive themselves based on the absence of a few important facts. Not lies, but half truths.

[Chi-Town]

Extremely long cut and pastes deter from the message. Just bloviating a good link.

[Tvflguy]

Must say that I find it difficult to understand folks who think the inaction of our gvt and military in taking such late action to down it…. was just fine….

First, the public would not even know about this if an attentive news station in Montana noticed it and raised the topic. Then the gvt and military addressed it publically.

Second, it was released that the military knew the ballon left mainland China the navigated to Alaska. The rest is now history.

Third, China has sent balloons as this over USA before, nothing from our military. Shhhhh

Fourth, China has a huge military project re sending these all over the world.

Fifth, China continues to state that they are not intelligence related but for weather patterns.

Sixth, China is very upset that we finally took it down. They are now not returning any calls from the USA.

Seventh, news is that our divers have recovered the parachute. But little if any of the spy craft. Of course. We wait to down it over salt water after it completed its task. No one can explain why it wasn’t shot down over remote areas of the US then retrieve the electronics etc. almost as if we wanted it to not be able to ID everything.

There are so many “Why’s”. Seems as if our gvt is complicit with China’s actions. As with so many actions by China which are not called out. What are we afraid of???

It’s infuriating. And scary for our country’s safety and future.

[Whitley]

Originally Posted by JMintzer

It was a lovely story wasn't it. I usually like non-fiction, but sometimes a story that is heavy fantasy is a nice change.

[Whitley]

Originally Posted by tvbound

Transmitting capabilities blocked from the time it entered our air space, while giving us time to examine it while still aloft. Then shot down in shallow water, with the best chance to recover physical payload and information. With the bonus of really ticking off China and getting them to admit it was theirs - thus also embarrassing China worldwide.

Well done United States!

If what you say is true, why didn't we control the steering program and land it? Where did you read transmission was blocked?>

[Whitley]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

Add Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia to that list to be comprehensive.

What list?