OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The United States Navy has shared images of the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot from the sky by the military. The photos, shown on Tuesday, show debris from the balloon being brought onto a boat which is then going to be taken to an FBI facility for assessment.
CNN reported: “On Monday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told reporters that the balloon was roughly 200 feet tall and carried a payload weighing more than a couple of thousand pounds. US officials had been tracking the balloon for several days by the time it appeared in the skies over Montana. President Joe Biden said over the weekend that he’d directed the US military to shoot down the balloon as soon as it was safe to do so, but officials said it posed a risk to civilians and property on the ground.”
“[F]rom a safety standpoint, picture yourself with large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling out of the sky. That’s really what we’re kind of talking about,” the general said. “So glass off of solar panels, potentially hazardous material, such as material that is required for a batteries to operate in such an environment as this and even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon that could have been present.”
“[T]his gave us the opportunity to assess what they were actually doing, what kind of capabilities existed on the balloon, what kind of transmission capabilities existed, and I think you’ll see in the future that that time frame was well worth its value to collect over,” he said.
“US officials also determined that the balloon did not pose a significant risk in its ability to gather intelligence,” the report said.
“A senior defense official said last week that the balloon had ‘limited additive value’ from an intelligence collection perspective. Nevertheless, VanHerck said Monday that he and the commander of US Strategic Command took “maximum precaution” to prevent China’s ability to collect intelligence,” it said.
US NAVY RECOVERS CHINESE SPY BALLOON. pic.twitter.com/SnqBzZwsvU
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) February 8, 2023
The Pentagon released these photos of the Navy retrieving the spy balloon, claiming ‘mission accomplished!”
It’s just the balloon. 😂 Where is the rest of it? pic.twitter.com/Yan5rbPdgV
— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) February 7, 2023
Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command, revealed some chilling details on Monday about the Chinese spy balloon.
During a call with reporters, he revealed that the balloon carried explosives to destroy itself, was 200 feet tall, weighed thousands of pounds, and its payload was the size of a jetliner.
“Because the president decided they wouldn’t shoot it down until he could do so safely, and that meant over water, that afforded us a terrific opportunity to gain a better understanding, to study the capabilities of this balloon,” he told reporters on a call.
“His description followed a briefing by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who defended President Joe Biden’s decision to wait and shoot down the Chinese craft until it was over South Carolina’s coastline on Saturday,” the Daily Mail reported. “Biden ordered the balloon shot down Wednesday, but the U.S. military held off until Saturday, with the Air Force sending an F-22 fighter jet armed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to do the job.”
Chinese spy balloon carried EXPLOSIVES to destroy itself https://t.co/KVTjD3vlws pic.twitter.com/z17RSt5Duk
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) February 6, 2023
A former top U.S. Army general had harsh words for the way President Joe Biden handled the situation with a Chinese spy balloon caught traversing the upper and central United States last week.
Former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army and retired four-star General Jack Keane blasted Biden for not taking action sooner, allowing the balloon to drift over the breadth of the country before ordering it shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
Keane made his remarks during an interview with Fox News after the balloon was splashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
“Remember, this was approaching the United States over water,” he said. “It was approaching the Aleutian Islands over water. And we had plenty of opportunity to take it down then. And that’s when it should have happened. We had to be tracking it from mainland China across the Pacific Ocean, and we had plenty of warning to put together an operation that we are conducting now on the east coast that should have been done there.”
