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Former Clinton Defense Secretary Warns of ‘Biological Component’ To Spy Balloon

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A former Defense Secretary for former President Bill Clinton, who was also a former Republican senator, William Cohen, gave a terrifying warning about what could be on the Chinese spy balloon currently in United States airspace.

He appeared on CNN on Friday and spoke to anchor Anderson Cooper about what could be on that balloon, including something “biological,” Breitbart News reported.

“Secretary Cohen, if this was an Iranian balloon or a North Korean balloon, would we have reacted the same way?” the anchor said.

“I think we would have because the first thing we need to do is, number one, is the balloon a military or security threat, but number two, can we get information out of it before we destroy it? We didn’t know, for example, if it could have contained something within the balloon other than helium that could have posed a threat to us. Do we know if it has any kind of biological component to it? So you want to ask those questions,” the former defense secretary said.

“We need to find out as much information about this balloon as soon as we can to make sure we put the Chinese on notice, come again another time, and we know what to do. Right here, I think it was really important to find out what kind of information they were gathering, were we able to intercept it,” he said.

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“I  know we can take it down, and I think we can take it down in a fairly responsible fashion, so it doesn’t come crashing down. We have the capability to help move it down. If the Chinese can move it from China, we can move it from here, and I’m confident we can take it down,” he said.

It came as the Pentagon on Friday announced that defense officials are tracking another Chinese spy balloon that is loitering over Latin America. The statement came after U.S. officials said they were tracking one over the continental United States a day earlier.

“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, told Fox News Friday evening. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”

Earlier in the day, the Pentagon responded after China insisted that a spy balloon U.S. defense officials were tracking over Montana had drifted off course and could not be maneuvered.

“The balloon is maneuverable,” Ryder said to reporters. “It violated the law. We communicated that to China.”

He said that shooting down the balloon “was taken into consideration,” but “because we assessed that currently, it does not pose a psychical or military risk to people on the ground, for now, we are continuing to monitor and review options.”

“What we’re not gonna do is get into an hour-by-hour location of the balloon,” the spokesman said.

“Does the public not have the right to know…?” a reporter said before the spokesman gave his most glib answer.

“The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is,” he said.

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Also Friday, a Chinese government official admitted that the balloon was theirs but claimed it was not meant to enter United States airspace, Fox News reported.

“The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. “Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course.”

“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure,” the spokesperson said.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), one of the so-called “Gang of Eight” in the House and Senate who are privy to the highest levels of classified briefings, has called for one on the matter.

“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” he said on Twitter. “I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefings.”

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Ryder announced the detection of the balloon on Thursday.

“The United States Government has detected and is tracking a high altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now. The U.S. government, to include NORAD, continues to track and monitor it closely. The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” he said.

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