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February 7, 2023

Baffling and contradictory claims about the Chinese spy balloon

By Rajan Laad

The Chinese high-altitude balloon said to be about the size of three buses being allowed to hover over the United States for almost a week before it was shot down is another example of how matters have deteriorated under Joe Biden.

 

 

There are some possibilities regarding the function of balloon.

Experts say that balloons of this kind could be fitted with advanced technology including spy cameras and radar sensors. The balloon could have been taking pictures or videos and transmitting them back to China.

One week across the U.S. is sufficient time to dispatch copious information.

Another possibility is that the balloon was laden with explosives and was meant to detonate following an external trigger. Thus for one week, Biden allowed this peril to literally hover over American soil and people.

An explosion was reported over Billings, Montana, but authorities denied it was from the balloon.

 

 

Another possibility is that toxic substances were sprayed, which may cause long- or short-term harm to human life or crops or property. The damage could be extensive during the week it flew. We may know of the impact in the future.

On the lighter side, some wondered if the balloon was meant to send a special message to someone in D.C.

 

 

Beyond its functionality, there were other issues.

A easily visible surveillance balloon is a symbolic act of domination by the Chicoms. The balloon was also meant to demonstrate sophisticated Chinese technological capability to penetrate U.S. airspace. It is also an ominous sight for citizens, unable to do anything about it.

In all scenarios, Biden’s dithering over the course of action has already done the damage and may have brought the U.S. very close to a serious catastrophe.

It also made the U.S. look weak and incompetent.

Yet some sections of the U.S. media are still defending Biden.

 

 

But there was more to come.

Whenever a catastrophe strikes the Biden administration, their response isn’t to admit the mistake and initiate remedial measures.

Instead, their focus is on managing the narrative by peddling falsehoods. They have the U.S. news media,  which is the equivalent of the propaganda arm for the Democrats, to amplify their hoaxes. 

The narrative that they concocted this time was that "Three Chinese Balloons Flew Over the US During Trump's Presidency.”

This false equivalent was meant to suggest that while Trump did nothing Biden at least shot it down in a week. 

Let’s explore this possibility.

If a balloon even the size of a Volkswagen Beetle appeared during the Trump administration, the anti-Trump U.S. media, the Democrats, the Trump-hating Republicans, and various agencies would have claimed it was the work of President Putin and evidence that Trump was compromised by the Kremlin.

Knowing Trump, he would have relished the situation. He would have ordered the immediate shooting down of the balloon the moment it reached an unpopulated area. Trump would have rightly made a spectacle out of it. When the invasion is that blatant, it deserves a spectacle when it is thwarted, to send a message to every adversary.

Also, if the claim were true, someone somewhere in the U.S. would have spotted the balloon and uploaded the video of it on social media.

But none of the above occurred.

President Trump denied knowledge of any Chinese spy balloons over the United States when he was president. See his Truth Social post here.

All three national security advisers under Trump — John Bolton, H.R. McMaster, and Robert O’Brien — denied knowledge of balloon incursions, so did former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Director of National Intelligence (DNI), John Ratcliffe, and former acting Director of (DNI) Richard Grenell. 

 

 

 

 

It proved that the claim was a blatant lie. 

But that didn't stop the media from repeating and amplifying it.

The narrative was updated yesterday.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claimed improvements ordered by Joe Biden to strengthen defenses against Chinese espionage helped to identify last week’s spy balloon and to determine that similar balloons operated at multiple points during the Trump administration.

We are being told that Biden who can’t remember where he is or the names of his colleagues or his way on the White House lawn, ordered agencies to enhance surveillance and protection of U.S. airspace. Yet the same Biden took a week to shoot the recent balloon down.

It doesn’t seem convincing.

Next was Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command (NORTHCOM).

VanHerck revealed that NORAD did detect the most recent balloon as it approached Alaska.

VanHerck however added that the balloon "did not present a physical threat," in his assessment, adding "I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating hostile act or hostile intent."

But he also stated how there was "even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon that--that could have been present."

When challenged about the explosives claim, VanHerck responded with “I can't confirm whether it had explosives or not. Anytime you down something like this, we make an assumption that that potential exists.”

All of this seems rather baffling.

VanHerck claimed that NORAD missed incursions of Chinese spy balloons, including during the Trump administration.

His exact words were:

“I will tell you that we did not detect those threats. And that's a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out.”

...and...

"The intel community, after the fact, I believe has been briefed already, [sic] assess those threats to additional means of collection from additional means and made us aware of those balloons that were previously approaching North America or transited North America. I hope that answers your question."

So was there a major technological upgrade in the interim that enabled the detection now but did not exist previously?

We do not know and nobody asked.

There are two possible inferences that can be drawn from VanHerck’s statements.

The general is perhaps unknowingly participating in the White House disinformation campaign. He didn’t say when he learned of the balloons during the Trump administration. Perhaps he was briefed by agencies at the behest of the White House after the recent balloon made news and accepted it as fact without asking questions.

The other possibility is also troubling.

If the general did indeed receive intelligence about the balloons during the tenure of the Trump administration, it is shocking that neither President Trump nor any of the top officials in the Trump administration were briefed about the incursion of U.S. air space. This means key information was withheld.

This once again reveals the mindset of intelligence officials. They seem to place themselves above democratically elected officials.

They withhold information from elected officials. They willingly peddle hoaxes to build narratives to hurt those whom they perceive as opponents, such as Trump, and aid those whom they see as allies, such as Biden.

There is a grave need for reform in these compromised agencies.

Perhaps reforms begin with an investigation by House Republicans.

Image: Twitter screen shot

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