MSM finally confirmed what most observant Americans suspected, that a Chinese balloon, which the Federal government downplayed, and that flew across the United States in early February, was able to gather intelligence from several U.S. military sites and transmit it back to the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing in “real-time.”
So the scheme was successful against the United States, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to prevent the balloon from doing so, NBC News reported Monday.
Many independent media sources believe that Biden, who has vast personal conflicts with reigning America’s number one enemy, believes that Biden allowed the balloon to gather information about our military.
NBC News report went into the details:
The high-altitude balloon, controlled by Beijing, made multiple passes over some of the sites before it was shot down on Feb. 4, at times flying in a figure-eight formation, NBC said, citing two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official.
NBC reported that the three officials said it could transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real-time.
“The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images,” NBC cited the officials as saying.
Newsmax reported that U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
U.S. officials played down the balloon’s impact on national security at the time.
The balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada early in February before the U.S. military shot it down off the Atlantic Coast on President Joe Biden’s orders.
The Chinese balloon incident prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing and further strained relations between Washington and Beijing.
The episode caused an uproar in Washington and led the U.S. military to search the skies for other objects that were not being captured on radar.
The United States said Feb. 17 it had successfully concluded recovery efforts off South Carolina to collect sensors and other debris from the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon and that investigators would analyze its “guts.”
Zerohedge reported on the CCP Balloon as well:
US officials say the verdict is finally in after the government probe into the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4. While Beijing has long insisted it was a benign unmanned civilian airship that accidentally strayed off course. During this time, it was observed over sensitive American military installations, a Monday NBC report says it was able to obtain intelligence.
“The Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, according to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official,” the NBC report begins.
One key question has been whether the balloon’s collection technology could transmit information back to the Chinese government in real time. There was much speculation at the time that the Chinese would have to physically recover the device in order to access whatever data it may have picked up.
But US officials now say that Beijing did receive information in real-time. “China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites (at times flying figure-eight formations) and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real-time, the three officials said,” the report underscores.
“The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials said.”
Another interesting aspect that US investigators say they’ve uncovered following much of the balloon debris’ retrieval from the ocean in the aftermath of the shootdown is that it had a self-destruct mechanism.
Officials say it “could have been activated remotely by China,” but also explained that “it’s not clear if that didn’t happen because the mechanism malfunctioned or because China decided not to trigger it.”
🇨🇳💥🇺🇸 Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive U.S. military sites, despite U.S. efforts to block it
The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel.… pic.twitter.com/pG4hY6HFMG
— PiQ (@PriapusIQ) April 3, 2023
The sources who spoke to NBC attributed intelligence countermeasures deployed by the Biden administration as having successfully blocked the balloon’s ability to gather more intelligence than it did.
In some cases, this involved the Pentagon acting quickly to halt electronic signals and communications being admitted from sensitive sites. But it flew over US territory for a significant amount of time, having first entered airspace over Alaska on Jan.28.
Despite the report seeking to present President Biden’s response to the balloon saga as somewhat of a ‘success’, the key question which is still unanswered is how the balloon was able to linger over the US unhindered for that long and why there was no Pentagon intervention earlier – especially if it was suspected of being under operation by a foreign adversary with nefarious intent.
Biden previously downplaying the balloon…
FEBRUARY 9: Biden says the Chinese spy balloon — which did, in fact, gather intel from sensitive U.S. military sites — was “not a major [security] breach.”pic.twitter.com/dnMFciOc23
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 3, 2023
