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China Spy Balloons

BUFFOON TALKS BALLOONS: Watch Joe FINALLY Address Spy Balloons

posted by Hannity Staff - 2.16.23

President Biden finally broke his silence on numerous unidentified objects shot out of the sky over the past two weeks —one of which was confirmed to be a Chinese spy balloon.

From CNN:

Federal officials have said the initial Chinese surveillance balloon downed off the coast of South Carolina was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations and had a payload around the size of three buses. By comparison, the subsequent objects, which haven’t been attributed to a specific country or entity, are believed to be much smaller.

The US is now also increasingly confident that the three objects that were downed between Friday and Sunday were “benign” balloons.

“We acted out of an abundance of caution” at an opportunity that allowed the US to take down the objects safely, the president said.

Read Biden’s remarks below:

Good afternoon. In the immediate aftermath of the incursion of China’s aft — afternoon. Our military closely scrutinized our airspace including enhancing our radar pickup, picking up more slow-moving objects above our country and around the world and in doing so, they attracted three unidentified objects, one in Alaska, Canada and over — lake Huron in the midwest. At the recommendation, I gave the order to take down these three objects due to hazards with civilian air commercial traffic and we could not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities. He acted in consultation of the Canadian government and I spoke personally with prime minister Trudeau on Saturday and we acted out of a abundance of caution and an opportunity to — that allowed us to take down it safely. Our military and the Canadian military is seeking to recover the debris. Our intelligence community is assessing the incidents and they are reporting to me daily and I will communicate that to comments — congress. we don’t know what these three objects work but nothing suggests they are related to china’s spy balloon program for their surveillance vehicles from other countries. the intelligence committee says that these were most likely balloons set to private companies or research introduces — introducing — picture — institution seven weather. I encouraged our intelligence committee to take a look at unidentified flying objects. we know that organizations operate objects at out to case — at altitudes that are for purposes that are not. it’s — not nefarious. we are now just seeing more objects probably — partially because of the steps we have taken to increase our radars. we have to keep adapting our approach to dealing with these challenges and that is why I am directing my team to come back to me with sharper rules on how we would deal with these and — I — these unidentified options — objects. make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down. I will be sharing with congress these classified policy parameters when they are completed and they will remain classified so we do not give our roadmap to our enemies to try to evade our intentions. these parameters will guide what actions we will take to respond to unidentified objects. you will adapt to challenges and we are directed by NASA’s security officer, to lead a governmentwide effort to deal with the objects in our airspace and we will establish a their inventory of unmanned airborne objects in space above the united states airspace and make sure that inventory is accessible and up-to-date. second, we will implement further measures to improve unmanned — detecting unmanned objects. we will update the rules and regulations for launching and maintaining unmanned objects in the skies above the united states. fourth, my secretary of state will lead an effort to help establish a global norm in this largely I’m regulated space. these steps will lead to safer skies for military and scientists and people on the ground. that is my job as your president and commander-in-chief. as events of the previous days have shown, you all at — you always asked to protect the interests and security of the American people. We have developed the ability to identify and study high all to do surveillance balloons connected to the Chinese military and one of these — when one of these air balloons entered our airspace earlier in the month, i gave the orders to shoot it down as soon as it look the able to do so — as soon as it would be able to do so. — be safe to do so. instead, we try to closely and we analyzed the capabilities and we learned about how it operates and because we knew its path, we were able to protect sensitive sites against collection. we shouted over water, which not only protected civilians but it gave us components for analytics and we shot it down sending a message that this surveillance is not acceptable. This past Friday, you put restrictions on six firms that directly support the people’s republic liberation army aerospace program, that includes ships and balloons, denying them access to u.s. technology. We have…partners and allies around the world and we know about china’s program and where the balloons have flown. Some of them have also raised their concerns with china. our experts have lifted components from the Chinese balloon’s payload and we are analyzing them and what we will learn will strengthen capabilities. We are also continuing to engage with china as we have throughout the past two weeks. as I have said since the beginning of my administration, we seek competition, not conflict with china. we are not looking for a new cold war. i make no apologies and we will compete. we will respond — possibly manage that competition so it doesn’t lead to conflict. this underscores the importance of maintaining given occasion between diplomats and communication — what terry professionals. I will remain in communication with President Xi Jinping. we will prove — once again to be the most capable on the road. the other thing i want to point out is that we will keep our allies and the congress contemporaneously informed on what we know and I expect to be speaking with president Xi Jinping. I hope we will get to the bottom of this and I make no apologies for taking down Devlin. — pat cipollone –that balloon. thank you very much.

Biden outlined four main measures to improve monitoring of U.S. airspace:

  • The US will establish a better inventory of unmanned airborne objects above the country’s airspace and make sure it is “accessible and up to date.”
  • The US will implement measures to improve its capacity to detect unmanned objects.
  • Officials will update rules and regulations for launching and maintaining unmanned objects above the US.
  • Secretary of State Antony Blinken will lead an effort to help “establish common global norms in this largely unregulated space.”

“These steps will lead to safer and more secure skies for our air travelers, our military, our scientists and for people on the ground as well,” Biden said.

This story is developing…