The U.S. State Department has admitted that the Chinese spy balloon that Joe Biden allowed to traverse the country last week was scooping up communication signals.
The airship was bristling with antennas and, therefore, likely collecting signals intelligence, according to a U.S. official who added that the administration will “explore” options for actions against Chinese entities involved with launching the balloon and sending it over the country, Breitbart News reported.
The White House has determined that the balloon, which was finally downed off the coast of South Carolina by a U.S. warplane days after crossing the country, was operating with electronic surveillance capabilities that could monitor cell and other signals.
“High-resolution imagery from U-2 flybys revealed that the high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations,” a State Dept. official said in reference to the Air Force’s high-altitude reconnaissance plane, Politico reported.
Breitbart News noted further:
The official noted that the equipment on the Chinese spy balloon was “inconsistent” with what would be aboard a weather balloon since it had “multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.”
According to CNN, the official said that the balloon was “part of a PRC (People’s Republic of China) fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations,” which are “often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).”
The official said as well that China “has overflown these surveillance balloons over more than 40 countries across five continents” and that “the Biden Administration is reaching out to countries directly about the scope of this program and answer any questions.”
The U.S. “will also explore taking action against PRC entities linked to the PLA that supported the balloon’s incursion into US airspace,” the official told CNN.
“A recovery operation to secure debris from the balloon is ongoing with analysis continuing at an FBI laboratory in Virginia, but the officials’ remarks suggest the US has already established the balloon was operating with electronic surveillance technology,” CNN noted further.
Meanwhile, Republicans are demanding to know why Biden waited so long to order the balloon shot down.
“I had to wait in line the whole time. I was, I think, the second to last person, and I chewed them out just like the American people would’ve,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told The Hill following a classified briefing on the balloon to members of Congress. “I tore ‘em to pieces.”
“I said the president may be a Democrat, but he’s still the president of the United States, and [China] made him look like a fool and made him look weak the week before the State of the Union — I’ve said that publicly, too — by not shooting it down,” Greene continued on Thursday. “And I said there was nothing I heard there today that gave me any confidence in what they did.”
“They tried to give me some more excuses, and I said, ‘I don’t want to hear more of your excuses,’” Greene said when she was asked about how others in the room responded to her remarks. “He said, ‘well, it’s a matter of opinion.’ I said, ‘no, you’re nothing but excuses, and it’s wrong, and I’m just telling you, this is how the American people see it, and it’s a serious problem.’”
