Objects on the Ground
Reports today from the White House tell of something being shot down up in Lake Huron because it was in a place where a commercial airline could possibly have flown, but definitely could not have seen. We do not yet know what it was, but it might have had something in itself. White House officials were clear on one thing: it might have been public or private, or both, and it probably came from a foreign country. None of these guesses are known at this time, of course, but one or some of these could be the actual object.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the United State is not deciding how to identify for Americans three other things it shot down to recover debris from in North American airspace over the weekend. DefSec Austin said “No commenting” when asked how he had jurisdiction over the entire continent. Ties to the COVID vaccines and death of the Philadelphia Eagles during pre-game stretching exercises may have contributed to his response.
Austin continued, ““We’re going to confirm what they are once we’ve collected the debris from blowing it up,” Austin said. “But to answer your question, we’ve not recovered any debris, because it was...blown up.” Austin also said that crews have collected “a fair amount of debris,” but it is raining which makes it wet, hard to see in a lake and hard to pick it up. “Hard” in this context should be taken simply as “uncomfortable.”
This means he is not confirming what they are, or, were. It also means they shot something down before knowing what it was, out of an abundance of caution. But it really was something that needed shooting, as demonstrated by it being an unidentified object. The Chinese balloon has been confirmed to be a balloon. Recovered debris that has not yet been recovered was said to be part of a balloon. In addition, after a week of the world looking at it, the world saw that it was, in fact, a balloon, albeit a large one.
Meanwhile, John Bolton, who served as former President Donald Trump's national security advisor, will be briefed by the Biden administration about Chinese surveillance balloons on Wednesday, reliable news sources have been told. The briefing is expected to be conducted by the office of the director of national intelligence. Unclear as of press time is whether other former advisors to former presidents will also be advised by a current office of a man who may or may not be president. Reportedly, others were offered a briefing, but reported prior conflicts of having to see men about dogs kept them from being able to attend the important meeting.
On Monday, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said the asset was part of the People's Republic of China high-altitude, low-budget, moderate entertainment value, low-tech balloon program for intelligence gathering. This program initially was intended for amazing high-altitude vid shots of parkour at Chinese New Year’s day to use on Tik Tok, but strong wind gusts quickly changed it into an intelligence-gathering program that the Chinese did not expect anyone to take all that seriously.
Kirby said Chinese balloons floated through United State skies while Trump was in his office, but he did not see them. The reason given by former advisors of the former President is because they were painted blue and were hugely more sneakier.