NBC news dropped an exclusive bombshell report about the infamous Chinese spy balloon that humiliated President Joe Biden, Mark Milley, and the rest of Biden’s team.
According to NBC, who spoke to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official, the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. did gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites despite Biden’s efforts to block it from gathering the intel.
According to NBC: “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 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.”
NBC did claim that some of Biden’s efforts to block the Chinese from scooping up intelligence on our most sensitive areas worked:
“The three officials said China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the administration’s efforts to move around potential targets and obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.”
The Defense Department said in February that the balloon had “limited additive value” for intelligence collection “over and above what China is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low earth orbit.”
“U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement after we shot down the balloon.
According to CNN:
The Chinese spy balloon that transited the US earlier this year was able to capture imagery and collect some signals intelligence from US military sites, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.
The balloon was able to transmit information back to Beijing in real time, the source said, and the US government still does not know for sure whether the Chinese government could wipe the balloon’s data as it received it.
That raises questions about whether there is intelligence the balloon was able to gather that the US still doesn’t know about.
Still, the intelligence community has not been overly concerned about the information the balloon was able to gather, the person said, because it is not much more sophisticated than what Chinese satellites are able to glean as they orbit over similar locations.
The US also knew what the balloon’s path would be and was able to protect sensitive sites and censor some signals before the balloon was able to pick them up, officials have said.
Biden admin allowed China’s spy balloon to fly across the U.S. but reportedly failed to prevent it from collecting sensitive military data.https://t.co/nVV6c0YGtN
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 3, 2023
