After more than a week of saying nothing, President Joe Biden finally broke his silence on the shooting down of four unidentified flying objects over the US and Canada and said nothing that wasn’t known..On Feb. 4 a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina after it had travelled over the Pacific Ocean to Alaska, south over Canada to Montana, taking a week to arrive over the east coast..The Chinese government claimed it was a weather balloon.“I gave the order to shoot it down as soon as it would be safe to do so,” Biden said..“The military advised against shooting it down over land because of the sheer size. Instead, we tracked it closely. We analyzed its capabilities, and we learned more about how it operates.”.Biden also ordered US fighter jets to shoot down an unidentified object on Feb. 10 off Alaska’s Arctic coastline and again on Feb. 11 over Canada’s Yukon territory and on Feb. 12 over Lake Huron..Biden said the three ‘objects,’ as the US government is calling them, did not appear to be part of China’s spy balloon operation..“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” said Biden in a press conference..“The intelligence community’s current assessment is these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research.”.The ‘object’ shot down on Feb. 4 has been identified as a spy balloon, capable of surveilling US nuclear facilities and had a payload about the size of three buses. The subsequent three ‘objects’, which haven’t been attributed to a specific country or entity, are reported to be much smaller and have been called ‘benign’ by US officials.."I gave the order to take down these objects, and couldn't rule out the risk of surveillance," Biden said.Biden announced new protocols would be put in place on how the US will handle similar unidentified objects going forward will be instituted soon, but didn’t share details, due to security concerns..The president had been under pressure to address the objects prior to his press conference..“I think the public needs and deserves to know more. A lot of what we’ve been told are facts that the American people could know and should know, without any harm to our national security,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Tuesday..“I’ve urged repeatedly that on this topic and others, the administration could be more forthcoming.”.“My phone is ringing off the wall and we’ve got a president of the United States who is not saying anything,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)..“Get out there and tell the people we’re in good shape, we know what’s going on, and let’s go on with our lives. But for some reason, we have no leadership right now.”.Officials from the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill in recent days on the initial Chinese spy balloon..Republicans on Capitol Hill criticized Biden for not approving the military to down the first balloon quickly enough, letting it sail eastward for days. They’ve also called on him to speak on the matter..Administration officials argued the US didn’t move earlier to shoot down the balloon in part over fears it could provoke an escalation of military tensions with China. They also told lawmakers the balloon was not first shot down when it entered Alaskan airspace because the waters there are cold and deep, making it less likely they could have recovered the balloon..Recovery efforts of the Chinese balloon are underway off the South Carolina coast, officials said. But debris from the three other objects shot down over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory and in US airspace over Lake Huron "are lost," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters on Tuesday. ."The remnants are in very difficult terrain with low temperatures," he said. "They haven't been able to find them.".Due to a high level of spam content being posted, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
