DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Why the US hasn't shot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, according to officials

I think its funny this is being said now. I mean, "at least three" Chinese balloons in the sky from 2016-2020 and no one (military or civilian) saw them? No one took a video or a picture? No journalist decided to take advantage of a video or picture and write a story on Trump/China relations? No one decided to broadcast on MSM multiple balloons for political leverage?

Nothing of the sort happened but it comes out now?

That's a good point... you'd think someone would have seen something...

either way, glad we shot this one down... hope there's enough left to figure out what they were doing

Only it's not "the Biden Administration" who said this. They repeated what Pentagon officials have said. Of course when a right wing mouth piece doesn't tell you that he makes it look as if it was the Biden Administration who actually made the assertion originally. That's not what happened here.



Being told who repeated it rather than who actually made the statement to begin with is very misleading by the person who was writing the narrative. And as far as I know the pentagon isn't a part of the Biden administration.

You've never heard of presidents/administrations assigning many high-level positions to the Pentagon? Are you serious?

So now it's no longer that Ratcliff said it and it must have been some Biden appointee withing the pentagon. Are you serious?

THAT's what you took from my post?

Do better. Think Harder. You can do it!

Maybe they are confusing the other China Balloons with our own!


https://www.businessinsider.com/us-government-testing-surveillance-balloons-2019-8

You were responding to me stating that the pentagon is not a part of the Biden administration. You insinuation was perfectly clear.

None of this really matters now, but here's a story from Forbes about the Balloons from China during the Trump admin. This is just an FYI. Make of it what you will.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattno...trump-was-in-office-too/?sh=c5ef52c3ea39

What I make of it is something akin to Hue Jackson naming all the good QBs he really wanted all along after being fired. As I said, nothing was said, shown, or written about these balloons until yesterday. That's fishy to say the least. I'm skeptical.....that's all.

So we should believe and ex Republican NID - but we shouldn't believe the DOJ today ..... Because ? We should believe the DOJ but not believe an ex-NID .... because ?

Certainly lots we don't know. Lot's of assumptions people want to make. Confirmation bias probably triggering 75% of the population.

It's not a matter of definitely believing this administration or definitely believe someone in the last one.....Things just appear odd to me and I'm not sure I trust it on face value. And they don't appear odd to me because I think Biden and Co did a bad job with this.....I think it went fine. I just don't understand why they would add that "at least three" part in the release outside of simply politicize this even more. And then never having anything about the past balloons at all (certainly not in the media the same way this was for everyone to see) adds more weirdness to it for me.

I think it is odd - or unusual. But a bit like comments about the FBI being politicized, or posters suddenly not trusting the FBI because it's politically convenient to do so in order to ignore or undermine what they say/investigate ... I think it's more likely they are telling the truth than not. In terms of politicizing the establishment - there is only one POTUS within my living memory who tried to use the DOJ as his own personal henchmen and tried to control and instruct them what to do and say. It's not Biden.

Once again you are attributing what the pentagon has stated as "this administration". We're back to square one I see...


And then you questioned why I posted this.....


Hopefully the answer to that question is a little clearer to you now.

The pentagon is the HQ of the Department of Defense. The head of the Department of Defense is Lloyd Austin. Lloyd Austin is the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of Defense is in The President Cabinet. The Presidents Cabinet is part of a Presidents Administration.

The Pentagon is part of the administration.

Oh it helps. I hope it helps you to know that these statements were never originally attributed to Lloyd Austin to begin with. Accept of course by some source you saw.



And now you've made it crystal clear. That's exactly what you're saying. Do better. Think harder. You can do it.

You have some serious comprehension issues or your moving the goalposts....probably both.

No one is attributing any comments to Austin. You said the pentagon is not part of the administration so Ratcliff saying "Biden Official" was incorrect. My post above suggests the Pentagon is part of the administration by the head of the pentagon being in Biden's cabinet.....Lloyd Austin.

This comment:


Never made any sense whatsoever which is why I pretty much glossed over it and I hope everyone else did too because it has nothing to do with what I said.

It's pretty stupid, that all you are doing is trying to argue because someone said Biden official instead of Pentagon official. Do you normally pluck the most trivial, mundane points when you can't argue anything else?

This guy is FAR right in as much as he despises all DC Dems. Just read his posts on social media. So, no, I'd have to see corroboration that it didn't happen since the DOD just said it did. This guy is a lunatic.








Yes, I just read a bunch of tweets, and this guy is MGT style BAT CRAP CRAZY, ignorant, factless, and as dumb as they come for somebody that's clearly had an education. He also moans about being mistreated by Adam Schiff and openly has a personal vendetta against him. :willy-nilly: Now I'm just hoping that you weren't trying to use him to prove a point, unless it was how far gone the right is.

Is what he says true? Or are you crying just because you dont like it.

Chinese planning their strategy for operation...."Red Dawn"

If we shot it down over land in US- how many lawyers would be lined up to get to court. I don't want the thing hitting my house.

JMHO, we've probably checked it out and ain't worried. PS- for those of you who are bitching about our sacred airspace- have you ever read about the U-2, the SR-71, TR-1....get real please.

They could have shot it down over Alaska where no one lives.

Sorry, just wanted to chime back in on this issue because I’ve heard a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there on this specific topic, in the real world. I looked on here to see if the same was going on (mistake on my part), and it was. I want to try and level set some things. Take it for what it’s worth:

1. If the Pentagon gives an ambiguous or fishy reason for choosing a course of action, then there are a lot of other factors that are at play which they are not disclosing and cannot disclose. They have their ducks in a row. They briefed the administration and the administration went with the recommendation. A whole lot of things were briefed that we’ll never know. The appropriate committees and people in the legislature have also been briefed. That still doesn’t stop those who have been briefed from spouting political BS about it. Notice, though, that all the “rational” people on either side of the aisle haven’t huffed and puffed. Read between the lines. Those in the public who have drawn conclusions about this (weakness, where it should have been shot down, embarrassment, etc) are doing so out of ignorance, confirmation bias, or both. Any conclusions the media pundits have also drawn are just as worthy as any Joe Schmoe’s.

2. Encompassing the Pentagon or DoD as “part of the administration” is beyond a stretch.

3. Look at the technology being used here by the Chinese. It wasn’t stealth, evasive, satellite, etc. they knew we’d see it. Just keep that in mind.

Take care.

Chinese spy balloons under Trump not discovered until after Biden took office

The transiting of three suspected Chinese spy balloons over the continental US during the Trump administration was only discovered after President Joe Biden took office, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday.

The official did not say how or when those incidents were discovered.

The official said that the intelligence community is prepared to offer briefings to key Trump administration officials about the Chinese surveillance program, which the Biden administration believes has been deployed in countries across five continents over the last several years.

After the Biden administration disclosed last week that a suspected Chinese spy balloon was hovering over Montana, the Pentagon said that similar balloon incidents had occurred during the Trump administration. In response, former Trump administration Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN on Friday that he was “surprised” by that statement.

“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump also said on Truth Social this week that reports of Chinese balloons transiting the US during his administration were “fake disinformation.”

The Biden administration official now says the incidents were not discovered until after the Trump administration had already left. But the official did not say how those incidents were discovered or when.

CNN reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had briefed Congress of previous Chinese surveillance balloons during the Trump administration that flew near Texas and Florida.

Rep. Michael Waltz confirmed in a statement to CNN that “currently, we understand there were incursions near Florida and Texas, but we don’t have clarity on what kind of systems were on these balloons or if these incursions occurred in territorial waters or overflew land.”

Another Chinese spy balloon also transited the continental US briefly at the beginning of the Biden administration, the senior administration official said. But the balloon that was shot down by the US military on Saturday was unique in both the path it took, down from Alaska and Canada into the US, and the length of time it spent loitering over sensitive missile sites in Montana, officials said.

The senior administration official said that with regard to the balloon shot down on Saturday, the analysis into its capabilities is ongoing. But, the official added, “closely observing the balloon in flight has allowed us to better understand this Chinese program and further confirmed its mission was surveillance.”

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for not shooting the balloon down earlier after it was first noticed over Alaska on January 28. House Republicans are weighing the passage of a resolution this week condemning the Biden administration for its handling the balloon, CNN reported Sunday.


https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/politics/chinese-spy-balloons-trump-administration/index.html

Lolz. No one knew until afterwards? Call me skeptical still.

From the article.


This is just stupid political theatre.

^ One of the gatekeepers of "misinformation" ^

I understand your desire to be skeptical about things but yes, when someone wishes to place the onus on the Biden administration rather than the pentagon it's obvious false messaging to paint a picture to those they are addressing. And as far as this happening before and people being aware of it? Yes it has happened and yes certainly some Republican officials knew about it. Of course they are trying to downplay it as much as possible. That's exactly what Rubio is doing here when he admits that there were previous Chinese spy balloons. His excuse is they didn't fly across the middle of the U.S. so that's why the public wasn't informed. Check it out at the 4:15 mark for his comments.



And if your usual thought process is to be skeptical, if Rubio openly admitted this much, just imagine what he refused to admit.

I'd leave it flying, while watching it closely, monitoring it, seeing what I could learn about it before shooting it down. Best way to defeat something is to fully understand it first.

Well, think what you want, but the Biden Admin has agreed to Trumps legal team in for a briefing about those balloons that were in US airspace during the Trump admin.. Let's see if they take them up on it.

Crickets from the trump brigade, interesting …….since it was discovered he had his own spy balloon issues and said squat to the public. Lol

Yep, this major Biden betrayal of national interest kind of petered out quickly and quietly when the truth broke. I haven't heard the first Trumpian call out Trump for doing what he did best, ignoring the things a president is supposed to do and completely bungling the job of POTUS.

Ignore the facts they don’t exist, yeah we know the game. Where’s your boy Squires? Crickets…..and he started the the brigade jokes. Lol.

Facts? lmao

Straight from the whorse's mouth...

The top military commander overseeing North American airspace said Monday that some previous incursions by Chinese spy balloons during the Trump administration were not detected in real time, and the Pentagon learned of them only later. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats, and that’s a domain awareness gap,” said Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow...-know-chinese-balloons-us-soil-rcna69518

It's from MSDNC, it has to be right, right?

So which facts do you want to discuss?

And you guys sit here in a circle jerk acting like you're proving points.

They invent their own fake news when the truth is inconvenient.

So one administration is lambasted for discovering and shooting down a ballon while the other administration is not for detecting suspected spy objects after the fact and not even telling the general public? trump asleep at the wheel or protecting his ….cough cough…image ….. while Americans were in danger. So typical. And his brigade will come to defend him here every single time…lol