Why Haven't We Shot Down Spy Balloon?

[Stoic]

In other words, during President Trump's first term, our intelligence agencies withheld information vital to our national security from both the Commander in Chief and the military. Whoever made that decision deserves to be in jail.

I guess you missed this part:

It was only after the balloon program continued during President Joe Biden’s administration, allowing the intelligence community to gather more intelligence, that the US determined definitively that some of the devices were Chinese military assets.

[seanD]

Here, I'll highlight the important part, and then we can argue about which one of us knows how to read:



Intelligence officials (and whoever their sources were) are not the US military.

UAPs are spotted by military personnel, you dimwit -- i.e. aircraft pilots, military personnel aboard ships, etc. I'm not sure if your source pointed that out because it has a paywall. But other outlets are apparently smart enough to acknowledge such an obvious fact...

The U.S. intelligence community's review of UFO incidents reported by U.S. military personnel in recent years played a role in the detection of China's fleet of surveillance balloons, according to a U.S. official.

But who reported it doesn't changed the fact that every official, named and unnamed, initially claimed they were "undetected" by Trump's admin at first. That's a huge difference from "unidentified."

Spin, stoic, spin.

[Stoic]

If the US Intelligence community (I suppose that is the CIA?) knew about them, why didn't they tell anyone, especially the military? They just let the balloons spy on us and didn't tell Trump or the military?

That's pretty hard to believe, Stoic.

Probably the CIA or NSA, but even the FBI, DEA, and DHS are members of the intelligence community.

At first they didn't even know they were balloons, and didn't know they were spy balloons from China until after Trump left office.

[Mountain Man]

If by "quickly" you mean "after Trump left office", then you may have a point.

The story simply says the identification was made "later", so we really don't have any idea. It's just that the way the story reads, they were identified at the time as Chinese in origin, but the intelligence community didn't bother to tell anybody.

[Mountain Man]

I guess you missed this part:

It was only after the balloon program continued during President Joe Biden’s administration, allowing the intelligence community to gather more intelligence, that the US determined definitively that some of the devices were Chinese military assets.

No, I didn't miss that part at all. The story implies that they were initially identified as Chinese in origin, but the determination was not definitive, so I guess the intelligence agencies decided to keep the cards close to their vest? Now they're suggesting that they only recently made a definitive identification.

I think seanD may be correct that they're making this up as they go.

[Sparko]

Probably the CIA or NSA, but even the FBI, DEA, and DHS are members of the intelligence community.

At first they didn't even know they were balloons, and didn't know they were spy balloons from China until after Trump left office.

I assume the CIA would have heard about it from spies in China. The FBI, DHS etc would not have the assets overseas to know about it. They didn't "detect" them - they found out about them. That's what the CIA does. But to not tell the president or military is a big problem.

[Ronson]

Does not make any difference. This is indeed an open forum. Nonetheless your failure to respond coherently and resort to insults is your modus operandi.

You did not respond to the post.

Excuse me, buttinski, I did respond to Stoic's post. And you did not appropriately respond to what was said in my post but instead began insulting me about not responding to Stoic's post.

Now I'm sure you will not respond coherently to my post which will make you guilty of what you accuse others of doing. More leftist projectioning.

[Ronson]

Probably the CIA or NSA, but even the FBI, DEA, and DHS are members of the intelligence community.

At first they didn't even know they were balloons, and didn't know they were spy balloons from China until after Trump left office.

And between all of them, they probably employ 200,000 people making mostly six-figure salaries, and "they didn't even know they were balloons." The end is near.

[Cow Poke]

Lets provide a better credible reference than a silly usual cartoon. The bottom line is the military made the decision, and Biden previous ordered the military to increase the ability to detect and monitor ba;;oons from China.

Yes, let's have some silly UNUSUAL cartoons, Rogue!!! Step it up, man!

[shunyadragon]

Yes, let's have some silly UNUSUAL cartoons, Rogue!!! Step it up, man!

UNUSUAL and childish avoidance of responding to the substance of the thread as the USUAL Modus Operandi.

[shunyadragon]

And between all of them, they probably employ 200,000 people making mostly six-figure salaries, and "they didn't even know they were balloons." The end is near.

200,000 never helped. All the King's horses and all the King's men could not put Trump back together again.

[shunyadragon]

Excuse me, buttinski, I did respond to Stoic's post. And you did not appropriately respond to what was said in my post but instead began insulting me about not responding to Stoic's post.

Now I'm sure you will not respond coherently to my post which will make you guilty of what you accuse others of doing. More leftist projectioning.

You did not respond to the post.

[Ronson]

You did not respond to the post.

You did not respond to my post. More leftist blather

[Gondwanaland]

Based on the reference it was discovered when it entered US territory over the Aleutian Islands. Previous balloons were not well detected nor followed. As per references, Biden implemented better intelligence measures to detect and follow the balloons

I'm not talking about this one, I'm talking about these previous balloons they claim were discovered after Biden took office but somehow flew over before then but weren't detected. Try reading for comprehension next time, thanks.

[Gondwanaland]

I guess you missed this part:

It was only after the balloon program continued during President Joe Biden’s administration, allowing the intelligence community to gather more intelligence, that the US determined definitively that some of the devices were Chinese military assets.

So then they didn't detect it, they got intelligence from their spies and contacts in China on it.