Pentagon downplays intelligence gathered by Chinese spy balloon surveillance
Mike Brest
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A Department of Defense spokeswoman downplayed the intelligence gathered by the Chinese via the spy balloon that traversed the United States in early February.
Pentagon officials had said at the time they took steps to mitigate the balloon’s ability to gather intelligence from sensitive military bases it flew over, though a new report raised additional questions about how successful these efforts were.
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“We were able to prevent transmission of certain aspects of our sites to be transmitted just because of what we were, the precautionary steps that we were able to take,” deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday. “But in terms of transmission back to the [People’s Republic of China] and what was able to be transmitted back, I just don’t have further information for you at this time. As of right now, we’re still doing an assessment of what exactly the intel was that China was able to gather.”
Singh declined to say whether the Pentagon believed the spy balloon was able to transmit information to Beijing in real-time, while NBC News reported earlier on Monday that it could, citing two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official. She said it was still under investigation, which is being led by the FBI, while adding that she also couldn’t confirm that the balloon had the capability to self-destruct, another part of NBC’s report.
“As of right now, we’re still doing an assessment of what exactly the intel was that China was able to gather, but we do know that the steps that we took” hampered their ability to collect it, Singh added.
The spy balloon flew over or nearby military installations in Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Missouri while flying across the continental U.S. It first entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 over Alaska before entering into Canadian airspace. The balloon reentered U.S. airspace over Montana on Jan. 31 and was discovered by the public over the state on Feb. 2 before the U.S. military shot it down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
NBC reported that the balloon made multiple attempts to pass over the same sites, occasionally in a figure eight, while a Pentagon spokesman pointed the Washington Examiner to comments from Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, from the week after the military shot down the surveillance balloon over the Atlantic.
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“It was being maneuvered and purposefully driven along its track. Again, recognizing that winds do play a role because of the maneuverability of the balloon, it’s our assessment that this was a purposeful mission,” he said on Feb. 10, which Singh reiterated during Monday’s briefing.
The Pentagon began tracking the balloon around Jan. 27, Singh said. The Pentagon received criticism from some who said the military should’ve shot the balloon down sooner, but the department advised President Joe Biden against it due to the threat of casualties or damage that bringing it down over land would cause given it was supposedly the size of three school buses.