Was the White House Aware all Along of the Chinese Spy Balloon?

These reports raise many questions. Sorts of questions about competence and credibility at the White House … to the extent we expect either at this point. When ground observers in Montana first spotted China’s spy balloon, Joe Biden and his team made it seem as though it had taken them by surprise. Later, we learned that NORAD had first picked up the anomaly over the Aleutian Islands, but didn’t know what it was.

We find out now that “US officials” As both CBS News and the Washington Post report — and still let it traverse the continental US before finally shooting it down. They didn’t react until it was spotted on the ground, and even then they were dumb.

U.S. officials first saw the Chinese spy ball when it lifted off from Hainan Island in China last October. They kept track of it for over a week before it flew over Hawaii. @edokeefe. https://t.co/T5T5Zx8bkv pic.twitter.com/iszracOalN

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 15, 2023

U.S. intelligence officers were monitoring the Spy balloon U.S. officials announced Tuesday that the aircraft was shot down after it lifted off from China’s south coast.

U.S. officials claim that the spy balloon flew east after takeoff in direction of Guam, Hawaii, then headed north to Alaska, where it entered U.S. airspace Jan. 28. Given the path, it’s possible that the balloon was blown off course by weather, but U.S. officials said that once it came south over the continental United States, it was being controlled by China.

The Washington Post’s sources concur — to a point, anyway. They believe the balloon was heading off course over Guam. However, this spin is not without its problems.

U.S. surveillance cameras observed as the balloon took off on a path that would have appeared to have taken it over Guam. But somewhere along that easterly route, the craft took an unexpected northern turn, according to several U.S. officials, who said that analysts are now examining the possibility that China didn’t intend to penetrate the American heartland with its airborne surveillance device.

The balloon floated over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands thousands of miles away from Guam, then drifted over Canada, where it encountered strong winds that appear to have pushed the balloon south into the continental United States, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence. The balloon was shot down by a U.S. fighter plane off the coast South Carolina on February 4, one week after crossing over Alaska.

This new account suggests the possibility that the ensuing international crises that have ratcheted up tensions among Washington and Beijing could have been partially caused by a mistake.

So what we’re hoping is that Beijing is as incompetent as Biden and his team? Slender reeds, man.

However, this explanation doesn’t make sense. The balloon clearly didn’t just drift. It flew over sensitive military installations. Then, he hovered Intelligence to gather intelligence, which is most likely signals intel. CBS points out that this shows that the balloon operator was in control of the vehicle throughout. Furthermore, since we don’t have much in the way of SIGINT in the Pacific once you get past Guam or Hawaii, the obvious target of such a mission would be the US mainland and its defensive military installations. If that wasn’t the mission, then China would have downed the balloon on their own over international waters once they supposedly lost control of it.

Let’s return to the main point, though. Why did the White House allow the balloon to reach Montana despite knowing about its provenance and launch history? Why didn’t they shoot it down over the Aleutians, when it became clear that its path would take it over the US mainland? It’s not as if they couldn’t shoot it down there; Biden ordered it shot down over the Atlantic coast, well after the balloon had collected all of the intel it possibly could access and almost certainly transmitted it back to China, too. The perfect time to bring the balloon down would be Before It arrived before anyone could even see it, making it an international sensation. Had they reacted properly and competently, it’s likely that none of us would have known about the balloon at all.

And that’s not the only question, either. If the CBS and Washington Post reports are accurate — and granted, that’s asking a lot these days — then the White House flat-out lied about the balloon from the beginning. The impotent shooting spree against benign aerial vehicles that followed seems more like a cover up of their lies, which served only to conceal their incompetence at security.

Incompetence can be dangerous enough. Combine it with dishonesty and cover-ups, and it becomes a national crisis of confidence in the Biden administration and its primary job — to secure the United States. That’s why Joe Biden’s not answering questions about it now, as Ed O’Keefe notes in a refreshing if subtle rebuke at the end of his report, and talking about the economy … where Biden has also been less than honest and less than competent for the last two years. We still have two years with this group of incompetents.