To SSS-Why Would They Bother?

[Spock]

Another shoe dropped this morning.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics ... index.html

>>>>— "The Biden administration has determined that the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the United States last week was operating with electronic surveillance technology capable of monitoring US communications, according to a senior State Department official."<<<<

But, But But-SSS-you told us in the balloon thread that they get everything they want from satellites, so why would they bother with trying to collect communication data from another source?

[silverscreenselect]

In addition to misquoting me for about the tenth time in these series of balloon threads, you omitted a key portion of the article:

Despite the latest revelations about the capabilities of the spy balloon, the Pentagon has insisted since the vessel was first acknowledged publicly that it does not give China capabilities above and beyond what they already have from spy satellites or other means. “We did not assess that it presented a significant collection hazard beyond what already exists in actionable technical means from the Chinese,” said Gen. Glenn VanHerck, the commander of US Northern Command and NORAD, on Monday.

And I'll also note that once we recover all the parts of the balloon from the ocean, we'll know more about its actual capabilities.

[BackInTex]

And I'll also note that once we recover all the parts of the balloon from the ocean, we'll know more about its actual capabilities.

It would seem if there is more to learn about its actual capabilities then we don't know what they could have learned while it was flying over the country.


In other words, we don't know what we don't know (you just admitted that much) so we don't know what they now know.

[silverscreenselect]

In other words, we don't know what we don't know (you just admitted that much) so we don't know what they now know.

We don't know how the balloon apparatus operates... yet. We already had a pretty good idea of its capabilities. We also had a very good idea of where it was going and plenty of time to make sure nothing sensitive was exposed while the balloon was nearby.

And for what it's worth, the US and Russia were signatories to the Open Skies Treaty that allowed unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire country. (Both countries have since pulled out but the treaty was in effect for nearly 20 years.) That treaty was entered into by President George W. Bush. So, our military was able to get by with dozens of Russian surveillance flights over the years, but Republicans panic over one Chinese balloon.

[silverscreenselect]

Here's someone who agrees with me about the balloon and who also had the benefit of attending a classified briefing on the subject today:

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney told CNN he believes the US made the right decision to wait and shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon. “I believe that the administration, the President, our military and intelligence agencies, acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive. Was everything done 100% correctly? I can't imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I came away more confident,” Romney said Thursday after leaving a classified briefing on China. Asked if he agreed with their decision to wait to shoot down the balloon, Romney said: “Yes.”

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... index.html

Unlike many members of his own party, Romney is more interested in national security than scoring political points at Joe Biden's expense.

[Bob Juch]

It turns out that the three balloons that overflew the country during TFG's term in office were detected by our military. They didn't tell TFG because they feared he'd take rash action. The military advisors to the White House were kept out of the loop, so they are truthful when they say they didn't know about it.