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Biden has Chinese spy balloon shot down over Atlantic [1]

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Date: 2023-02-04  

WASHINGTON — The United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday that had spent the last week traversing the country, American officials said, an explosive end to a drama that put a diplomatic crisis between the world’s two great powers onto television screens in real time.

The balloon which entered US airspace over Idaho from Canada hovered over Montana for a time, traversed the US to the Carolinas, and was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean.

While satellites from China, Russia, and various other nations regularily orbit over the US to collect intelligence, the balloon, which apparently had a propulsion system powered by solar panels, had become a diplomatic and political headache.

According to the New York Times, balloons launched by China to gather intelligence are not that unusual and occasional enter US airspace. The US has been in consultations with Canada since its territory was also violated.

The US military is reportedly collecting debris to study.

www.cnn.com/… "On Wednesday when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down — on Wednesday — as soon as possible," the president told reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland. "They decided, without doing damage to anyone on the ground, they decided that the best time to do that was as it got over water ... within a 12-mile limit. They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," the president added.

www.aol.com/… Said to be around the size of three buses, the balloon flew over Canada and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands before being spotted in the continental United States. It then made its way eastward, being spotted across the country before it was shot down on the East Coast on Saturday afternoon.

While it is only speculation, the US military might have delayed the downing to study the balloons capabilities and movements. They may have wanted to see how well the US could jam its communications and data gathering systems. There is a possiblity that shooting down the balloon over water might save more of its components should the craft have self destruct features.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/4/2151104/-Biden-has-Chinese-spy-balloon-shot-down

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