by Ned Barnett
[S]ince China tested lofting deadly EMP generators on large balloons, why was the large balloon allowed to threaten all Americans while the tinker-toy mini-balloon was destroyed as a "viable threat"?
Well, the Chinese have done it again...or have they?
Recently, Biden's spokespersons announced the shoot-down of an "object" over far Northeastern Alaska, shot down where it would land on an ice floe in Prudhoe Bay. The Pentagon was quick to "not call it" a balloon, just as they were careful not to call where it crashed down "ice." Instead, they called the balloon an "object" and called it "frozen water."
Why did Biden permit a massive balloon, with an equipment pod as large as a commercial airliner, to overfly the entire United States — including our nuclear missile silos in Montana — while popping a relatively tiny balloon, with an equipment pod smaller than a small car? More to the point, since China tested lofting deadly EMP generators on large balloons, why was the large balloon allowed to threaten all Americans while the tinker-toy mini-balloon was destroyed as a "viable threat"? A balloon known to be capable of carrying devastating weapons, spotted flying over the entire U.S., is apparently no threat, but a micro-balloon over the most remote portion of the U.S. is a threat? Really?
Pentagon spokespersons were quick to deny that they knew that the balloon shot down was Chinese. But if it wasn't Chinese, why did they destroy it? They denied knowing that it was a balloon. They also "confirmed" that this object wasn't a manned aircraft, but an object. If they could determine that it wasn't manned, surely they could see that it was a balloon.
Now here's the weird part. The first object, shot down a week ago off the coast of South Carolina, was an unmanned balloon that contained a huge amount of spy equipment — even though the equipment pod was larger than a Chinese space capsule. Based on size alone, the balloon's equipment pod could have been manned.
We've also been told that we have in-flight reconnaissance cameras that can see a housefly against a wall at two miles...yet apparently we can't tell if the object, with a payload bay "no larger than a small car" per Friday's White House Press Briefing, is a balloon. They confirmed that the payload couldn't hold a man but couldn't determine if the "object" could have been a balloon. Talk about credibility.
The government is trying to undo the mistakes made with the large Chinese balloon, announcing it before American civilians could discover and report it to the media. They shot it down because it could "present a threat to commercial aircraft" even as it flew over the most desolate land on Earth. This time, they even advised Alaska's governor before they shot it down.
That calls into question what they haven't announced — yet — about the Chinese spy balloon. Why, when they have satellites and hypersonic missiles, might China be using balloons? Apparently, according to spy tech expert H.I. Sutton, there remains an espionage market for massive drone balloons.
Another thing Biden didn't announce: In 2017, the Chinese tested balloon-launched hypersonic missiles, giving China a low-cost, high-impact weapons platform, ideal for a near-future war. Hypersonic missiles are currently the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Those tests also demonstrated China's ability to unleash deadly "electro-magnetic pulses" from high-altitude balloons. EMP pulses fry all unprotected electronics; knock out the internet; and zap every unshielded device requiring micro-possessors, including the power grid, every car built after 1990, all commercial airliners — including all planes in flight — television and radio signals, household appliances, and many life-saving medical devices. Balloon-borne EMP blasts would plunge the U.S. into a nuclear stone age and require a generation to restore services. This is no guess — the U.S. House held unclassified hearings on an EMP's impact in 2014, when Biden was V.P. — yet Biden still didn't deem the large balloon a threat.
What else do we know about the balloon being salvaged off South Carolina? China admitted that this balloon had "limited self-steering capability." Typically, balloons have no ability to steer. That makes this a new kind of "balloon," one more akin to the Goodyear blimp than a free-floating weather balloon. This maneuverability allowed it to fly over a number of high-security facilities, including strategic missile silos in Montana. Because of the USAF's unwillingness to down the balloon, high-altitude U-2 spy-planes tried to intercept the balloon's reports to its Chinese masters. How successful this was is anybody's guess.
The payload carried by the spy balloon ran 100 feet in length — the size of a regional jet airliner. The gasbag runs 200 feet in diameter. The payload, including solar panels to power the spy-tech, had multiple antennas and sensors affixed to a scaffolding-like structure. How this didn't present a credible threat to American security — while an "object" floating over the most remote section of Alaska was deemed an urgent threat — might make sense in Washington, but it doesn't make sense to anyone with Google and common sense.
What's next? Do we take out flights of migrating birds while ignoring incoming hypersonic missiles? With Biden as president, it's hard to know. What we do know is that Biden is afraid to release facts obvious to anyone with a pair of binoculars.
Ned ghostwrites books for other authors (17 to date). He also edits and coaches writers creating their own works, then guides them into book marketing, creating best-sellers. Ned can be contacted at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or 702-561-1167.
Image via Max Pixel.
Ned Barnett, an historian and
author of 40 published books, is currently writing a fact-based novel
about a near-future war between the U.S. and China, focusing on a war
over Taiwan...a war triggered by China. Of Ned's 40 published books,
ten are historical novels on Kindle, set in 1941–2 and focusing on the
air war between Japan and the U.S.
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/another_chinese_balloongate.html
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