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Why Trump officials were unaware of Chinese spy balloons
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Deep State
Feb 12, 2023, 5:10:03 PM2/12/23
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Former Trump administration officials have expressed frustration and
confusion in recent days over revelations that Chinese surveillance
balloons hovered over U.S. airspace during their time in office.
As more information has emerged about the extent of China’s use of
balloons to surveil the U.S. and other countries — another object was shot
down over waters near Alaska on Friday afternoon, though it is unclear
where it came from — it has fueled questions about why officials from the
Trump administration were unaware of previous incursions and spurred
frustration among some of those officials.
“I was in the administration for every single day that Trump was in office
on the national security team,” said Keith Kellogg, who served on the
Trump White House National Security Council before taking over as national
security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2018.
“During that time this never ever came up,” he added. “So for them to say
it happened during the Trump administration, we weren’t aware of it and we
would’ve taken immediate action. If it did happen under President Trump
and he was not told, that’s more than just egregious, that’s a dereliction
of duty.”
A senior Pentagon official told reporters last week that Chinese
government surveillance balloons hovered over the continental U.S. “at
least three times” during the Trump administration, and one additional
time at the beginning of the Biden administration.
Those three incursions were for shorter periods of time than the balloon
that caused a major international incident last week after it was spotted
over Montana before floating across parts of the country and ultimately
being shot down near the South Carolina coast.
Since that disclosure, a slew of former Trump administration officials who
worked in the intelligence community have uniformly said they were unaware
of Chinese spy balloons hovering over the U.S. at any point during the
last administration.
“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything
that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” Mark
Esper, who served as Defense secretary from July 2019 through November
2020, said on CNN last week.
Kellogg, who briefly served as acting national security adviser to Trump,
said he was unaware of the sightings, as did John Bolton, who spent
roughly a year in the role.
Kellogg even suggested there should be congressional hearings on how the
sightings could have happened without national security officials in the
Trump White House being notified.
John Ratcliffe, who spent the final seven months of the administration as
director of national intelligence, said he was not aware of any Chinese
balloons hovering over U.S. territory during that time.
“It never happened with us under the Trump administration, and if it did,
we would have shot it down immediately,” Trump told Fox News. “It’s
disinformation.”
Republicans have lambasted the Biden administration for not being more
quick to shoot down the balloon that was first seen over Montana. On
Friday, the White House announced a “flying object” had been shot down
near Alaska as reporters asked about rumors that another balloon had been
spotted.
There appear to be a few possible reasons for why senior Trump
administration officials would have been unaware of Chinese balloons over
the U.S.
Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command,
told reporters on a conference call on Monday that the balloons went
undetected, calling it a “domain awareness gap that we have to figure
out.”
VanHerck declined to comment further about how the balloons went
undetected.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to President Biden, on Monday
said the Biden administration had improved the government’s capacity to
“be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to
detect.”
The balloons from the Trump administration also were not over U.S.
airspace for a very long time, officials said in recent days, shortening
the window to identify them and take action.
Esper was asked Thursday on Fox News why the U.S. was unable to detect the
Chinese surveillance balloons in the past.
“I think that’s a very important question,” Esper said. “Is it a technical
question? Is it a reporting question or a decision-making question?
In the case of the balloon shot down last week, Esper questioned if there
was a reporting issue between military and civilian leaders that allowed
it to float over much of the U.S. before it could be taken down, or if the
Biden administration waited to avoid upsetting relations with China before
a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken’s visit was ultimately canceled because of the balloon, and Biden
and his aides have said the military waited to shoot down the balloon
until it was over water. The size of the balloon, which has been likened
to the equivalent of roughly three school buses, could have damaged
property or injured people upon impact, officials said.
Concerns over China’s use of surveillance balloons have only intensified
in recent days as information has circulated that the object shot down
last week had antennas to help collect information and was part of a much
larger operation run by the Chinese military to spy on more than 40
countries across five continents.
James Andrew Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, argued balloons are fairly
low on the totem pole of potential spying techniques that could be
deployed by China or other adversaries.
He said China is unlikely to use a similar tactic in the near future given
the focus on the latest balloon.
“The real problem is if we don’t confront Chinese espionage, we will
continue to face consequences,” Lewis said.
Comments:
John
23 hours ago
We couldn't detect them at the time but three years later we figured out
they were there? Well they might have been in US airspace only a short
amount of time so we didn't inform anyone? I do so wish we could have a
government that was honest with us.
<https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-trump-officials-were-unaware-
170000489.html>
confusion in recent days over revelations that Chinese surveillance
balloons hovered over U.S. airspace during their time in office.
As more information has emerged about the extent of China’s use of
balloons to surveil the U.S. and other countries — another object was shot
down over waters near Alaska on Friday afternoon, though it is unclear
where it came from — it has fueled questions about why officials from the
Trump administration were unaware of previous incursions and spurred
frustration among some of those officials.
“I was in the administration for every single day that Trump was in office
on the national security team,” said Keith Kellogg, who served on the
Trump White House National Security Council before taking over as national
security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2018.
“During that time this never ever came up,” he added. “So for them to say
it happened during the Trump administration, we weren’t aware of it and we
would’ve taken immediate action. If it did happen under President Trump
and he was not told, that’s more than just egregious, that’s a dereliction
of duty.”
A senior Pentagon official told reporters last week that Chinese
government surveillance balloons hovered over the continental U.S. “at
least three times” during the Trump administration, and one additional
time at the beginning of the Biden administration.
Those three incursions were for shorter periods of time than the balloon
that caused a major international incident last week after it was spotted
over Montana before floating across parts of the country and ultimately
being shot down near the South Carolina coast.
Since that disclosure, a slew of former Trump administration officials who
worked in the intelligence community have uniformly said they were unaware
of Chinese spy balloons hovering over the U.S. at any point during the
last administration.
“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything
that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” Mark
Esper, who served as Defense secretary from July 2019 through November
2020, said on CNN last week.
Kellogg, who briefly served as acting national security adviser to Trump,
said he was unaware of the sightings, as did John Bolton, who spent
roughly a year in the role.
Kellogg even suggested there should be congressional hearings on how the
sightings could have happened without national security officials in the
Trump White House being notified.
John Ratcliffe, who spent the final seven months of the administration as
director of national intelligence, said he was not aware of any Chinese
balloons hovering over U.S. territory during that time.
“It never happened with us under the Trump administration, and if it did,
we would have shot it down immediately,” Trump told Fox News. “It’s
disinformation.”
Republicans have lambasted the Biden administration for not being more
quick to shoot down the balloon that was first seen over Montana. On
Friday, the White House announced a “flying object” had been shot down
near Alaska as reporters asked about rumors that another balloon had been
spotted.
There appear to be a few possible reasons for why senior Trump
administration officials would have been unaware of Chinese balloons over
the U.S.
Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command,
told reporters on a conference call on Monday that the balloons went
undetected, calling it a “domain awareness gap that we have to figure
out.”
VanHerck declined to comment further about how the balloons went
undetected.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to President Biden, on Monday
said the Biden administration had improved the government’s capacity to
“be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to
detect.”
The balloons from the Trump administration also were not over U.S.
airspace for a very long time, officials said in recent days, shortening
the window to identify them and take action.
Esper was asked Thursday on Fox News why the U.S. was unable to detect the
Chinese surveillance balloons in the past.
“I think that’s a very important question,” Esper said. “Is it a technical
question? Is it a reporting question or a decision-making question?
In the case of the balloon shot down last week, Esper questioned if there
was a reporting issue between military and civilian leaders that allowed
it to float over much of the U.S. before it could be taken down, or if the
Biden administration waited to avoid upsetting relations with China before
a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken’s visit was ultimately canceled because of the balloon, and Biden
and his aides have said the military waited to shoot down the balloon
until it was over water. The size of the balloon, which has been likened
to the equivalent of roughly three school buses, could have damaged
property or injured people upon impact, officials said.
Concerns over China’s use of surveillance balloons have only intensified
in recent days as information has circulated that the object shot down
last week had antennas to help collect information and was part of a much
larger operation run by the Chinese military to spy on more than 40
countries across five continents.
James Andrew Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, argued balloons are fairly
low on the totem pole of potential spying techniques that could be
deployed by China or other adversaries.
He said China is unlikely to use a similar tactic in the near future given
the focus on the latest balloon.
“The real problem is if we don’t confront Chinese espionage, we will
continue to face consequences,” Lewis said.
Comments:
John
23 hours ago
We couldn't detect them at the time but three years later we figured out
they were there? Well they might have been in US airspace only a short
amount of time so we didn't inform anyone? I do so wish we could have a
government that was honest with us.
<https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-trump-officials-were-unaware-
170000489.html>
Klaus Schadenfreude
Feb 12, 2023, 5:20:08 PM2/12/23
to
On Sun, 12 Feb 2023 23:05:30 +0100 (CET), Deep State
<deep...@nytimes.com> wrote:
>Former Trump administration officials have expressed frustration and
>confusion in recent days over revelations that Chinese surveillance
^^^^^^
<deep...@nytimes.com> wrote:
>Former Trump administration officials have expressed frustration and
>confusion in recent days over revelations that Chinese surveillance
>balloons hovered over U.S. airspace during their time in office.
You didn't spell "lies" correctly.
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