Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Joe Granita

White House says US has no intention of returning recovered balloon debris to China

It comes after Beijing confirmed earlier that a similar balloon spotted flying over Latin America is Chinese.

LAST UPDATE | 6 Feb 2023

THE UNITED STATES is in the process of recovering debris from the Chinese balloon out of the Atlantic for analysis by intelligence experts and there is no plan to give the remains back to Beijing, the White House has said.

“They have recovered some remnants off the surface of the sea and weather conditions did not permit much undersea surveillance of the debris field,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, two days after a US fighter jet shot down the balloon, which had previously traversed the country.

US personnel will “in the coming days be able to get down there and take a better look at what’s on the bottom of the ocean, but it’s just started,” Kirby said, noting that the area where debris had scattered was “sizeable.”

China says the balloon was an errant weather observation aircraft with no military purpose. The US says the balloon was a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle.

After slowly traversing the middle of the United States, reportedly over several top secret military sites, the balloon headed out over the east coast, where President Joe Biden ordered it to be shot down.

Kirby said there was no intention to send the pieces back. “I know of no such intention or plans to return it,” he said.

The Biden administration is painting the incident as a provocative move by China that turned into something of an own goal by providing US intelligence services with valuable data.

According to Kirby, measures were taken to ensure the balloon’s instruments were “mitigated” in their ability to spy, while “at the same time increasing and improving our ability to collect intelligence and information from it.”

“We’re still analyzing the information that we were able to collect off of the balloon before we shot it out of the sky and now we’re going to recover it and I suspect we may learn even more.”

One detail already known, Kirby said, is that the balloon was not merely drifting but had propellers and steering to give a measure of control, even as it was swept along in the high altitude Jet Stream wind.

“It is true that this balloon had the ability maneuver itself — to speed up, to slow down and to turn. So it had propellers, it had a rudder, if you will, to allow it to change direction,” he said. “But the most important navigational vector was the jet stream itself, the winds at such a high altitude.”

Second balloon over Latin America

Beijing confirmed earlier today that a balloon spotted flying over Latin America is Chinese.

China has expressed fury at Washington’s decision to shoot down a device that it insists was an unmanned weather surveillance aircraft that had veered off course last week.

The country acknowledged today that the latest balloon, spotted by US and Colombian officials flying over Latin America at the weekend, was also Chinese.

Its foreign ministry said the device was of “a civilian nature and used for flight tests”.

“Affected by weather forces in addition to its manoeuvrability being limited, the airship deviated greatly from its expected course, and accidentally entered Latin American and Caribbean airspace,” spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing.

That statement came three days after what the Pentagon characterised as another Chinese spy balloon had been seen across Latin America.

Colombia’s air force reported at the weekend an object with “characteristics similar to those of a balloon” was detected and monitored until it left Colombian air space.

Investigations were being conducted in coordination with other countries and institutions to establish the object’s origins, it said.

© AFP 2023

Author
View 23 comments
Close
23 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciarán Masterson
    Favourite Ciarán Masterson
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:38 PM

    I’ve read it, read it, read it….

    122
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Trevor W
    Favourite Trevor W
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:47 PM

    @Ciarán Masterson: hahaha. Well done

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciarán Masterson
    Favourite Ciarán Masterson
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:55 PM

    @Trevor W:

    Thank you.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Emilio Butler
    Favourite Emilio Butler
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:21 PM

    A truly remarkable story, and nonfiction. I find it terribly sad, how extinction is under our noses

    144
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ron North
    Favourite Ron North
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:01 PM

    I know how you feel little guy, I hope there is someone out there for both of us.

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Liberal Larry
    Favourite Liberal Larry
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:54 PM

    @Ron North: awh… (heartbreak emoji)

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Myk_Oval_Balls_nRyt
    Favourite Myk_Oval_Balls_nRyt
    Report
    Feb 13th 2018, 6:18 PM

    @Ron North: Pizza will always be there for you Ron, Always**whispers**

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Culligan
    Favourite Paul Culligan
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:27 PM

    Would you say that, if you put him back where you found him, he might know where the moths are hidin’. Just because we can’t find them, doesn’t mean Romeo can’t sniff them out. Mind you, he probably has Alzheimers by now.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute George Oscar Bluth
    Favourite George Oscar Bluth
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:35 PM

    Incredible yet the Bolivian tree lizard thrives on a diet of pigeons. It’s at the point where we need wave after wave of Chinese needle snake to prevent us from being overrun.

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Arthur Pewty
    Favourite Arthur Pewty
    Report
    Feb 13th 2018, 1:21 AM

    and I thought I was lonely…..get this frog a mate!!!

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Lyons
    Favourite Mary Lyons
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:51 PM

    I’m glad it’s not the same problem in the pond in my back garden! It’s a veritable love in at the moment!

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jim Doherty
    Favourite Jim Doherty
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:57 PM

    Darn it, never thought I’d have so much in common with a frog, know how that little guy feels

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jim Doherty
    Favourite Jim Doherty
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:58 PM

    @Jim Doherty: hmmm..that loses lot of its meaning without the emoticon attached!

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Roche
    Favourite Tommy Roche
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:40 PM

    Damn… Hope he gets his hole before he croaks.

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary Byrnes
    Favourite Gary Byrnes
    Report
    Feb 13th 2018, 3:39 AM

    Is there a link

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pauliebhoy
    Favourite Pauliebhoy
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:19 PM

    I’m sure there’s a willing female pig out there

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Oretani Wildlife
    Favourite Oretani Wildlife
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:12 PM

    More crap editing from the Journal. The picture is probably a European Tree Frog and is nothing like the frog the story is about.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Oretani Wildlife
    Favourite Oretani Wildlife
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:19 PM

    @Oretani Wildlife: Correction, it’s a Hipsiboas riojanus, endemic to Argentina. Still crap editing.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Conlon
    Favourite Joe Conlon
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:23 PM

    @Oretani Wildlife: hop along Oretani

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Red hurley
    Favourite Red hurley
    Report
    Feb 13th 2018, 7:48 AM

    Mmmmmmmmm frogs legs in garlic.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joseph Blocks
    Favourite Joseph Blocks
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 10:55 PM

    What’s the fuss? Frogs can change sex anyway. He can impregnate himself.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dae Monicus
    Favourite Dae Monicus
    Report
    Feb 12th 2018, 11:42 PM

    @Joseph Blocks: Interesting fact that Joseph, if only Kermit knew that when Miss Piggy finally told him to go f@#k himself he wouldn’t be such an emotional wreck.

    11
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds