What a bizarre story. The Communist Chinese have a high-altitude spy balloon over the United States – over Montana – and they are collecting information over sensitive sites. But we are not shooting it down.
The US has been tracking a Chinese spy balloon that has been floating over the northern part of the country for days, Pentagon officials announced Thursday.
A top Pentagon official said the US intelligence community has “very high confidence” that the balloon belongs to the People’s Republic of China and has been flying over sensitive sites to collect information for the past two days.
The official, speaking anonymously, said that one of the locations the balloon has been spotted was over Montana — home to one of the US’ three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
Fighter jets — including F-22s — were prepared to shoot the balloon down at President Biden’s direction and he was presented with options after which he proposed that the balloon be shot down, but his military leaders recommended against it out of safety concerns for civilians on the ground.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters in a brief statement that the balloon is“currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.” . . .
Via NEW YORK POST