The Defense Intelligence Agency sent an internal report that a foreign object was heading to United States territory one day before the Chinese spy balloon entered the airspace over the Alaskan Aleutian Islands, according to a report.
However, the report was not marked urgent, so top defense and intelligence officials were not immediately alarmed, according to intelligence officials per CNN. They saw it as an opportunity to gather intelligence on the object. It was not until Jan. 28, when the balloon neared Alaska and began moving south toward the mainland, that officials began to worry its mission was to spy on the U.S.
The revelation explains why it took the U.S. several days to shoot down the balloon, a hot-button topic on Capitol Hill as lawmakers scrutinize the Biden administration’s response time.
Officials familiar with the initial defense report said they did not believe the balloon was an urgent threat. However, it was revealed on Feb. 4 that this incident was not the United States’s first run-in with similar Chinese surveillance objects.
A defense official told reporters that Chinese surveillance balloons have “transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”
The balloon’s trajectory began over the Alaska Aleutian Islands before floating into Canada. It entered the mainland through Montana on Jan. 31, the day President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, per officials.
The balloon then moved diagonally across the U.S., floating over Missouri on Feb. 3 and North Carolina on Feb. 4. That same day, once it floated off the coast of South Carolina, U.S. military jets shot the balloon down.
The report was disseminated through government channels routinely, but officials said it is up to the receiver’s discretion if they review it or not.
“Some of these places send emails and then count that as someone being informed,” a senior U.S. official told CNN.
Several GOP lawmakers have blasted the Biden administration’s response to the balloon, saying it was a breach of national security. They called the omission of the Chinese spy balloon in the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday “embarrassing.”
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Several lawmakers pointed to its loitering over secure military bases, with Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) saying China was likely looking to gather information on U.S. missile and nuclear weapon defense systems.
On the other side of the aisle, some Democrats say the situation could turn out to be a positive for the U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) said on Tuesday morning that the president’s conduct was “extremely appropriate” and that the balloon now offers U.S. defense officials a better opportunity to gather intelligence than China.
