Top officials in the intelligence community will appear before the Senate for a hearing on foreign security threats after a suspected Chinese spy balloon violated U.S. airspace last month.
The Wednesday, March 8, hearing will “feature testimony from the heads of U.S. intelligence agencies on the global security threats currently facing the United States.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) and ranking member Marco Rubio (R-FL) have been calling for more transparency from the Biden administration regarding the balloon the U.S. shot down after it flew over sensitive military sites in Montana. The military also took down several unidentified aircraft in the days that followed.
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The witnesses are:
- Avril D. Haines, director of national intelligence
- William J. Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency
- Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency
- Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
The public portion of the hearing will be followed by a closed session. The Senate had a classified briefing on Feb. 14 about the situation, which ended with calls from both Republicans and Democrats for more transparency.
Burns said Sunday that the CIA doesn’t know if the Chinese government was aware the balloon was in U.S. airspace before it was spotted over Montana.
“I don’t know,” the director said. “This is something obviously we watch very carefully. I think the Chinese leadership obviously understood that they had launched this capability, that it was an intelligence platform.”
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The Pentagon released images last week of the balloon taken from a U.S. spy plane on Feb. 3 at an estimated height of 60,000 feet. The majority of the balloon’s remnants were recovered after being shot down off the coast of South Carolina. The balloon entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 and was shot down on Feb. 4 by U.S. fighter jets. Three more unidentified objects were shot down over eight days following the balloon’s takedown.
The hearing will likely also discuss the threat posed by Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine reached the one-year mark last week.
