President Biden, right, shakes hands with Mark Milley, outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during an armed forces farewell tribute at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday. Photo Credit: Nathan Howard/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In a significant revelation, NBC News has exposed the Biden administration’s alleged attempt to conceal vital information about a Chinese spy balloon from Congress and the public.
As reported by Fox News on Saturday, December 23, 2023, despite assurances from administration officials that the balloon posed no threat, a previously undisclosed phone call has illuminated their efforts to withhold crucial details.
The unreported Jan. 27 phone call between Gen. Mark Milley, President Biden’s top military adviser, and NORAD chief Gen. Glen VanHerck revealed the administration’s covert intentions regarding the Chinese surveillance balloon.
Sources familiar with the matter disclosed that the administration initially aimed to keep the balloon’s existence secret, as revealed by a former senior U.S. official to NBC.
“Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it,” the official disclosed.
However, a senior Biden administration official refuted allegations of concealment, emphasizing that decisions were made to protect sensitive intelligence capabilities.
“To the extent any of this was kept quiet at all, that was in large part to protect intel equities related to finding and tracking them,” the official told NBC.
“There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point.”
During the discussed phone call, Milley informed VanHerck of the Pentagon’s plan to dispatch F-22 jets and other aircraft to assess the balloon’s features.
Subsequently, U.S. military jets utilized targeting pods to ascertain that the object was a balloon of substantial size with extensive surveillance capabilities but lacking offensive capabilities.
Shockingly, President Biden wasn’t briefed on the balloon until Feb. 1, while the public remained unaware until NBC News broke the story on Feb. 2.
VanHerck emphasized that the Chinese balloon program remains active, exposing significant gaps in the U.S.’s ability to detect and track such craft, posing potential threats to national security.
Acknowledging the inadequacy of the U.S.’s deterrence options, VanHerck highlighted the urgency in addressing this issue.
“Time is the opportunity to create deterrence options or, if required, defeat options,” he emphasized, expressing concern over the nation’s current state in this regard.
Amidst the fallout from the spy balloon’s disclosure, Biden officials allegedly expressed regret over the public outcry and the impact on U.S.-China relations, deeming the reputational consequences a more substantial threat than the balloon entering U.S. airspace.
President Biden’s administration defended the delay in intercepting the surveillance craft, citing safety precautions due to its substantial equipment payload.
However, questions arose about why action wasn’t taken earlier when the balloon traversed waters near Alaska before eventually being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
