Bolding emphasis mine.
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World Affairs Brief, February 10, 2023 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).
CHINA’S SPY BALLOON
On Feb. 1 a photojournalist wondering why aircraft were grounded at his Billings, MT airport noticed and captured images of a strange white orb in the sky. His friend at the Billings Gazette investigated and the next day our military publicly admitted it was a high altitude suspected spy balloon from China. The images quickly went viral. The Chinese were prepared with a statement passing it off as a “civilian” weather balloon gone off course, but the path of the balloon carried it near a string of sensitive military installations from Alaska to South Carolina where it was finally shot down in shallow waters off the SC coast. Until the US reveals what kind of equipment was in the wreckage, we won’t know for certain what the real purpose was of the overflight. I doubt very much it was weather research because no nation sends weather balloons aloft so far outside their own country, except, perhaps, for military planning purposes which is still in the spy category. A host of aircraft from AWACS to a high-altitude U2 surveillance aircraft were used to evaluate the balloon with its extensive solar array on a truss-like framework that also contained electric motors driving propellers. This indicates that the balloon was designed to maneuver as well as drift in the upper air currents, which weather balloons are not designed to do. Whether or not there were high definition cameras aboard and batteries to operate equipment at night will be the determining factor on what its purpose was. This week, I’ll discuss the various theories about other purposes the balloon might have.
