‘Pounding on the door of the Pentagon’: Senators push to keep out foreign spy balloons
Pounding #Pounding
Senators in both parties are attempting to figure out how to prevent another surveillance balloon from a foreign adversary from floating over the United States undetected in the future.
Many expressed concern about gaps in the U.S.’s ability to safeguard its airspace following a classified briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday. All 100 senators were briefed on the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down over the ocean Saturday. The balloon flew over sensitive military sites in Montana and drifted eastward for days.
The balloon was part of a fleet of devices that have flown over 40 countries on five continents. It was built for spying and had sophisticated communications equipment, the State Department said Thursday.
Officials said the balloon first entered U.S. airspace off Alaska on Jan. 28, where it was immediately detected by North American Aerospace Defense Command, the joint U.S.-Canadian air defense system. The balloon then traversed across the country for about a week before the U.S. military shot it down into the Atlantic.
Chinese balloons crossed over the U.S. at least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time earlier in the Biden administration, according to officials.
“It is not just this administration; it is a number of administrations that have been late to the game in discovering and taking action against these kinds of technologically advanced surveillance,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters on Thursday. “We should be pounding on the door of the Pentagon and our intelligence community to up their game to be more vigilant and vigorous in countering this kind of spying and surveillance which is a form of warfare.”
Prior to Thursday’s classified briefing with lawmakers, the overriding feeling from some had been that Biden should have ordered the Pentagon to shoot down the balloon before it crossed over the country rather than after it had traveled over the South Carolina coastline. Defense officials maintain the balloon was not a major threat and recommended against shooting it down over land, citing safety concerns.
Earlier in the day, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who is up for reelection in 2024, said the Biden administration needed to “justify” its handling of the incident. Following the briefing, the vulnerable Montana Democrat concurred that the U.S. military made the right decision at the time.
“I am much more comfortable with the explanation of what they collected as to being, let me put it this way, it doesn’t put our national security at risk,” Tester told CNN during an interview with Jake Tapper.
Tester emphasized that the U.S. needs to take steps to prevent future surveillance devices from entering the country’s airspace in the future.
“I chair the Defense Appropriations with Sen. [Susan] Collins. We need to get together to find out what the plan is to ensure the budget meets the needs to make sure this never happens again,” he added. “There needs to be a plan to deal with it in such a way where it is either disabled so it can’t collect anything or take it out of the sky.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the state’s junior senator, was not satisfied with answers from officials following the briefing Thursday.
“I still have a lot of questions about a Chinese spy balloon that hovered over the most powerful weapons known to mankind, which are called intercontinental ballistic missiles. These are weapons of mass destruction,” Daines said afterward. “If they had taken it down over Montana, I guarantee you they could have taken down that balloon, the spy balloon, and the greatest risk would have been hitting a cow, a prairie dog, or an antelope.
Some senators voiced concerns with the Biden administration’s response time and are asking for more transparency.
“Especially last week, the administration had senior officials from the military and the intelligence agencies on the Hill when this balloon was over the northern United States before it was released publicly. They should have briefed Congress at the time. They should have at least briefed the gang of eight at the time,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
ROMNEY RISES TO BIDEN’S DEFENSE ON CHINESE SPY BALLOON IN BREAK WITH GOP
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) was the only GOP senator who defended the Biden administration’s decision to wait to shoot down the balloon.
“My questions were satisfactorily answered, and I believe the administration, the president, our military, and our intelligence agencies acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive,” Romney said as he left the briefing.
Democratic staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report Thursday urging lawmakers to allocate more resources to the Indo-Pacific in an effort to push back against China.
The report recommended the Biden administration increase funding for development and diplomacy across the U.S. government and dedicate a larger portion of State Department resources to the Indo-Pacific.
“The administration’s foreign assistance request for the region for the fiscal year ending in September 2024 was $1.7 billion, or only 7.7% of the overall foreign assistance budget, even though the Indo-Pacific region accounts for more than half the world’s population,” the report said.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Relations Committee, emphasized a need to deal with what he is calling a “domain awareness gap.”
“It means we need to be able to understand everything that may be coming toward our country, from space, from continental parts of our country, and elsewhere. I think that is something we need to be working on to ensure national security of the United States,” Menendez said following the briefing.
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Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he understood the possible dangers of shooting down the balloon but also wonders what kind of message was sent to foreign adversaries by letting the device trek across the U.S.
“While I understand the implications of the potential danger posed, I do wonder whether there was any reflection on what is the image left for Americans in the world, this balloon floating across the whole of the United States mainland,” he said.
Warner added that he does not believe China would ever allow a surveillance asset from a foreign adversary in their airspace.
“I don’t think the Chinese would ever allow that. There are bigger questions or other questions about — we have traditional deconflict measures with Russia, even through the most challenging times. I think we still need to build on that,” Warner said.
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Tags: China, News, Senate, Confronting China, Senate Foreign Relations, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs
Original Author: Samantha-Jo Roth
Original Location: ‘Pounding on the door of the Pentagon’: Senators push to keep out foreign spy balloons