According to an article published Friday by the Washington Post, leaked documents show that US authorities were aware of up to four other Chinese spy balloons in addition to the one that flew over the mainland United States and was shot down in February off the coast. from South Carolina.
Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was arrested Thursday and charged Friday with “unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents,” according to the Post. The report in the Post was based on documents allegedly leaked to a Discord chatroom by Teixeira.
According to the newspapers, one of the other balloons flew over a US carrier battle group in the Pacific Ocean, while another crashed into the South China Sea.
The launch dates of these balloons are not mentioned in the documentation.
GOP and former national security officials have sharply criticized President Joe Biden for not swiftly shooting down the Chinese surveillance balloon known under the code name Killeen-23 that flew over the United States in January and February.
The Post claims the plane was equipped with “an array of sensors and antennae that the U.S. government had yet to identify more than a week after shooting it down.”
In response to these surveillance balloons, the Biden administration “made a huge mistake” that resulted in “global disgrace”, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
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