Report: Chinese Spy Balloon Used U.S. Internet Provider
Sources told NBC News that the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate and navigate:
The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.The Biden administration sought a highly secretive court order from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect intelligence about it while it was over the U.S., according to multiple current and former U.S. officials. How the court ruled has not been disclosed.Such a court order would have allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance on the balloon as it flew over the U.S. and as it sent and received messages to and from China, the officials said, including communications sent via the American internet service provider.
Lovely.
We already know that the Biden administration tried to conceal the balloon’s existence from Congress.
The balloon appeared over the northern states in late January and early February over the span of several days.
It took days for the U.S. to finally shoot down the balloon.
Literally allowed the balloon to fly across the country.
But officials insisted they did all they could to protect information:
After the balloon was shot down on Feb. 4, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, told reporters that the U.S. military and intelligence community had taken exhaustive steps to protect against the balloon’s ability to collect intelligence.“We took maximum precaution to prevent any intel collection,” VanHerck said at a briefing. “So that we could take maximum protective measures while the balloon transited across the United States.”
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