Another Chinese 'surveillance balloon' is flying over Latin America, Pentagon says
Another Chinese 'surveillance balloon' is flying over Latin America, Pentagon says
Latin America now has one too!
(Written by NBC News)
The Pentagon said Friday evening it had observed another Chinese spy balloon — this one in Latin America — just hours after revealing that a similar balloon from China was making its way across the continental United States.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the Defense Department was aware of reports of another balloon “transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”
Earlier on Friday the Pentagon said it wouldn't attempt to remove the balloon from U.S. airspace because “any potential debris field would be significant” and could cause “civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage” — but did not provide a plan to respond to the slow-moving violation of “U.S. airspace and international law.”
The huge balloon has ignited domestic curiosities, political finger-pointing, and an international diplomatic crisis, leaving Americans across the middle swath of the country looking to the skies for the white floating apparatus.
Where it will go — and whether the U.S. military may ultimately opt to shoot it from the sky — remains unknown, but officials have confirmed it continues to move east across the continental United States and are dismissing Beijing's insistence it is a weather balloon that got blown off track.
The U.S., however, is already taking action to weaken its surveillance capabilities, including using counter intelligence measures to obscure its views and physically moving things out of its path, two senior defense officials told NBC News on Friday.
