Brig. After Ryder refused to give an updated location, Gen. Pat Ryder said that Americans could simply look up at the sky to find the location of an alleged Chinese surveillance ballon.
A reporter asked, “Does not the public have the right to learn?”
Ryder replied, “The public certainly can look up in the skies and see where the balloons are.”
Another reporter inquired why the balloon hadn’t been removed if it was violating U.S. Airspace.
Ryder replied, “We assessed it doesn’t pose a danger to people on ground as it traverses the continental United States.”
Thursday’s announcement by the Department of Defense (DoD), indicated that it was monitoring a Chinese surveillance balloon at high altitude that may be gathering data from sensitive U.S. sites. The Malmstrom Air Force Base is located in the state, and it houses Minuteman III nukes.
Thursday night, the DoD issued a statement stating that instances of balloon activity had been previously observed over the past few years.
China claims ownership of the “civilian aircraftship” that it calls “for research and mainly meteorological purposes.” It accidentally “deviated far from its intended course.”
