Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims II, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
Anna Rose Layden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate held its first public hearing on the Chinese spy balloon Thursday, at which visibly angry lawmakers grilled four Defense Department officials about when the military learned of the balloon and why they waited a week to shoot it down.
“I don’t want a damn ballon going over the United States when we could’ve taken it down over the Aleutian Islands,” said Sen. Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee that conducted the hearing.
Officials said the balloon first entered U.S. airspace off Alaska on Jan. 28, where it was immediately detected by NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canadian air defense system.
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) questions witnesses during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill about the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
“As an Alaskan, I am so angry,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “Alaska is the first line of defense for America… It’s like this administration doesn’t think that Alaska is any part of the rest of the country!” she shouted.
The witnesses defended the Pentagon’s decision to let the high-altitude balloon float across the United States, arguing that the balloon’s primary value to the U.S. military lay in what could be learned from its flight course and its debris.
“A key part of the calculus for this operation was the ability to salvage, understand and exploit the capabilities of the high altitude balloon,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton.
“If we had taken it down over the state of Alaska … it would have been a very different recovery operation,” she said, noting that the deep, freezing water of the Bering Sea “would make…
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