US intelligence officials are assessing the possibility that the suspected Chinese spy balloon was not deliberately maneuvered into the continental US by the Chinese government and are examining whether it was diverted off course by strong winds, multiple people briefed on the intelligence tell CNN.
After the balloon lifted off from Hainan, China last month, US officials monitored it as it made its way across the Pacific, sources said. After tracking the balloon for a little while, officials believed it would head towards Guam, where it would probably try to surveil military sites on the island.
But the balloon instead went north unexpectedly and crossed into Alaska, Canada, and then downward, reentering the US through northern Idaho and moving towards Montana – a path that US officials are not sure was purposeful, and may have been determined more by strong winds than deliberate, external maneuvering by Beijing.
China did maintain some ability to maneuver the balloon, however. Once the balloon was over Montana, officials believe China took advantage of its position to loiter over sensitive sites and try to collect intelligence.
The balloon then moved eastward over the US and was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4 by US fighter jets. As CNN has reported, the US intelligence community last year developed a method of tracking what it says is a fleet of Chinese balloons operating across the globe.
Weather modeling done by CNN suggests it is plausible that the wind currents at the time diverted the balloon northward toward Alaska.
The Washington Post first reported that officials are examining the possibility that China didn’t intend for the balloon to travel over the continental US.
Any intelligence suggesting that the balloon’s path into the US may have been unintentional could ease tensions between…
Read the full article here
