Sen. Marquain Mullin: Chinese spy balloon probed US infrastructure
Sen. Markwain Mullin (R-C), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a recent interview with Fox News that the Chinese spy balloon was gathering information about US infrastructure, not military installations.
I don’t think they were actually looking…at our military installations, that’s what [Gen. Glen Vanherck’s] the focus is on,” Mullin told Neil Cavuto in an interview with Fox Business. Cavuto: coast to coast.
The Oklahoma Senator acknowledged:
I think they were looking specifically at our infrastructure, or specifically at our infrastructure as we bring crude oil and petroleum products from Alaska into the lower 48s. If you look at the flight diagram, where did it come from, where did it cross, [it] I am very suspicious why he flew this pattern when they say he is out of control. I don’t believe it was one bit.
“I think they clearly wanted to see if they could disrupt the supply of petroleum products in case we came into conflict with them,” he added.
Mullin was referring to a Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the Carolinas by the US military over the weekend. Even though US officials knew about the balloon days before it was shot down, the news only broke after American citizens first spotted a spy balloon hovering over their homes last Thursday. All of this ended up escalating tensions between Washington and China days before President Joe Biden was due to address Congress.
On Thursday, a senior State Department official said newly declassified intelligence data showed the equipment on the Chinese spy balloon is “incompatible” with what should be on board the weather balloon because it has “multiple antennas, including an array that is likely capable of collect and geolocation communications”.
The same person also claimed that the balloon was “part of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) balloon fleet designed for intelligence operations” with a manufacturer affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army of China (PLA) and that the US would “also explore the possibility of capturing actions against PRC organizations associated with the PLA that supported the intrusion of a balloon into US airspace.”
It was also reported that the Biden administration would “consider” taking action against Chinese entities involved in sending the spy balloon to the United States.
A recent Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Project poll this week found that 63.4% thought the crisis was “wrongly handled” or “should have been dealt with sooner,” with only 36.6% saying that the Biden administration “properly” handled the situation.
Additionally, 58.8% agree that “Biden should have taken faster action to bring down the Chinese spy balloon before it even entered U.S. sovereign airspace” while 59.2% also believe that Biden’s actions with the Chinese spy balloon made “America look weak” on the world stage.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.
