WASHINGTON (AP) — With few confirmed details from President Joe Biden’s White House, the downing of three unknown aerial objects in as many days by U.S. fighter jets has prompted wild speculation about what they were and where they came from. It even fell to his press secretary on Monday to announce earnestly there was no indication of “aliens or extraterrestrial activity.”
The president had no public events Monday and has offered little reassurance or explanation of what to make of it all, following the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon crossing the country and the unprecedented peacetime shootdowns that have followed.
U.S. officials said they still know little about the three objects downed Friday off the coast of Alaska, Saturday over Canada and Sunday over Lake Huron. But those shootdowns have been part of a more assertive response to aerial phenomena following the balloon episode blamed on an ongoing Beijing espionage program.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did have at least one definitive statement to try to tamp down unrestrained theories: “I know there’s been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no — indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity.”
The U.S. government insists the three objects did not pose a threat to American security and that even the massive spy balloon provided “limited additive capabilities” to China’s other surveillance programs. Still, they were shot out of the sky “out of an abundance of caution,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Biden’s unparalleled decision to shoot down four objects over North America in eight days — when combined with U.S. officials’ efforts to publicly downplay the foreign threat — has furthered the dissonant messages being sent about sensitive efforts to protect the homeland.
U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss…
Read the full article here
