Page 3 - Collection Capability News Today

Able, to recover much of the debris. which we will exploit. well study it, well learn from it. we also took advantage of the time that it was flying over the country to learn from the system itself, while it was in-flight. we collected on them while they were trying to collect on us. >> general, can you pull back the curtain for us, give us a sense of what the u.s. could learn from that debris? what the u.s. could learn from watching the movement of that balloon? >> i think much of the intellige...

President biden now saying that balloon was a violation of international law, but not a major security breach. >> the total amount of intelligence gathering thats going on by every country around the world is overwhelming, and the idea that a balloon could traverse great american air space is -- anyway, its not a major breach. >> joining us now cnn national security correspondent tasha bertrand. natasha, those words from the president, not a major breach, consistent with the pentagon, saying tha...

Drifting towards the u.s. air space wasnt originally marked as urgent. and this has drawn ire from republican lawmakers already unhappy with how long it took for the u.s. presidents order to shoot it down. here is what the pentagon had to say about the incident. >> i can assure you this was not for civilian purposes. that is -- we are 100% clear about that. based on what we know and have se observed, it was an intelligent collection capability. you know, a question i would ask myself is if in fa...

And balloon that would use spy technology. at biden administration admits thats what this is, a spy balloon, but i dont believe the biden administration when they put out this defense that they didnt intercept the balloon, they didnt shoot it down when they could over the elution islands over the open water when it initially violated alaskan air space. they say that their intelligence collection capability is not any better than a low orbit satellite. thats just not credible. 12 kilometers versu...

The fact that china has the balloon so low in our atmosphere and collecting our infrastructure is disturbing to the american people. >> mike walt is coming out, listen, we let them get away with this thats why we keep on doing this. here is what the pentagon said. >> once the balloon was detected, the u.s. government acted immediately and protect against the collection of sensitive information. >> yes, but this one lingered longer, bill. >> yes, it continues to linger and until we find out where...

Defense leaders, including mark milley, the head of norad. austin called them together for a meeting. it was the middle of the night in the philippines. they talked about the potential track for this thing, where it was coming from, where it was going. the potential collection, the intelligence collection capabilities, which they believe to be somewhat minimal. they dont think that this can collect very much. and they even brought in aircraft, including surveillance aircraft and f-22 fighter jet...

On the level, have just kind of been laying around mar-a-lago for a year and a half without much protection, is appalling. and on several levels, as well. first, obtaining such information is very difficult because nations protected. so, the question, one question comes to my mind, have we lost a sensitive collection capability? that has been a concern in general with the revelation of the presence of these documents under not very secure conditions. there is the concern about other nations will...

And the defense is there too, it is because it is about their national survival, and their existence. and thats a decision we made a decades ago, thats why we have nuclear weapons, and thats why at least nine other nations have them. so, the fact that these documents, if this reporting is on the level, have just kind of been laying around mar-a-lago for a year and a half without much protection, is appalling. and on several levels, as well. first, obtaining such information is very difficult bec...

To finally go down and get these documents? thats a much more appropriate question than, well, are they really classified or not? thats not the right one. >> steve? >> you know, i think the point is really on target. we do have to know whats in there and i think the collector, stuff david and i used to do, we look less at, is it confidential, secret, top secret? what were concerned about is what lives are being put at risk? thats just for the human intelligence side. if youre looking from the si...

With, and it is going to be tough on them in the next few weeks. >> steve, weeks ago, russian convoys carrying weapon ins to ukraine were legitimate targets, but russia has not attacked any yet, but do you believe it is going to change yet? >> frankly, i have been surprised that they have not tried to hit the convoys to date. it could be that it is difficult for them to locate them, and there is some information and reporting that the russians are having problems with the tactical collection cap...