Page 7 - Intelligence Value News Today

David preparing for the state of the union but getting updates on this. the administration has not said a lot, this is from a defense department official, immediate steps to protect against the balloons sensitive information mitigating its intelligence value. the team has not talked about this publicly. if they were jamming it preventing it from sending intelligence back to china no harm leaving it in the sky. if it is capturing air force bases missile silos, then republicans might have a point....

He ensured that the military take steps to protect against the balloons collection of sensitive information mitigating any intelligence value to the prc, the peoples republic of china. they said in that time they were able to study the payload and get information off of it. this will be the defense they use for the domestic problems over the course of the days as those on the hill ask for more questions from the white house and then diplomatly they are going to have really some issues to sort th...

That now he is facing a lot of sharp criticism from republicans who question why the president waited so long and whether or not, you know, doing that delay allowed sensitive information to transmit over to china. but the white house has come out in big defense of the president here saying that it was the right thing to do. i want to read you this statement of white house official gave me last night coming in hard with the defense. the white house official said this is the responsible action for...

Being hit by the debris. there was danger to american citizens. what employee would have potentially lost the intelligence value of being able to capture the pod and electronics that chinese have broad a. part of this by mission -- that was much easier to do once it was over water. its my understanding that that has been a priority for the pentagon over the last 24 hours. trying to get as much with electronics as they can if they do, this will end up being a net intelligence gain for the united ...

Questions about exactly what it was doing here and where its going to wind up. >> colonel leighton, we bring you in here. what we do know is its in our airs space. there have been a lot of calls to make sure its no longer in the airspace and bring it down. should that happen? >> what you want to do is you want to gain the intelligence value that you can from this particular balloon because you know that there are sensors on there. you want to prove your case if you are the united states governme...

Worth even over rural montana which has roughly a population density of about 35 people evere mile, but if the debris field as they modeled it out was going to be several square miles, then it wasnt worth risking those american lives for what they thought the chinese were getting. so we want to know what did they get in terms of intelligence value, what were we able to even potentially jam or obfuscate, and then why was action not taken when we saw this crossing the pacific, when we saw it cross...

Patience they waited until today to take it down. >> reporter: fredricka, we are getting new information literally just in right now from a senior defense official who tells reporters that the fighter jets that took off to take down this balloon were actually -- they took off from langley air force base, located in virginia, and it was a single missile that took down that balloon. interestingly, they added that the surveillance balloon is of value to the united states. they said that, quote, i w...

Shoot it down. >> if they knew we were going to catch them, why would they do it? >> they may still have obtained some intelligence value from it. i think theyre also testing this capability to see how they can direct the balloon, how they can direct the surveillance aircraft to what degree they can go undetected, whats the quickest route. they have a number of objectives in fielding any capability. but ultimately, its in a treatable asset, that sort of fancy way of saying they dont really care ...

Think thats true and i think thats going to be really the most significant aspect of this. the but these flight crews did a tremendous job putting it together and as you can see there with the contrails there, the missile going after that target, a very hardle target for an aircraft to go after, that, you know, really gives you an idea of, you know, how complex this operation really was. >> thank you so much, colonel cedric leighton. hey, john miller, in 20 seconds or less, what did you hear in ...

Thats the envelope as it was deflated, but the really important step -- we dont care so much about what is in the balloon. it is really so much about what is in the enstrumt tags that was dangling below it which we know was the size of a few buses, a few school bus sizes. >> the mechanics of it as well as the pay load of it. >> thats really critical. >> natasha had mentioned theres an acknowledgment from the u.s. military, the pentagon, that the pay load is of significant intelligence value. >> ...