Security concerns for days. Most of the wreckage is believes to be sitting in 47 feet of water at this hour. Lets go now to oren at the pentagon. Do we think we might have get an update this evening as to whether or not they have been able to secure that wreckage and retrieve it . Theyll put a perimeter around it with navy and coast guard assets that were in the area. Whether they can retrieve it tonight or tomorrow, thats a different question. 47 feet of water according to a Senior Defense official, so not that deep, but still its a question of whats left, whats down there and what shape is it in and how do you bring it up without damaging it further. Salvage vessel is on the way. It might not be there in time to do it tonight, but it will get there as quickly as possible to begin. Why is that so important . Because the pentagon has said repeatedly this was a chinese Surveillance Balloon that had the ability to maneuver, loiter. And because of that, theres information they want to glean. It is worth pointing out that the intelligence gathering operation from the u. S. Perspective hasnt started now. It happened as this balloon made its way across the United States. The pentagon says they took steps to mitigate the ability of the chinese to gather information or intelligence from this and instead, tried to gather their own about the capabilities and technology aboard the balloon. So now that will shift from it being in motion to once they bring it up, seeing it in person, up close, instead of at a distance of Something Like 12 miles in the sky, jim. What did it take to shoot this balloon down . It was executed it seems perfectly. From what we can see, it certainly looks like it. There were days of planning ever since President Biden gave the green light to shoot it down as soon as possible. The pentagon decided it wouldnt be safe over the continental u. S. And over what would be a payload of a length of three schoolbuses falling apart and creating a debris field. So the decision was made to shoot it down once it was off the coast. It was f22 launch out of Langley Air Force base that fired an a9 Side Winder Missile thats a fairly short range weapon. So they had to get up close. The pentagon says the jets were about 28,000 feet. The balloon, between 60 and 65,000 feet. It was one shot, one kill for the balloon. Thank you very much. Lets go to Arlette Sciaenz Fors at the white house. Busy saturday afternoon. What are we hearing from the president . He was very emphatic this afternoon to make it clear he issued this order on wednesday. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, jim. President biden really trying to lay out the timeline for when this decision was made, saying he told his Military Leaders to shoot down that plane as soon as possible when he was briefed on wednesday. Of course, the Military Leaders put together options for him and ultimately advised they wanted to wait until there were safer moments where fewer people might be impacted compared to if they had shot it down over land, for instance. But President Biden was on Air Force One as the military carried out this plan this afternoon. Heres what he had to tell reporters as he landed in maryland earlier today. On wednesday, when i was briefed on the balloon, i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. They decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground. They decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water within 12 mile limit. Of course, President Biden has faced criticism in recent days since the news of the balloon first broke as republicans have been asking why he didnt shoot this down sooner. Theres also been some democrats like senator mark warner who said that china would never allow a balloon like this to be flying over the heartland. Now, lawmakers on capitol hill have called for briefings and hearings as well. The socalled Gang Of Eight up on capitol hill will be receiving a briefing as they return to Congress Later next week. But this also comes at a very new high point of tension between u. S. And china. Of course, Secretary Of State blinken had been planning the trip to china due to the revelation and appearance of this balloon and this is something the white house will have to navigate diplomatically as theyve seen tensions really rise with china in recent days. Absolutely. Im sure reporters at the white house will have questions for days on this. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Lets discuss now with Cnn National Security analyst, james clapper. Director, thanks so much for being with us as always. We appreciate it. Just your reaction to the decision to wait to shoot this balloon down after it reached the atlantic as opposed to earlier in the week. Whats your sense of how all this went down . I think it was the right thing to do. I think theres a balance drawn here by affirming our sovereignty and at the same time, protecting the safety of people below. I can imagine the reaction if the thing, balloon had been shot down over a red state and somebody got killed or hurt and the outrage that would result from that. So to me, this was the best of both worlds. As i understand it, done within our territorial waters and obviously no jeopardy to anyone on the ground. So to me, it was the right thing to do. I think in the end, this will afford us some diplomatic l leverage with the chinese. What do you think the chinese were up to here because obviously they had to assume we were going to see this thing in the sky. And this was going to be detected. Does that tell us a little bit about what their motivations might have been . You know, jim, to me, this is the mystery. Why exactly they did this and thats why i have a tendency to accept the explanation this was astray. I dont buy what theyre saying was on the way it sensors. Thats why this is going to be very good to recover the payload from the balloon and find out what kind of sensors they had on it. Others have already discussed, the chinese have very capable Overhead Reconnaissance Satellite System that can collect all kinds of Imagery Intelligence. Probably better than with a balloon. Now, the issue for me is what other kinds of sensor or other phenomena that this balloon was trying to collect. Hopefully well learn that by exploiting the payload. Because the balloon might not have been just taking pictures. Is that right . Exactly. If it was just taking pictures then i really dont understand it because the, as i say, the chinese Overhead Reconnaissance Satellites can do every bit what that balloon can do and more. Now, if it was somehow intercepting radiation, nonliteral communications, literal communications, i dont know. Well learn that. But it just seems to me strange that the chinese would intentionally do this. Particularly at this particular time. And the balloon, were told, will be analyzed once its retrieved, at an fbi lab in quantico. How critical is it at this point for navy divers, assets there in the atlantic right now retrieving this, how critical is it for them to get that piece of equipment out of the water . Well, its pretty critical because obviously i doubt it was designed to survive in a wet environment. Its not the environment was operating in. So the quicker the divers can get to it, retrieve it, the better. Again, i dont know the depth of the water where it actually fell. Thats, that will be another challenge depending on how deep the water is, but the quicker the better. You were director of national intelligence. Maybe you can answer this question. Is this unusual to have spy balloons flying over continental United States . Yes. I dont recall an instance of it during my time as dni for six and a half years. I dont remember, recollect this. Ive had some personal experience with using balloons as intelligence collector, particularly for imagery, and theyre not very efficient for that purpose. Thats why im a little skeptical of that imagery. Theyre so subject to the vagaries of weather. You know, mist, fog, rain, and especially as weve seen in this case, wind. Theyre hard to control. So im very interested to learn if we can publicly just what sort of sensor suite was in the payload of the balloon. And do we have the technical capabilities do you think to, to already know, what the Surveillance Equipment was doing. Could they have gotten a close look at it before it was shot down to know what this thing is . Ill just say thats possible. I dont know. Either through direct observation or indirect collection from some other source. So its possible, but im just speculating here. Yeah. One of the interesting things that oren was reporting this afternoon was that the u. S. Says it was able to prevent the balloon from gaining some s intelligence. That they were able to do some mitigation efforts. Sounded as though they were jamming to balloon to some extent. What did you make of that . What do you think about that . One thing i wondered about is if it had some sort of communication relay system. Either to satellites or some other terrestrial down link that we somehow got access to. I dont know. And if that were the case, well, certainly they could jam that and prevent the transmission. Either guidance to the balloon if it had that or some sensor or sensors on the balloon interfere with that. So its quite conceivable. And you know, one of the questions i think thats floating around thats highly intriguing is what does this say about chinese Espionage Efforts in the United States . Looks like they were doing some over the United States. What does it say about chinese Espionage Efforts inside the United States and how extensive they are . I imagine the American People might surmise its going on and is extensive, but how extensive is it . Well, its a great question, jim. What is so significant and dramatic about this is its very visible. The chinese have reconnaissance satellites both Signal Intelligence collectors and Imagery Intelligence collectors that are traversing over the United States every day collecting reams of intelligence. They have very aggressive and intellectual property attacks on us. They are very aggressive about this. Having said all that, this, to me, is sort of ham handed to do this as an intelligence collection effort. When they have so many other ways of gaining intelligence on the United States that is not nearly as visible and dramatic as this. This is whats drawn so much attention to this. Were concerned about our sovereignty, how high does it go . Were going to shoot down the balloon because its a front to our solvereignty. The satellites are an affront to our society and were not about to shoot them down. Thats right. Former director of national intelligence, james clapper, always a pleasure to speak with you, sir. Thanks so much for your insights. We gained a lot of knowledge in this segment so thanks for your time. Thanks, jim. What will National Security officials be looking for once the balloon and its payload have been successfully recovered . Thats something were watching at this hour. Talk about that next. Plus as we just discussed there a few moments ago, china has had multiple chances to spy on the United States. They do this routinely. Much more on the recent examples of its Espionage Efforts. Thats nexext. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. You can always spot a first timer. 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Kerry, i know you worked as an attorney. Your reaction to all of this. How this went down and how much of a Security Risk do you think this posed . Or is this more of an intelligence risk i suppose. I think what were seeing, whats so interesting about this particular story is that were seeing intelligence activities spilled out into the open, presuming this balloon is not a meteorological piece of equipment and is an intelligence Collection Device by the chinese. Assuming that, were seeing an area thats normally behind the scenes. Particularly with respect to intelligence activities that take place with the United States and china against each other. All of that is usually behind the scenes. Super secret. Super classified and here in this example, we have this type of activity where it is just so out in the open and i think thats the piece that is so surprising and both interesting from a public perspective as well as from a National Security perspective. Its kind of baffling because why would the chinese want us to see Something Like this . I think thats one of the questions thats been raised. Perhaps they did. Its sort of like flying a Spy Craft Good Year Blimp saying look what we can do. Chinese intelligence activities, if we look at the past decade and more, chinese intelligence activities are so aggressive against the United States. But so much of it takes place in cyber space. Really aggressive, persistent efforts by Chinese Government to go after u. S. Government systems, go after u. S. Private industry, defense industry. Intellectual profit theft. All of these areas where again, behind the scene, things that are not revealed unless the United States government brings a prosecution then we become know knowledgeable about it in the public space. If this is some sort of surveillance device, they are placing it in a place where not just the u. S. Military or Intelligence Community knows about it, but somewhere where every Day Americans and the entire American Public as well as the canadians, which was over their air space as well, are aware of it and paying attention to whats happening. One of the questions for me is when the United States government goes in, looks at what they are able to recover, what will that reveal. And that underlines what us navy dives off the coast of South Carolina retrieve, they recovered this piece of equipment because i assume and weve been told once they do, its going to be brought up to quantico there in virginia. That is going to be a very interesting operation once they pull that thing on board whatever ship they have out there and start examining this at quantico. Sure for our Intelligence Community professionals looking in the forensic professionals who are going to be looking at this information. This potentially could be a really interesting period for them to be able to observe what exactly was in in. What is it that the chinese were intending. What they were able to collect. Throughout the course of the day, weve been talking about the decision to shoot down the plane. Aside from the Public Safety and not waiting until it got up to see. Theres also the issue of letting it go a little bit and w