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NORAD missed Chinese spy balloon flights during Trump admin, general admits

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A top military commander said Monday the US had not detected previous incursions by Chinese spy balloons as they took place during the Trump administration – raising troubling questions about the security of US airspace.
“Every day as a NORAD commander, it’s my responsible responsibility to detect threats to North America,” Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck of the North American Aerospace Defense Command told reporters. “I will tell you that we did not detect those [previous] threats. And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out.
VanHerck spoke after a massive Chinese surveillance craft was allowed to cruise across the country for days — taking in sensitive military sites along the way — before it was shot down by an Air Force F-22 jet off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
Soon after the shootdown, an anonymous senior defense official told reporters that similar Chinese balloons “transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration.”
That disclosure enraged veterans of the Trump White House, who lined up to insist they had heard of no such incidents during their time in government.
John Ullyot, who worked at the National Security Council during the final two years the 45th president was in office, scoffed at the claims Monday morning.
“Given their lack of specifics, this is just more hot air from the White House,” Ullyot told The Post.
Later, VanHerck and NSC spokesman John Kirby were forced to clarify the initial statement, saying US intelligence agencies had used “forensics” to identify the Chinese spy craft incursions only after President Biden took office in January 2021.
“The intel community after the fact … assessed those threats from additional means of collection and made us aware of those balloons that were previously approaching North America or transit in North America,” said VanHerck, who declined to describe the kinds of information he said intelligence officials received to confirm the prior Chinese balloon trespassing.

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