USA: NSA leaker Edward Snowden claimed on Monday that the media hysteria surrounding "spy balloons" and other unexplained flying objects over North America is sadly not about first contact with extraterrestrials but rather a panic created for political misdirection.
"Those aren't aliens. The aliens would be nice. But they are not aliens. Snowden tweeted, "It's just the same old engineered panic, an attractive nuisance ensuring national security reporters get assigned to investigate balloon bulls**t rather than budgets or bombings.
The pipelines carrying Russian natural gas to Germany were blown up last September by the US and Norway, according to a report last week by award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. It was condemned as false by the US government.
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The US military started shooting down "objects" in the sky over North America over the course of the following few days. John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, stated on Monday that the US government is still unsure of the owners of the three items that were brought down over the weekend. However, according to Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, "there is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity."
The downing of a "high-altitude object" off the coast of Alaska had been reported by Kirby on Friday. An "unidentified, unmanned object" was shot down by US fighter jets on Saturday over the Yukon in northwest Canada. On Sunday afternoon, the third object was destroyed over Lake Huron as it headed toward Michigan.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Monday that the objects, despite not yet being known to authorities, pose no danger. They pose no military threat to anyone on the ground, they say. But they do pose a threat to civil aviation and perhaps even intelligence gathering. And we'll figure it out," he continued.
Additionally, Austin noted that the three objects were distinct from the Chinese "spy balloon" that the US shot down last week over South Carolina. Before being shot down by an F-22 fighter jet, the aerostat, which Beijing described as a weather balloon blown off course by the winds, had flown over most of the US mainland.
The Pentagon's reluctance to describe the "objects" or display any potential recovered debris has led to rumors that they may have an extraterrestrial origin. Elon Musk, a space tycoon, made light of "friends of mine" dropping by. Opposition lawmakers have lamented the White House's failure to provide any official justifications in the meantime.
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The chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, urged the president and the Pentagon to "tell us what they know - and what they don't" right away.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader and a fellow Kentuckian, questioned what was happening on the Senate floor. He questioned whether the radar sensitivity may have been increased following the Chinese balloon incident, saying that "the administration has still not been able to divulge any meaningful information about what was shot down."