Kirby revealed that U.S. intelligence is considering the possibility that the objects are linked to commercial or research entities and are “totally benign.”
This Tuesday John Kirby, one of the spokesmen for the White House Security Council, said that the authorities believe that the three flying objects that were shot down in recent days are not linked to China and could be entities used for commercial or research purposes, totally harmless.
Kirby pointed out that this information is provisional and that the United States is still looking for the remains of these three objects in order to analyze them and have a better idea of their nature. In that sense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, confirmed on Tuesday that the first missile launched against the downed flying object in the state of Michigan while flying over Lake Huron did not reach the target and it was necessary a second shot that did destroy the balloon.
While acknowledging that in the balloon shot down by the United States over Lake Huron the first shot missed, he stressed that in the other three flying objects, over the Atlantic, over Alaska and over the Canadian Yukon, the target was hit with a single shot.
“For now, and I’m advising that it’s just for now, we have seen no indications or anything that points to the specific possibility that these three objects are part of the People’s Republic of China’s spying program, or that they have been involved in any kind of intelligence gathering,” John Kirby said in a call with reporters.
They are not extraterrestrials
A group of senior U.S. security representatives had to clarify that the latest three downed flying targets in Alaska, Canada and Michigan are not of extraterrestrial origin.
This verification by the White House authorities comes after the news went viral on social networks such as Tik Tok, Twitter and Instagram as several media outlets around the world published the information using the word UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), an acronym commonly used in science fiction to talk about aliens.
“There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity in these recent shoot downs. I wanted to make sure the American people knew that and it’s important that we say that from here,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, according to The Hill.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby explained that the origin of the three downed devices has not yet been determined and emphasized that, for now, the government is referring to them as “objects”, without linking them to the Chinese “spy” balloon.
The U.S. government said Monday that it is open to a meeting with senior Chinese officials to discuss the crisis over Beijing’s alleged use of spy balloons. Earlier the spokesman for the White House Security Council, John Kirby said that the dialogue between the two powers remains open.
In that sense, the spokesman of the U.S. diplomacy, Ned Price, explained that for now there is no scheduled meeting of the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, with any senior Chinese official. “We are open and committed to maintaining lines of communication. We can talk on the phone, have meetings at our embassies in Beijing or Washington, hold meetings with officials in third countries or travel to China,” EFE news agency reported.