The leaks also hinted at China gaining air superiority over Taiwan swiftly after or in an attack which Russia failed to do over Ukraine since February 2022.
On Thursday, armed FBI officers arrested a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, raided the residence of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira and took him into custody in connection with the alleged release of documents. Jack worked in the cyber security department.
Over 50 documents labelled as “Secret” and “Top Secret” surfaced in February-March on social media. These documents purportedly contain information about the military capabilities of some US allies and adversaries.
While Beijing had admitted that the balloon was theirs, it condemned the espionage allegations. Condemning America’s suspicion about the balloon being used for possible espionage on the part of China, Beijing’s foreign ministry said the device was gathering weather data and it had gone astray.
Now, the leaked documents show that US officials were aware of up to four Chinese surveillance balloons. Another balloon flew over a US carrier strike group located in the Pacific Ocean but the incident was never reported. The leaked intelligence also stated that the other balloon crashed into the South China Sea. And that US officials had remaining questions about the February Chinese spy balloon.
In the leaked documents, the balloons were referred to as “Bulger-21” and “Accardo-21”. An unnamed US intelligence official told The Washington Post that these surveillance balloons were named alphabetically, from A to Z.
Source: India Today
