Two present-day and one former U.S. officials with knowledge of the assessment say that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that the Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the United States this year utilized an American internet service provider for communication.
The assessment states that the balloon established a connection with a U.S.-based corporation in order to transmit and receive communications from China, which were predominantly for navigational purposes. According to sources with knowledge of the evaluation, it was determined that the connection enabled the balloon to transmit burst transmissions, or data collections of high bandwidth that occurred over brief time periods.
According to multiple current and former U.S. officials, the Biden administration requested a highly confidential court order from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to gather intelligence on the subject during its flight over the United States. The court’s decision has not been made public.
The officials stated that such a court order would have enabled electronic surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies on the balloon while it passed over the United States and transmitted and received messages to and from China, including those transmitted through the American internet service provider.
The organization refuted any claim that the Chinese balloon had accessed its network, attributing this denial to its internal inquiry and consultations with U.S. authorities.
To safeguard the privacy of its informants, NBC News refrains from disclosing the provider’s name.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council directed inquiries to the office of the director of national intelligence. It refrained from providing a comment. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, stated that the weather balloon entered American airspace by accident.
“As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability,” Liu stated in a statement to NBC News. “The facts are clear.”
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U.S. Officials Reveal Covert Communications and Countermeasures
As reported by multiple former U.S. officials, Chinese intelligence officials have clandestinely utilized commercially available service providers in different nations in the past, frequently as secondary communication networks. According to the officials, they frequently seek out encrypted networks or those with robust security protocols in order to communicate securely.
Possible explanation for Biden administration officials’ insistence that the device provided more intelligence than it did while flying over the United States: the previously unreported U.S. effort to monitor the balloon’s communications.
A number of senior administration officials, the United States effectively safeguarded sensitive locations on the ground by closely monitoring the projected flight path of the balloon. By relocating or obscuring sensitive equipment, the U.S. military prevented the balloon from capturing images or video while it was in flight.
NORAD commander General Glen VanHerck informed reporters on February 4, following the balloon’s downing, that the United States military and intelligence community had implemented comprehensive measures to safeguard against the balloon’s potential for intelligence gathering.
“Every precaution was taken to prevent the collection of intelligence,” VanHerck stated at a briefing. “In order to ensure that we could implement the utmost precautions during the balloon’s passage through the United States.”
VanHerck stated in an exclusive interview this month that he collaborated with U.S. Strategic Command, the agency responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons, to reduce the frequency of emergency action messages so that they could not be collected by the Chinese balloon.
“We implemented measures to secure capabilities, including ballistic missiles and aircraft in our missile fields,” VanHerck explained. “We limited our emission of emergency action messages that could be potentially collected on.”
EAM, or emergency action communications, serve as the means by which American leaders communicate with strategic forces worldwide. The highly classified communications may contain directives for nuclear-capable forces regarding potential courses of action in the event of a nuclear conflict.
A senior defense official stated, “Protecting EAM and nuclear command and control communications is of critical importance to the United States.”Â
Following its downing, a senior State Department official asserted that the aircraft had been commandeered by China for the purpose of surveillance, bearing equipment capable of acquiring signals intelligence.
An array of antennas was likely present on the balloon, enabling it to collect and geolocate communications, according to the official. The official added that it was additionally fuelled by gargantuan solar panels that produced sufficient energy to operate intelligence collection sensors.
Based to defense and intelligence officials, the United States believes the balloon was incapable of relaying intelligence to China while it was above the United States.
In the words of numerous U.S. officials, the FBI forensics team that examined the balloon after it was shot down completed a classified report regarding the apparatus it carried. The results of the investigation are classified and have not been widely communicated.
In secret proceedings, federal judges presiding over the surveillance court are tasked with determining whether probable cause exists to surveil a foreign power or foreign agent as the target of the surveillance and whether the surveillance is essential for the acquisition of foreign intelligence information. The decisions of the court are classified.
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