The White House laughed at suggestions that aliens were involved in the three unidentified objects revealed over the weekend at a briefing where a senior official still couldn’t say who put the objects into the air or what their purpose was were shot down over North America.
Karine Jean-Pierre has dismissed any claim that “alien activity” was behind the three UFO “takedowns” over Alaska, Canada and Michigan – and raised the issue unsolicited at the beginning of a news conference Monday.
“There is no evidence of extraterrestrial activity or extraterrestrial activity in these recent shutdowns,” Jean-Pierre said during her White House briefing Monday.
She then joked about how she “loved” the ET movie – while the Biden administration and Pentagon are yet to reveal details about the recent objects separated from the Chinese spy balloon.
The US is also still trying to recover debris from the downed objects and find out where they came from.
Pentagon officials held a news conference Sunday night in the middle of the Super Bowl, when most of the country was distracted, leaving many questions unanswered and sparking a flurry of speculation.
The White House has laughed at suggestions that aliens were involved in the three unidentified objects shot down over North America over the weekend
General Glen VanHerck was specifically asked if it was possible that the objects indicated extraterrestrial life.
“I’ll let the intelligence services and counterintelligence figure that out. I haven’t ruled anything out.
“At this time we continue to investigate any unknown threat or potential threat approaching North America in an attempt to identify it,” he said.
Jean-Pierre brought up the alien issue early in the briefing while reading through a prepared statement.
“And one last thing before I turn it over to you, I just want to make sure we address this to the White House’s questions and concerns about this,” she said before giving her alien assurance.
“Again, there is no reference to extraterrestrials or [extra] terrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” she said.
“We wanted to make sure the American people knew that, you all knew that, and it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve heard a lot about it,” she said.
“I loved the movie ET but I’m just going to leave it at that,” she said to laughter from the press room.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby then took the podium and dismissed Chinese claims that the US had flown at least 10 spy balloons into its airspace in the last year.
He also revealed that the spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina last weekend was part of a network linked to Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army.
Kirby also raised questions about extraterrestrials, including asking for clarification on the Pentagon’s comment to “exclude any kind of extraterrestrial presence” and how that squares with Jean-Pierre’s opposition to the idea.
“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens in relation to these ships, period,” said Kirby, a retired Navy rear admiral. ‘I don’t think more needs to be said.’
When asked why the last three were shot down, he said they posed a risk to civilian aircraft and there was still no evidence they were used for surveillance.
“I don’t think the American people need to be concerned about extraterrestrials in relation to these ships, period,” said White House security spokesman Admiral John Kirby
US military fighter jets were sent yesterday to shoot down an object over Lake Huron. It remains submerged today
Since February 4, US jets have shot down four objects, including the Chinese spy balloon. Unlike the balloon, there were no images of the other three objects, which were flying at significantly lower altitudes and remain a mystery
Kirby said the US was able to recover some of the Chinese spy balloon’s payload
US forces recovered “part of the tissue” from the balloon off the coast of South Carolina. But much of the payload, estimated to be the size of three school buses, sank to the bottom of the Atlantic
Kirby also provided new information about the mission to recover the Chinese spy balloon – the only one of the four objects the US has described as such.
“In the case of the Chinese spy balloon, we were able to recover some debris and parts of the electronics and even part of the structure from the bottom of the Atlantic and that will tell us a lot too and we are learning from it now,’ he said.
But he noted that bad weather off the South Carolina coast today prevented further dives.
The weather conditions off the coast are pretty tough at the moment,” he said.
He noted that US forces were able to recover “some of the tissue” the day after the launch, and said on the day since “they were able to recover some, not all, of the payload that landed on the The Atlantic has sunk in 45 feet of water.’
Kirby explained that in the case of the recent objects shot down, the US has determined they could pose a risk to flights, with one at around 20,000 feet and two others at around 40,000 feet — the range at which commercial airliners fly.
“We assessed whether they posed a kinetic threat to people on the ground. They have not. We evaluated whether they were sending any communication signals. We haven’t found any. We’re looking to see if they maneuvered or had any propulsion capabilities. We haven’t seen any signs of this. We determined whether they were occupied or not. They were not.’
But he said officials assessed they could pose a threat to civilian aircraft because of their similar altitudes.
And while we have no specific reason to believe they were conducting any sort of surveillance, we couldn’t rule it out,” he said.
Therefore, on the recommendation of senior military leaders, Biden gave the order to shoot them down.
He said efforts are underway at all sites to locate the objects. But he said they were in “difficult terrain,” including ice and wilderness.
One was shot down over Canada’s Yukon. Another is deep beneath the fresh waters of Lake Huron on the Canadian side of the great lake. The second object shot down was identified as landing on ice in the Beaufort Sea.
The youngest object is in “probably very deep water”.
At its greatest depth, Huron is 750 feet deep. Kirby said the US Coast Guard and Canadian authorities were working together on the salvage.
He said the government is briefing Congress on what it knows and is not ruling out a briefing as early as Monday.
Kirby was also asked if the Biden administration had lowered the threshold for shooting down an object — which could explain the sudden increase.
“I think we just don’t know right now if threshold changes are needed,” he said, noting the possibility that more vehicles would be detected at high altitudes due to adjustments to US radar facilities.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin addressed the downing in Brussels, saying the US “acted out of an abundance of caution”.
“And I want to assure the Americans that these objects pose no military threat to anyone on the ground. However, they pose a risk to civil aviation and a potential threat to intelligence gathering,” he said.
Austin said the US has not recovered debris from any of the three recent launches.
“I want to clarify that the three properties demolished this weekend are very different from what we talked about last week. we knew exactly what that was – a PRC surveillance balloon,” he said.
Describing the difficult conditions at all three sites, he noted that in Alaska, “sea ice, wind chill, and safety concerns” “partially dictated recovery schedules.”