The White House is clearing things up. There is no “indication of extraterrestrial activity” after the series of flying machines shot down by the American army in recent days, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
“I know there have been questions and concerns about this but there is no indication of extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial activities with these recent killings,” the press secretary said, insisting that it was “important” to answer it from the podium of the White House.
General Glen VanHerck, head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), questioned on this subject on Sunday, said he had “ruled nothing out at this stage”, a sentence that immediately went viral.
The nature of the last three objects not yet established
The United States has shot down three unidentified flying objects over its territory and Canada in recent days. And this, after having already shot down on February 4 a Chinese balloon suspected of espionage activities. These objects were shot Friday over Alaska (northwest), Saturday over the Yukon in northwestern Canada, and Sunday over Lake Huron in the northern United States.
During the same press briefing on Monday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby offered few details on the origin of these unidentified objects or on the possibility that they were equipped with information gathering.
“China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence gathering,” he said, adding that the White House had yet to determine if the last three objects were part of it.
Debris not yet recovered
“We are not sure whether or not they were equipped with a surveillance capacity, but we cannot exclude it,” he said, pointing out also that the debris had not yet been recovered, on the American side at least. He repeated that orders had been given by President Joe Biden to shoot them down because they potentially endangered civilian air traffic even though they did not pose a “military threat”.
“One of the reasons why we see more of them is that we are looking for them more,” explained the manager, pointing out that the radar capacities had been adapted in this direction, which could explain the recent detections.