The Wire - Priority - February 23, 2024

this is the wire for 2300 Zulu February 23rd 2024 preceden is priority information cut off is 2200 bottom line up front unidentified high altitude balloon spotted over the western United States on the home front in the United States this afternoon CBS News leaked a report indicating that the US military was tracking an unidentified high altitude balloon over the western United States according to CBS Pentagon officials St that the origin and intentions of the balloon were unknown but that the object was quote not a threat analyst comment it is unclear as to how an unknown object can be confirmed to not be a threat directly quoting the initial CBS report quote one official said the balloon was over Colorado earlier in the day and was expected to be over Georgia by Friday night the officials said the balloon appeared to be made of myar and had a small cube Shaped Box about 2 ft long on each side hanging below it independent analysis conducted is as follows no no Tams were issued to indicate the position of the craft a total of three ham radio balloons were aoft over the western United States at the time of initial reports but all three were transmitting their positions openly as required by the FAA independent analysis of raw weather radar returns yielded no reliable results and weather modeling indicated an Eastern track was most likely with prevailing winds carrying the craft Over Georgia within a few hours analyst comments for this wire though the fog of war is challenging to work within at the moment in the interest of expedient and weigh against the potential to be alarmist it would be prudent to assume that this event is somehow linked to the mass cyber events that occurred yesterday though this is purely speculative and bases heavy analysis on very few details if this balloon is Chinese in origin previous balloon incidents strongly indicate that the balloon has been in US airspace for hours at least since the Cyber events yesterday without question if this is indeed a Chinese balloon that takes many days to Transit the United States this would mean that the federal regime knew about this balloon which was likely already over us soil during the Cyber events yesterday if the description of the balloon provided to CBS is accurate this device while much smaller than previous balloons is far too large to comprise of any legitimate civilian technology the payload consisting of a 2ft cube shaped object is significantly larger than any normal civilian payload for research purposes additionally as all civilian high altitude balloons are required by the FAA to transmit identification data on pred determined frequencies the deao admission that this has not been done strongly indicates a more nefarious use in line with previous spy balloon sightings granting even more weight to the potential nefariousness of this craft is that in the CBS report the balloon is reportedly traveling at an altitude of over 40,000 ft at this altitude any hobby or research devices will need a plethora of special permissions in order to deconflict air space and not present hazards to aviation weather balloons routinely fly higher but are much smaller and also openly transmit their position though it is impossible to know for certain and it is easy to over assess the potential threats the most dangerous potential course of action would be for this to be the initial stages of more complex activity historically airspace violations are quite serious events with dire diplomatic implications however again if confirmed to be foreign this is more likely to be a probing action possibly coupled with cyber events intended to both collect intelligence and test responses in any case the chances of these multiple events occurring nearly simultaneously are very remote likewise as distasteful as it may be to admit the US Department of Defense actively seeking to conceal Homeland Security threats from the general public is extremely likely in this exact scenario as it has happened before as such careful examination of the facts what few we have will have to rely largely on analysis which In the Heat of the Moment is likely subject to much error consequently more details will follow as the situation progresses this concludes the for 2300 Zulu February 23rd 2024