Biden planning address on Chinese balloon downing before Poland trip

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Feb 2023 21:36

US President Joe Biden is set to make a public address regarding the issue of the Chinese balloon before he makes it to Poland on February 20.

President Joe Biden speaks at the National Association of Counties 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, Tuesday, February 14, 2023 (AP Photo)

US President Joe Biden is planning to make a public address about the United States downing a Chinese balloon over its airspace recently, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter who said the leader was planning on making the public address before his visit to Poland.

Biden is set to visit Poland on Monday with plans to commemorate the first anniversary of the Ukraine war.

Poland's Polish Gazeta Prawna newspaper reported in early February that Biden was considering meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Poland.

The Ukrainian leader is scheduled to deliver a 10-point peace formula and ask for an international summit on the Ukrainian crisis during the meeting.

The paper also noted that two cities, Rzeszow and Warsaw, were being considered for the meeting. His previous visit to Poland as the head of state took place in March 2022.

If Biden does speak, that would be his first official remarks on the downing of the balloon, the report read. Furthermore, Bloomberg said the US head of state is going to reassure Americans that there are no reasons for concern over the downed objects.

One source said the plans in question were fluid and could change at any given moment.

The White House answered several questions on Monday pertaining to the recent shooting down of three unidentified aerial objects over the past week.

White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre made it clear that there was no connection whatsoever to extraterrestrial activity with the last three aerial objects.

But the nature of the last three aerial objects remains unknown.

However, the White House said Tuesday that the US intelligence community is considering the possibility that "three mysterious unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets were tied to a commercial or otherwise benign purpose."

White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby, told journalists that "there was no indication that the trio of objects were tied to China's spy balloon program."

Meanwhile, Rising Tide Foundation Vice President Matthew Ehret stated that he doubts that the new policy was ignited by any actual threat.

"It is a psy-op to deflect the minds of thinking people away from the real issues [such as] the systemic meltdown shaping their dismal future and setting the stage for a new set of 'great narratives,’" Ehret added.

Ehret stressed that US and Western intelligence worked hard to fuel the flames of public frenzy on this, including Pentagon efforts to declassify UFO information.

Meanwhile, former CIA analyst Philip Giraldi acknowledged that President Joe Biden and his advisors aim at exploiting the incidents to boost dwindling domestic political support.

Political commentator Alex Krainer, founder of Krainer Analytics, shed the light on how the high-profile coverage came at the fleet of Hersh's report.

He also argued that train derailments in Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas are among scandals the US probably wants to downplay.

This comes after the US Defense Department confirmed on Friday that a "high-altitude object" was shot down over Alaska after assessing that it could pose a "threat to civilian aircraft."

The unidentified object was first seen on Thursday night, and US President Joe Biden ordered the shooting down early Friday.