Top Intel Democrat: ‘Real Concerns’ Over Biden’s Transparency About Dropped Objects In Alaska, Canada

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee expressed “concern” Sunday about the Biden administration’s lack of transparency about two unknown objects shot down over Alaska and Canada in the past two days.

It comes after US warplanes shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina last weekend.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told NBC News’ Meet The Press that he has not yet been briefed on the incidents, though he attended last week’s classified House update on the downed Beijing spy balloon.

Himes also received additional classified information about the globe as part of the powerful ‘Gang of Eight’.

‘You know, since then, of course, there’s been a shootdown over Alaska and a shootdown over the Yukon. Congress has been out of session and therefore we have not been directly briefed on that,” the congressman added.

“And by the way, I’m very concerned about why the administration isn’t being more forthcoming with everything they know.”

He admitted, however, that the last two pieces of debris had fallen “in very remote areas” of Alaska and Canada.

“So I guess there’s not a lot of information to share yet,” Himes said.

It is not yet clear if the three incidents are related.

There are still many unanswered questions about the objects shot down over Alaska and Canada, such as who sent them and for what purpose.

Himes warned Sunday that such unanswered questions could lead to dangerous public speculation.

“I see a pattern when I looked at social media this morning, you know, all of a sudden, massive speculation about… Chinese action or Russian action,” the Democratic congressman said.

‘In the absence of information, people’s anxiety drives them into potentially destructive areas. So I hope very soon the administration will have a lot more information for all of us about what’s going on.’

The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts into the ocean after being shot down off the coast of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, USA, on February 4, 2023. Hines received a classified briefing from the entire House on the incident. , as well as a separate report from Gang of Eight

But he said the Biden administration has yet to tell lawmakers about the most recent objects shot down over Alaska and Canada that he knows of.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he has ordered the North American Aerospace Defense Command operation that shot down another unknown object in the Yukon desert on Saturday.

The White House announced that an unknown object was shot down over Alaska on Friday.

A day later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had ordered Operation NORAD which shot down another object in the Yukon Territory desert.

On Sunday morning, a US report appeared to contradict details of Ottawa’s initial findings on the object.

A Defense official was cited by foxnews describing the object as a “small metallic balloon with a payload attached”.

Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said it was noted to be “cylindrical” on Saturday and “appears to be smaller than the one the US shot down” earlier this month off South Carolina.

While Republicans mostly praised President Joe Biden’s administration for moving quickly to shoot down the object over Alaska, Democrat Himes warned against changing the US security posture to uniformly shoot down all unknown aerial phenomena.

‘If that’s where we’re going to go, there’s going to be an accident, you know?’ he said.

“At some point, we’re going to shoot down something we don’t want to shoot down, whether it’s civil aviation or whatever.”

The China spy balloon that unnerved millions of Americans across the country earlier this month is part of a larger global surveillance scheme by the authoritarian government in Beijing, the Pentagon has claimed.