Q&A of the Day – Did the Biden Administration Use the Chinese Spy Balloon(s) as a Distraction?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: Submitted via talkback. Asking whether it’s true that a terrorist held in Guantanamo Bay was released during the peak of the Chinese Spy Balloon disclosure.
Bottom Line: Ahh yes, the classic what’s the other hand doing? While our weekend was filled with more flying objects being shot down out of the sky, four in total that we know of, along with a football game breaking out in the mist of concerts – which is what the Super Bowl essentially has become, there’s a lot to easily be distracted by. Which also makes it easy for the press, intentionally or otherwise, to omit what “the other hand is doing”, to the root of your point and question. By the way, before moving on, am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that Canada’s Prime Minister orders a flying object shot down and it’s the United States which does it? Has Trudeau so gutted his own military that US forces have become the defacto Canadian military as well and nobody bothered to tell us? And if so, will they at least be kind enough to supply us with a steady stream of Ice wine slushes for our troubles and taxpayer funded operations?
Here’s an actual AP headline from Saturday: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered US warplane to shoot down unidentified object over northern Canada. Is that the way this works now? That Canada’s Prime Minister now gets to direct our military operations? That’s obviously as much an illustration about the poor state of news reporting in this country as it is anything else, but I thought it only was an accretive example as to the challenges we face in having those tasked with reporting news doing a credible job of it. Which takes me back to the question you’ve posed. Was the occasion of the first Chinese spy balloon used as an opportunity for the Biden administration to release a terrorist from Gitmo?
I can’t speak to motive, however, you’re exactly correct that a terrorist who had been held at Guantanamo Bay was released in the type of release which hasn’t occurred since the Obama administration. And yes, it was right at the peak of the Chinese spy balloon news first hitting. I’ll walk you through the timeline of the Chinese spy balloon incident.
- The balloon was theoretically first detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command on January 28th. It was on that day that it also first violated US airspace, crossing over the Aleutian Islands off Alaska’s coastline.
- January 30th, while still over Canada an official US government report cited the balloon’s purpose is surveillance. Among the findings of the report, the balloon had a “collection pod” and was solar powered. In the report, it was noted the balloon matched a fleet of spy balloons the US first learned the Chinese had developed in 2021.
- January 31st, the balloon re-entered US airspace crossing over the Continental US for the first time near the Idaho/Montana border. The Defense Department made its first request to shoot the balloon down. Instead, President Biden opted for an approach which would limit activities which could be surveilled in its path.
- February 1st, the balloon crossed directly over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana which is one of three sites where the US maintains a supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles. An emergency meeting of the US military command was called at the Pentagon. All flights were grounded at Montana’s Billings Logan International Airport during this time.
- February 2nd, the Biden administration first publicly discloses their awareness of the Chinese spy balloon. Amid Congressional inquiries as to why the balloon hadn’t been shot down as US protocol calls for, Antony Blinken postponed a planned diplomatic trip to China.
- February 3rd, the Chinese Government acknowledges ownership of the balloon stating it’s a weather balloon which had veered off course and that had limited maneuverability.
- February 4th, after the balloon exited South Carolina’s coastline, it was shot down by an Airforce Sidewinder missile. The balloon debris, which was said to be the equivalent of three buses, was recovered by the US military.
So, it’s that window between February 2nd and the 4th in which we were first informed as to what was happening and that it was shot down that it dominated the news cycle. So, to the root of today’s Q&A. Interestingly, on February 2nd, the same day the Biden administration first publicly disclosed the Chinese spy balloon the Department of Defense published an announcement on their website stating:
- Department of Defense announced today the transfer of Majid Khan from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Belize.
So, who is Majid Khan? He is a Pakistani terrorist who moved to the US as a teenager before going back to Pakistan in 2002 and joining up with Al Qaeda post-9/11. In his role with Al Qaeda, he was a courier for the terror network, primarily focused on funding terror operations between factions of the network. In 2003, the CIA successfully detained him, relocating him to Gitmo. In 2012 he pled guilty to his role which included the funding of multiple terror actions in multiple countries carried out by the network. The DOD noted his release was based on having completed a reduced sentence for having pled guilty and theoretically having been cooperative with the US government since. His release to Belize was unconditional. Immediately upon his arrival in Belize he penned a letter which stated: My name is Majid Khan, and I am a real person. I am a human being. I am a Muslim man, and I first want to thank God for freeing me.
When I was captured and disappeared into the CIA black sites twenty years ago, I thought that my life was over. I was young, alone, and very scared. I was sure that I would never be free or see my family again. No one knew where I was, or what had happened to me, or even whether I was alive. I was a ghost, a walking dead man. The CIA wanted me to remain this way forever. In fact, when I was being tortured, I often wished for death to escape the terror and the pain. But I didn't die. God protected me. I survived. I am a survivor. I was meant to live.
Isn’t it fun that someone responsible for the death of countless lives painted himself as the victim. And you tell me, does that sound like someone who doesn’t have an axe to grind with the United States? So yes, that all happened during the peak of the Chinese spy balloon situation first breaking. Coincidence? I report, you decide. But, yes, at a minimum just one more way the Biden administration is making all of us less safe regardless as to if there was a case of wagging the dog happening here.