99 Luftballoons
Balloon Retaliations Part Two
InternationalIndiaAfricaThe State Department said Thursday that the US is exploring “taking action” against China and the organizations that it claims are linked to what it called an “incursion” into American airspace by a large Chinese balloon.But the exact implications of that decision aren’t immediately clear. It’s likely if Washington possessed intelligence capabilities that could be used against Beijing, it’d be using them already.Since the appearance of WikiLeaks, a number of exposés have shown the US has long surveilled virtually the entire planet, spying on friends and foe alike for over half a century through a variety of underhanded schemes.But Washington has had relatively little luck in the East in recent years, where its sources have apparently been drying up. Roughly a decade ago, China reportedly executed dozens of secret American agents after identifying an amateurish CIA encryption mistake and rolling up a US spy network.
