it is sunday, february the 5th. i am ali velshi. we begin today with a big balloon! a major metaphor and a geopolitical turning point in the wrong direction. yesterday, at 2:39 pm eastern standard time the united states military f 32 aircraft flying at 15,000 feet used a single air to air missile to shoot down what the united states says was a chinese around balloon. roughly six nautical miles off the coast of south carolina, while within u.s. territorial airspace. the blue crafted to the atlantic ocean creating a debris field at least seven mile spread out in monthly shallow water. the recovery is ongoing. that includes navy divers, the coast guard, another manned and unmanned savage vehicles. fbi counter intelligence agency are also on board the vehicles. officials say there is plenty to learn from the debris. they add they have also been studying the balloon since it first entered u.s. airspace in the lucian islands of alaska on january the 28. the balloons, which had mane
civil war before coming in the fashion in world war i. look at the names of the planes that were used in the mission that down the balloon. frank 01 and frank co2. named after frank luka junior who was a war were to hero known for destroying more than a dozen german observation looped balloons. it is poetic. china has admitted that the balloon is there but says it was, quote, a civilian airship used for meteorology purposes. a weather balloon. which had, quote, deviated far from its plane course from strong winds. which was a little hard to believe where montana where the balloon was covering for a day is more than 6000 miles from mainland china. also home to one of america s three nuclear missile silo feels. which operates maintained intercontinental ballistic michelin. indeed, a senior official says the blood was monitoring multiple sensitive military sites. carrying surveillance equipments including a collection pardon had special thermal panels. more damning, the u.s. has concerned