there, be careful with that
stuff if it watches ashore.
Local officials want to make
sure they get that word out.
Thank you very much.
>>> Let's bring in Leon Panetta,
former CIA director under
president Obama.
Just about everything here in
Washington.
He's always great when he comes
on with us.
Leon, thanks so much for being
with us.
We appreciate it.
Let me ask you this,
congressional source tells thus
there will be a briefing for the
so-called gang of eight
lawmakers and the key
intelligence committee members
as you know.
The Navy is in the process of
recovering the spy balloon
surveillance equipment, what do
you think they're going to find?
Do you think they'll find much
that is useful?
>> Well, that's a very important
briefing that ought to be
provided to our congressional
leaders.
Particularly if it's confirmed
that this balloon had the
capability to pick up sensitive
information and was an
intention-gathering mission, was
on an intelligence-gathering
mission.
And secondly, whether it was
maneuverable.
If it is a spy balloon, if it's
maneuverable, then clearly
invading U.S. Air space was of
concern and I think the
president made the right
decision to shoot it down.
So there's an awful lot of
information we need to know in
order to confirm or worst
suspicions.
>> And you've been in the
position of defense secretary,
CIA director, white house chief
of staff.
Would you have advised the
president to shoot down the
balloon immediately, as soon as
it was becoming noticeable over
the skies in Montana or do you
think it made some sense from an
intelligence-gathering
standpoint to let it drift for
awhile and let it get out over
the ocean where it can be
brought down without any really
potential for danger below?
>> Well, you know, there are
going to be lessons from all of
this with regards to this kind
of spy balloon if, it is, in
fact, a spy balloon.
If it was that, and if we were
aware of the balloon, I think we
should have taken steps to
prevent it from entering our air
space and I'm not sure that we
should have allowed it to simply
crossover the country, crossover
what were obviously sensitive
military sites.
I don't see the logic of that.
So the question obviously is --
the Pentagon said there were
risks here.
I understand that argument.
There were debris risks.
At the same time I think we
should have acted earlier if our
suspicions were valid that this
was, in fact, on an intelligence
mission.
I hope in the future we make
clear to the -- to China that
this kind of incident cannot
happen again.
And it will not happen again.
In the future, if we see that
kind of balloon, we are going
to -- if they don't take action
to prevent that balloon from
entering our air space, that we
will indeed shoot it down much
earlier than we did this time
around.
>> And I think if I have you
straight, you're saying that you
think this should have been shot
down perhaps over Montana,
something like that, maybe over
a sparsely populated area before
it crossed over the entire --
almost the entire continental
U.S.?
>> Yeah, that bothered me that
it was allowed to transverse the
entire country.
And for that reason, I think it
probably would have been well
for the president to have been
transparent with the country
about what was happening here.
When they initially found that
the balloon was there, when they
considered it to be an
intelligence-gathering balloon,
and frankly, when the president
made the decision to shoot it
down.
If he made the decision on
Wednesday to shoot it down, I
think that should have been made
public.
It would have prevented some of
the criticism that occurred
later and the American people I
think are entitled to know just
exactly what our adversaries are
up to.
So I think greater transparency
would have helped the white
house as well.
>> Our reporting indicate that
is the Pentagon waited a bit to
inform the president of this.
Would that have rankled you a
bit if you had been the white
house chief of staff in the
middle of all of this?
>> You bet.
>> I suspect so.
>> I think when the defense
department, when the Pentagon
sees a suspicious large balloon
that is about to enter our air
space and impact on your
sovereignty, I think they have
an obligation to let the
president of the United States
know that immediately so that he
can then decide what steps are
going to be taken in order to
protect the company.
>> As we can see in the map, and
I can describe it to you, the
Chinese balloon was spotted near
a number of U.S. Military bases
from Montana, through the middle
of the country, all the way over
to the Carolinas.
I know you probably know exactly
where all those bases are.
And U.S. Officials said they
were taking steps to protect
against foreign intelligence
collection.
Do you think the Pentagon could
have used electronic
interference or other measures
to prevent the balloon from
acquiring important information?
That is what the Pentagon was
indicating yesterday, that they
were able to mitigate this
somewhat.
>> Well, I think it's very
important to do the analysis on
the technology that was aboard
that balloon.
We're making a lot of
guesstimates at this point.
It seems to me, we do need to
retrieve as much of that as we
can in order to determine just
how sensitive the technology
was.
If it was in fact the kind of
technology that could gather
intelligence or pick up signals
of one kind or another and
really obtain very sensitive
information, then that raises a
lot more concerns about allowing
it to do that and just exactly
what China will do with that
information.
If, in fact, it was a weather
balloon, then, I think,
obviously, the world needs to
know that as well.
So a lot is going to depend on
what our intelligence officials
and the FBI that look at that --
at all of that equipment, what
determination they make as to
what in fact was involved with
this balloon.
That's important for the united
States.
It's important for China and,
frankly, it's important for the
American people to know the
truth.
Very quickly, the Chinese
response after it was shot down
was pretty pointed and they seem
to be objecting.
Shouldn't the white house be
telling the Chinese essentially
to shove it?
>> You know, we know the what,
but we really don't know the why
here, Jim.
Why would China do something
like this?
They obviously knew that the
balloon would be detected.
They knew that the United States
would respond.
They knew that what happened was
likely to happen.
So why did they do it?
What's the message they were
trying to send?
I have a feeling that they were
probably trying to send a
message that relates to our
reconnaissance over China.
We do reconnaissance over China,
operating from international air
space.
They've never liked it.
They've always threatened our
planes as a result of that.
I really think they were trying
to send a larger message about
what we do to gather information
on China.