WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has assessed that three unidentified objects downed since last Friday were likely for commercial use and not foreign intelligence-gathering.
“Given what we’ve been able to ascertain thus far, the intelligence community’s considering, again, as a leading explanation, that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.
Early indications have shown nothing that points to a Chinese government surveillance program, Kirby said. Authorities also feel comfortable ruling out that the objects belonged to the U.S. government, he said.
