Ringing IVY BELLS

(Ringing IVY BELLS)

Operation IVY BELLS was a top secret joint intelligence operation carried out by the CIA and the U.S. Navy. In essence, a modified nuclear submarine placed a "tap" on Soviet cables running under the Sea of Okhotsk that ran the strategic communications of the Soviet Far East fleets. The tap would monitor all traffic through those cables and, once a month, the submarine would return and retrieve the device and install a fresh one. The intelligence collected from IVY BELLS was significant but it was ultimately compromised by a dis-grunted NSA employee. The tap was recovered with great fanfare, the Soviets relishing the opportunity to embarrass the U.S. and Soviet nemesis, President Ronald Reagan. As of 1999, the IVY BELLS tap remains on display at a Moscow museum.


Are there plans to display that Chinese balloon anywhere ? Probably just the opposite. One would think that the Biden Administration would be curious enough to examine the craft and. speak of technology transfer, conduct a forensic examination of the interior, identify exactly what that balloon sent back to the Peoples' Republic, the most serious adversary this country currently faces.


In 2001, speaking of China and in the early days of the George W. Bush Administration, a P-3 Orion clipped a Chinese jet and made an emergency landing on Chinese soil. The crew's release was eventually negotiated but the Orion was secured and examined. The balloon remnants are being sent to Quantico and its FBI Lab. After whatever analysis is conducted on the gadget, will be presented to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, like the IVY BELLS tap in Moscow ?


This Chinese Spy Balloon incident is a public relations coup. Not for the Americans but for the Chinese. Their surveillance platform was able to make its way across the country only to be engaged off South Carolina. The President seems to claim he wanted the vehicle brought down last Wednesday but that would be wisdom after the fact in this case.


How much American sovereignty is Biden willing to surrender ? No border and now no secured airspace ? It has been no rare comment that Biden considers himself less an American President and more of a Citizen of the World and things like national borders or national airspace have to be secondary concerns.

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