Edward Snowden Questions: Did The White House Use $400,000 Missiles To Shoot Down $12 Balloons?

Edward Snowden asked on Twitter whether the White House spent a month scrambling jets to fire $400,000 missiles at the local hobby club’s twelve-dollar balloon.

What Happened: The former U.S. intelligence contractor said in a post on Thursday, “lord have mercy” and shared an article from aviation week with the headline “Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF.” 

please tell me the white house did not spend the month of february scrambling jets to fire $400,000 missiles at the local hobby club's TWELVE DOLLAR BALLOON

lord have mercyhttps://t.co/4D7DaTncvT

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 16, 2023

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade is missing a “globe-trotting” balloon, according to the article.

The club’s silver-coated “pico balloon” reported its last position on February 10 at 38,910 feet over the west coast of Alaska and a forecasting tool projected the inflatable would be flying over central Yukon Territory on Feb. 11, according to the report.

Why It Matters: Feb. 11 is the same day when a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object bearing a similar description and altitude in the same area, reported Aviation Week.

Some Pico Ballooning enthusiasts reportedly suspect all three unidentified objects shot down between February 10-12 match shapes, altitudes, and payloads of such inflatables, which usually cost between $12-$180.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden addressed the shot down aerial objects and said the current take was that these weren’t “nefarious” and likely came from private companies or institutions.

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