Robert Baer on Balloon Wreckage: ‘It Is a Potential Gold Mine’

EXCERPT:

BAER: “Even though it hit the water pretty hard, you’ll be able to come up with, for instance, if there were encryption devices, you’d be able to reassemble these from the debris in the ocean. If there were cameras, you’ll be able to tell what the resolution was like. You’ll even be able to tell if American technology was involved in the surveillance equipment. It’s a potential gold mine, you know, getting this stuff. You can’t get it in China. But piecing this back together, the Navy, FBI, National Security Agency, everybody will be looking at this, piecing the parts back together, and you’ll get a good idea just how sophisticated this balloon was. And at this point I think there is no doubt that it had a military design and military intentions. I think the Pentagon is quite sure about that. I’m also quite sure it was communicating back to Beijing with encryption.”