Remember the Chinese spy balloon over Montana? We’ve had hints that it was only the tip of the iceberg and we know that the Biden administration attempted to cover it up until a viral civilian’s photo made it a national issue. But now there’s confirmation that the Biden administration was aware of multiple spy balloons.

Former Rear Admiral Michael Studeman had headed up the Office of Navan Intelligence. In an op-ed at the Financial Times, he reveals that “when I was director of intelligence for the Indo-Pacific Command, for example, I watched as numerous requests to publicise Chinese malign activities were disapproved by Washington, including a recommendation to publicise Beijing’s use of high-altitude surveillance balloons over the sovereign airspaces of the US, our allies and Asian partners. This was many months before the shooting down of a Chinese balloon flying over the US last year.”

Now this is important because the Biden administration claimed that it was not aware of previous spy balloons.

According to U.S. officials, Chinese balloons crossed over the U.S. at least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time earlier in the Biden administration.

However, the U.S. was not aware of the Chinese incursions at the time, according to Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of NORAD and the officer responsible for domestic air threats.

He told a news conference that the military only learned of the intrusions after they were pieced together by the intelligence community after they happened.