Alejandro Mayorkas, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, has said that federal authorities have “no knowledge of any foreign involvement” in the apparent mass drone sightings in the country’s northeastern region, although social and political concerns nonetheless remained over the weekend increase due to a lack of official information. information.
“I want to assure the American public that we are working on it,” Mayorkas said.
He called for a “broad and comprehensive” authority to shoot down drones, going beyond just drones over restricted military airspace. And New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Sunday that the federal government was prepared to deploy a high-tech drone detection system in response to the wave of sightings there, in New Jersey and Connecticut, where state and local officials are demanding more . assertive federal action — with one calling the drones a “very significant hazard.”
Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer later added his name to the request for drone detection technology. And Florida Congressman Mike Waltz, who has been chosen as the White House’s new national security adviser, said the drone issue highlights gaps in security between federal agencies and those of local law enforcement.
“Americans find it hard to believe that we can’t figure out where these came from,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation. “From the Department of Defense standpoint, they are focused on bombers and cruise missiles. It points to gaps in our capabilities and in our ability to suppress what is happening here.”
Meanwhile, reports that an Iranian drone ship is patrolling the US east coast have been dismissed as unfounded.
The US homeland security chief told ABC News that there are “thousands of drones flying in the United States every day, recreational drones, commercial drones.” He also pointed out that aviation regulators issued rules in September 2023 allowing drones to be flown at night, which has led to more such activity.
US authorities are keen to prevent vigilantes from responding to the drone invasion in New Jersey, fearing that innocent bystanders could be struck by falling debris or that legitimate commercial aviation could be mistaken for unexplained drones.
“We also want state and local authorities to have the ability to counter drone activity under federal supervision,” Mayorkas said.
Hoping to counter officials’ relative inability to quell public concern over the drone sightings, Mayorkas said some were drones and others were manned aircraft mistaken for drones.
“There’s no doubt that people are seeing drones,” Mayorkas noted. “And I want to assure the American public that we, in the federal government, have deployed additional resources, personnel and technology to assist … in addressing the drone sightings.”
On December 9, a Chinese national was arrested in California, allegedly for flying a drone over Vandenberg Air Force Base, used for space launches and missile testing. Other military bases have also reported drone flights.
“If we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly,” Mayorkas added.
Meanwhile, as Donald Trump prepares for his second presidency, he has demanded more official transparency about what he has called “mysterious drone sightings across the country.”
“Can this really happen without the knowledge of our government? I don’t think so,” Trump added. “Let the public know, now. Otherwise you’ll shoot them.’
On Sunday, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was asked whether there was an outbreak of mass hysteria among the state’s residents.
“To say this is not an unusual activity is just wrong,” Christie said. “I’ve lived in New Jersey all my life and this is the first time I’ve seen drones over my house.”
Christie said a lack of official information had allowed conspiracy theories to overwhelm authorities officials.
“If you don’t fill that vacuum, all the conspiracy theories will be filled in,” Christie added. “So you get Congressman Jeff Van Drew saying there’s an Iranian mothership off the coast, which is demonstrably not true.”
Joe Biden’s outgoing presidential administration and state authorities need to be louder and let people know what they are doing, he added.
Christie pointed to a new technology being used as a weapon in conflict zones and said it was understandable that people were concerned.
Hochul on Saturday joined a chorus of other elected U.S. officials pressing the White House for a federal response after the runways at Stewart International Airport were temporarily closed due to what was described as “drone activity in the airspace ‘.
Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, has also contacted Biden to express “growing concerns about reports of unmanned aircraft systems.” In Connecticut, another state with increased drone sightings since mid-November, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said the plane should be shot down “if necessary.”
But the lack of a coherent response from officials has prompted residents to launch their own search for answers.
The director of the Rebovich Institute at Rider University, Micah Rasmussen, told NJ.com that the Biden administration’s response was “a textbook example of exactly how disinformation happens and disinformation happens.
“If people don’t know what to believe, they won’t believe anything,” Rasmussen said, “and that’s a dangerous position for us.”
The federal response had accomplished the near impossible by bringing Republicans and Democrats in the state together on the issue, said Republican Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia of New Jersey.
“I don’t know who is handling the crisis communications from the White House, but it’s shameful,” Fantasia told the newspaper. “You know, we’re at the point now where I feel like I’m watching ’80s Star Search, and all they’re doing is auditioning spokespeople to say stupid things.”
Another New Jersey political figure, Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer, said hundreds of reports of drones flying over federally controlled airspace “leave a major information vacuum.”
Since November 13, when an unauthorized drone was spotted near Picatinny Arsenal, a US Army research facility in New Jersey, hundreds more sightings of unidentified flying objects have been reported.
Some are described as ‘SUV size’. Some reportedly flew in coordinated clusters. Homeland security agencies have consistently maintained that they do not pose a threat to national security or public safety.
But military officials have confirmed 11 sightings over the Picatinny base and several sightings over a Navy weapons station, fueling fears.
The reported sightings come after the Biden administration tried to downplay a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the US in early 2023 before it was ultimately shot down off the East Coast.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby has said that “it appears that many of the reported sightings are in fact manned aircraft being operated legally.”
But that hasn’t satisfied New Jerseyans, Rasmussen told NJ.com.
He said: ‘You only get so many chances to explain something before people say, ‘I’ve heard enough from you.’ I don’t believe what you have to say. I’m done listening to you now because it’s clear you’re going to insult my intelligence. ”
