Feds know what mystery drones are but are too scared to tell us, claims New Jersey senator
The government knows about the mysterious drones flying over the East Coast but is too afraid to tell us, a New Jersey senator has sensationally claimed.
Senator Jon Bramnick called for a state of emergency as he mocked what he said was a lack of government transparency over the unexplained drone sightings.
“Whatever these drones are doing, the government really doesn’t want us to know,” he said NewsNation on Saturday, urging the Defense Department to “come to terms with the American public” after a series of appearances since November.
“There must be something going on that they can’t tell us because they’re so afraid of what the public will do when they hear what the drones are doing,” the Republican senator claimed.
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby has insisted that the sightings do not pose a “threat to national security or public safety,” and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he is aware of “no foreign involvement’.
But the lack of explanation has drawn fierce criticism from some lawmakers as drones continue to appear around sensitive locations, and panic spread when a New Jersey mayor revealed his fire department had been told to wear hazmat suits in case the flying objects crashed .
Activity forced officials to close the airspace over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for about four hours Friday through Saturday while authorities monitored the situation, WHIO reported.
Since at least November 18, New Jersey officials and federal investigators have been plagued by reports of unexplained apparent planes, some as large as cars, conducting bizarre, unscheduled night flights over sensitive locations in the state.
Swarms of drones have been seen in New Jersey skies for weeks, prompting officials to call for a ‘limited state of emergency’
Alejandro Mayorkas’ Department of Homeland Security to deploy drone detection systems in New Jersey and New York after weeks of drone sightings across the region
Senator Jon Bramnick called for a state of emergency as he mocked what he said was a lack of government transparency about the recent sightings.
Bramnick accused the government of some sort of conspiracy to cover up the drone activity, saying: “What that must mean is that they are more concerned about gaining knowledge and being afraid of that information than they are about not having knowledge and having of all those questions.’
“There’s no way the Defense Department doesn’t know what’s going on,” he claimed.
For its part, the DoD released a statement on December 14 about the recent sightings.
A Joint Staff spokesman confirmed sightings had been made at the sensitive Picatinny Arsenal research facility, but downplayed their significance.
“We have had confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle,” the spokesperson said.
‘This is not a new problem for us. We have been experiencing drone incursions over our bases for some time now. It is something we routinely respond to when reporting is reported.”
The spokesperson assured that the bases have “resources” to detect and respond to drones, and that security on site has been trained to identify and deploy “tools” to prevent drones from flying over US bases without authorization.
“To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate they were associated with any foreign actor or that they had malicious intent,” the spokesperson said.
‘But… we don’t know. We have been unable to locate or identify the operators or points of origin.”
Drones have been sighted over New Jersey since November 18, but drones have also been reported in the northeastern US.
Monmouth County is home to the Naval Weapons Station Earle, a naval base. Experts have speculated that foreign powers could target areas like this, where intelligence and weapons bases are located. (Pictured: NJ landmarks where drones have been spotted overhead)
Officials in Monmouth County, where residents reported 63 sightings over the period, shared a heat map showing where the unmanned aircraft appears to be circulating
Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that a new Federal Aviation Administration rule may be to blame for the flood of drone sightings in New Jersey.
The outgoing DHS secretary eventually addressed the issue and confirmed that they could not physically shoot down the drones, but that technology to help detect them is on the way.
The response so far has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, who suggested the drones should be shot down.
‘Mysterious drone sightings across the country. Can this really happen without the knowledge of our government,” Trump wrote on Friday amid outrage over the ongoing mystery.
‘I don’t think so! Let the public know, now. Otherwise, shoot them!!!’ the former and future president wrote on his social media site Truth Social.
Asked if this was possible, Mayorkas told ABC News on Sunday that his office should be given more authority to take more action.
“In terms of the ability to disable these drones, we are limited in our authorities,” Mayorkas told This Week host George Stephanopoulos.
“We have certain agencies within the Department of Homeland Security that can do that, and outside of our department,” he added. ‘But we also need to expand those powers.’
He revealed that more than 8,000 drones are flown every day in the US, including civilian and government, for both work and leisure activities.
Both Mayorkas and New York Governor Kathy Hochul confirmed plans to deploy an advanced drone detection system, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who represents New York – made the request on Sunday.
Hochul wrote, “In response to my call for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a drone detection system to New York.”
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, another Republican congressman from Jersey Shore, has also called on the military to shoot down the SUV-sized drones.
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden said people should not take it into their own hands to shoot down drones, which would violate state and federal laws.
Drone sightings have also spread to New York, where a permit is required. Mayor Eric Adams said the city is investigating and cooperating with New Jersey and federal officials.
The apparitions have sparked a wave of conspiracy theories, from fairly tame suggestions of children messing around to suggestions of foreign spies and aliens.
New Jersey lawmaker Jeff Van Drew made the stunning claim this week that Iran could be behind the mysterious drones.
The Republican told Fox News that the Middle Eastern power had launched a “mothership” stationed off the coast of the Garden State.
However, the Pentagon immediately rejected this theory, saying there is no evidence the drones are the work of an adversary, and denying that an Iranian “mothership” lurks off the US coast.
Intelligence analysts have hypothesized that the Kremlin could have sent the drones to the east coast as part of a mission related to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com that suspicions had been raised because of the location of many sightings: Picatinny Arsenal, a major factory that produces ammunition supplied to Ukraine.
Lieutenant McMillan also noted that the descriptions of the flying objects “sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones”: secret craft that fly in groups of three to five.
New Jersey residents and local officials demand answers as reports of mysterious drones flying over the state rise into the thousands
The flying objects (example above) are larger than drones used by hobbyists, witnesses have noted, raising questions about their proximity to critical infrastructure and sensitive sites
Drones have also been spotted flying over a US air base in Britain, which is about to become home to US nuclear weapons.
Footage obtained by MailOnline is believed to show four drones flying boldly with bright lights in the early evening darkness over RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk.
The US Air Force admitted last month that drones had buzzed three of its British bases: RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and nearby RAF Feltwell, Norfolk.
The sightings, which reportedly began on November 20 and lasted several days, coincided with similar drone invasions in New Jersey.