The Biden administration’s claim that the drones over New Jersey are primarily regular aircraft doesn’t sit well with the state’s residents or politicians. They say the explanation is demeaning, given what people have seen with their own eyes.
Rep. Christopher Smith, New Jersey Republican, was on the state’s coastline last week with local officials recounting drones tailing boats. He said the administration was using “doublespeak” to shut down valid questions about their concerns.
“The Biden administration continues to be dismissive of New Jersey residents who have witnessed these drones in swarms, including coming from the ocean, following a Coast Guard lifeboat, and flying over extremely sensitive military bases like Naval Weapons Station Earle in my congressional district,” Mr. Smith said.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, asked President Biden to get involved.
“New Jersey residents deserve more concrete information about these [unmanned aircraft system] sightings and what is causing them,” the governor wrote to the president.
Sightings have been reported for weeks and total in the thousands.
High-level officials said Tuesday that the sightings were “concerning.” By the end of the week, they insisted there was no cause for alarm and the reports were cases of “mistaken identity.”
“We are supporting local law enforcement in New Jersey with numerous detection methods but have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection,” the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby echoed those conclusions at the White House on Thursday.
That didn’t sit well with Sam Morris, the Republican mayor of Mine Hill in Morris County, New Jersey, who called the explanations “condescending” and “incredibly insulting.”
“It was very much like a Marie Antoinette press conference: ‘You serfs and lowlifes aren’t seeing what you’re seeing. We’re going to rewrite the narrative,’” Mr. Morris said in a phone interview with The Washington Times.
He said intrigued residents are using night-vision goggles or naked eyes to try to spot drones. Mr. Morris said he had seen the drones with his own eyes, including from his municipal complex in Mine Hill.
SEE ALSO: Feds say New Jersey drones are actually airplanes
He said residents wonder how drones could fly over nearby Picatinny Arsenal, a major Army research center.
“I’m to the point now of frustration with this. I want to see the [Federal Aviation Administration] boots on the ground looking into this,” Mr. Morris said. “To my knowledge, there have been no in-person efforts that way.”
Homeland Security and the FBI specifically denied evidence of foreign operations, “malicious” activity or reports of drones in restricted airspace.
That didn’t appease the state’s lawmakers.
Sen. Andy Kim, New Jersey Democrat, went out with police Thursday night and posted a video of his observations on social media.
He said they had a flight tracker app to rule out lights from airplanes, and some of the lights they saw were maneuvering in ways that couldn’t have been from planes.
One officer told him the lights started coming out daily after dusk and disappearing before dawn. When police tried to close in with a helicopter, the lights went dark.
“This has gone on for weeks,” Mr. Kim said. “It’s hard to understand how, with the technology we have, we aren’t able to track these devices to determine origin, and this makes me much more concerned about our capabilities more broadly when it comes to drone detection and countermeasures.”
Mr. Murphy has said some objects appear larger and more sophisticated than commercially available drones. Defense Department officials have said they are not responsible, and other government officials have said no federal agency is flying the drones.
Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey Republican, said last week that high-placed sources told him Iran was likely launching the drones from a “mother ship” off the coast.
According to the FBI/Homeland Security statement, the Coast Guard, part of the Department of Homeland Security, says that was false.
Mr. Smith told fellow members of Congress at a hearing Tuesday that he had met with a Coast Guard commander about the drones and the commander seemed as miffed as anyone else. The commander reported 12 to 30 drones trailing one boat.
Mr. Smith asked why the Coast Guard didn’t bring down one of the drones. The commander said no “rules of engagement” came from on high to justify an interdiction.
“The Biden administration has an obligation to the American people to figure out and tell us what is going on immediately,” Mr. Smith said Friday. “Their lack of decisive action and empty reassurances will only cause increased speculation and continue to escalate the valid concerns that so many people have.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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