NJ drone sightings frustrate officials
By: Charles Stile
Political Stile
USA Today Network
..... In addition to spooking people who spotted them buzzing and blinking through the New Jersey night sky over the past month, [11/2024] supported sightings of mysterious unmanned drones have made the state's political leaders edgy.
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They find themselves in the last place they want to be: unable to provide a reassuring answer to a perplexed public. And in the absence of facts, theories of foreign adversaries surveying the Jersey landscape fill the void.
..... Frustration are on the rise.
..... "I'm legitimately made, because I came out of there and all they kept saying was, 'we don't know anything. We font's know anything, but it's not a credible threats," said Assemblyman Brian Bergen, R-Morris, after a Wednesday [12/11/2024] morning briefing for legislators with New Jersey State Police and homeland security officials near Trenton.
..... He was confident that the security brain trust in Trenton would have a reasonable explanation to share. Maybe it was amazon testing out a new delivery system, he thought.
..... "It turns out that they didn't have an (expletive deleted) clue," said Bergen, a former U.S. Army officer who flew Apache helicopters. For his part,Bergen offered to borrow an Apache from the Pennsylvania National Guard and hunt them down if need be. (Federal law prohibits shooting down drones, as another lawmaker noted.)
...... In a more measured tone, Senator Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, channeled the same frustration.
..... "I recognize the need to maintain operational security of ongoing investigations and that this situation requires complex inter agency coordination," Booker wrote in a letter to several law enforcement and security agencies investigating the drones. "However, there is a growing sense of uncertainty and urgency across the state - from constituents and local officials alike - despite assurances that the drones pose no known threats to public safety."
..... Others reached across the globe for culprits.
..... U.S. Representative Chris Smith, R- Monmouth, reported to a Congressional committee earlier this week [12/10/2024] that he was told by a U.S. Coast Guard Commander that 12 to 30 drones were spotted following a 47-foot vessel on Sunday [12/08/2024] night. He also said an Ocean County sheriff's officer also spotted a swarm of them coming off the ocean heading landward at Island beach State Park over the weekend. [12/07-08/2024]
..... "Maybe it;s China," smith told the committee. "Xi Jinping is a monster. look at what Putin is doing. they're all capable of doing horrible things to our people."
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And then there is U.S. Representative Jeff Drew R-Cape May, citing unnamed "responsible" sources that the real culprit could very well be an "Iranian government to undermine the national security of the United States of America.
..... In an appearance on Fox and in a letter to President Biden, Van Drew laid out a circumstantial case that it is an Iranian operation. He noted the Coast Guard spotting the drones at sea. He also cited a report of a mother-ship" missing form port and that its departure timeline "aligns" with the sudden appearance of the New Jersey drones, which began being spotted on November18. [2024]
..... Van Drew added that "It is the policy of the Iranian government to bring about the destruction of the United States of America. while I remain open to alternate explanations, i have not been presented a single creditable, cohesive narrative except for that Iran is controlling these drones from offshore."
..... But the Pentagon refuted the speculation. "At this time, we have no evidence that these activities are coming form a foreign entity or the work of an adversary,' said Secretary Sabrina Singh on Wednesday. [12/11/2024]
..... Still, the official assurances have been less than reassuring, simply because of a lack of evidence despite the investigation of the FBI, the State Police and the Department of Homeland Security. Officials on every level follow the same script - we have no reason to believe that the drones are a threat to the public, but we just can't say for sure where they are coming form or why, and what's their purpose.
..... Take for example, Robert W wheeler Jr., assistant director of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group, testifying before a House committee earlier this week. [12/10/2024] He was asked if public safety is at risk.
..... Wheeler responded, "There is nothing that is known that would lead me to say that, but we just don't know, and that's the concerning part."
..... Governor Phil Murphy told reporters on Monday [12/09/2024] that 49 reports of sightings had been made over the weekend, [12/07-08/2024] although some reports are people spotting the same craft. Since their arrival, the drones have been spotted as far north as Staten island but mostly over Hunterdon and Morris counties with sightings in Bergen, Sussex and Somerset County, where the Trump Golf Course is located. That has prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to further restrict airspace of the club.
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Sightings have been reported over the Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and the Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon, the state's largest.
..... "This is something we're taking deadly seriously. I don't blame people for being frustrated,' Murphy said.
..... Other lawmakers who attended Wednesday's [12/11/2024] briefing also expressed disappointment in the lack of any informaiton about who is behind the nighttime invasion. Assembly members Roy Freiman, D-Somerset and Mitchellle Drulis, D-Hunterdon, said they were heartened to hear at the briefing that the state police will soon be receiving new drone-specific radar from the federal government to help with detection. That's something.
..... But Bergen was annoyed to also learn that a State Police helicopter recently hovered over a drone during a recent flight but was ordered to land out of concern for the pilot's safety.
..... "Are you telling me the Homeland Security, state police, National guard - nobody has the capability to follow a six foot drone" and later "find out where it lands? Not a chance."