On Thursday, at a White House press briefing, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby assured us that all is well, and that the suspected drones flying around over New Jersey were nothing to worry about.
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🚨 John Kirby: Our investigation was unable to corroborate ANY OF THE REPORTS about the mysterious drone sightings.
“Many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.”
“There is no evidence of foreign based involvement…” pic.twitter.com/e1kua6MLS2
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 12, 2024
Kirby said in part:
We have not been able to, and neither have state and local law enforcement authorities, corroborate any of the visual sightings. To the contrary, on review of available imagery it appears that many of the reported sightings are of manned aircraft, that are being operated lawfully. The United States Coast Guard has been providing support to the state of New Jersey and has confirmed that there is no evidence of any foreign-based involvement from foreign vessels. And importantly, there are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted airspace.
Fox News reports that Kirby also spoke about the methods used to evaluate the reports of drones.
Lawful Drones? pic.twitter.com/s8Tr2zDG4j
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) December 12, 2024
Kirby states that while there is no evidence of any threat, he admits that this issue has made the government aware of a “gap” in security.
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While there is no known malicious activity occurring, the reported sightings there do however highlight a gap in authorities. And so we urge Congress to pass important legislation that that will expand and extend existing counter-drone authorities so that we are better prepared to identify and mitigate any potential threats to airports or other critical infrastructure, and so that state and local authorities are provided all the tools they need to respond to such threats as well.
Because more federal legislation always fixes things right up.
Bear in mind that absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, and even if there was detected or suspected foreign involvement in these apparent drone overflights, the White House (or whoever is pulling the strings there, at any rate) might decide not to release all the information. That may actually even be justified from a national security standpoint.
Then again, this is the administration that allowed a Chinese spy balloon to overfly the entire continental United States before shooting it down off the East Coast.
Previously on RedState: WATCH: NJ Rep Is All of Us With Epic Response to DHS Meeting on Mysterious Drones
WATCH: Is an Iranian Mothership Launching the Mysterious, New Jersey Drone Swarm? (Updated)
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Some local New Jersey officials aren’t so easily persuaded.
Middletown Mayor Tony Perry needs answers.
The constituents of his New Jersey township want to know what is going on with the strange lights that have been hovering in the night sky for weeks.
“I’m not sure how I can go back to my residents and say that I’m satisfied from this meeting, when now I know that I have 180 drones that have been flying over the state of New Jersey,” Perry said following a briefing Wednesday with a representative from the Department of Homeland Security. “We have no more information as to where these drones are coming from, where they’re launching from, where they’re landing.”
It’s important to note that small commercial “manned” aircraft, such as John Kirby described, generally aren’t capable of hovering.
This seems appropriate.
As before, this is a developing story. We will continue to bring you updates as events warrant.
