A US senator has called for secret drones seen flying over sensitive areas in New Jersey and other parts of the mid-Atlantic region to be “shot down, if necessary,” even though it is not clear who do they belong to?
“We should be doing a very urgent intelligence analysis and getting them out of the sky, especially if they're flying over airports or military bases,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday and concerns about the drones spreading over Capitol Hill.
People in the New York area are also concerned that the drones could be sharing airspace with commercial airlines, he said, asking for more clarity from the Biden administration.
The White House said there was no evidence of national security or public safety. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said no reports were seen in restricted airspace. He said the US Coast Guard has not detected any foreign involvement from coastal vessels.
“Using highly sophisticated electronic tracking technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to — and have not had state or local law enforcement authorities — confirm any of the reported sightings,” Kirby said. on the other hand, after reviewing the available images, it appears that many of the reported sightings are of legally manned aircraft.”
Iranian 'mother-of-life' claims crushed
The FBI has been investigating and has asked residents to share videos, photos or other information about the drones. On Wednesday, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said they were not US military drones.
Singh rejected claims by a US lawmaker that Iran could be launching drones over New Jersey from “the mother of life”.
“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States and no so-called 'motherhood' of drones launching into the United States,” she said.
Jeff Van Drew, a member of the House who switched to the Republican Party from the Democrats in 2020, said he had discovered what appeared to be an Iranian plot.
“What we have discovered is alarming – drones flying in from the direction of the ocean, possibly linked to a missing Iranian mother,” he said on the X social media platform.
Van Drew did not provide further confirmation of what he was saying in an interview with Fox News on Thursday when he criticized the Pentagon.
“We're not being told the truth,” Van Drew responded Thursday on Fox News. “They're treating the American public like we're stupid.”
The number of sightings has increased in recent days, although officials say many of the objects seen may have been planes rather than drones. One drone appears to have been reported more than once, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in a regular appearance on local radio on Wednesday nights.
Murphy said that only federal authorities have the authority to fire any craft, and suggested that Van Drew was being reckless with these comments.
“I'm not sure what he's been watching lately, but he might want to watch the news,” Murphy said. “Israel has destroyed Iran, and through economic sanctions, I don't think they have any ships off the coast of Iran right now. Let us not be afraid of this.”
Lawmakers were outraged
The concern stems in part from the flying objects that were first spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a US weapons research and manufacturing facility, and over president Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster.
In a post on social media platform X, state legislator Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to six feet (1.8 meters) in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights turned off.
Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use but are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said he was frustrated by the lack of transparency.
“We should know what's going over our skies,” Booker said Thursday.
“It allows a lot of misinformation to spread or at least fear,” he said.
Fantasia, a Morris County Republican, was among several lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the sightings from the New York City area across New Jersey and west into parts of Pennsylvania, giving her -in over Philadelphia.
Jersey Shore Republican Congressman Chris Smith said a US Coast Guard commanding officer informed him of an incident over the weekend in which a dozen drones followed a Coast Guard motor lifeboat “in close pursuit” near Barnegat Light and Island Beach State Park in Ocean. County.
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