Despite ongoing speculation of the origins and whereabouts of the slew of drones flying in the skies of New Jersey, officials continue to maintain the official stance that they pose no security threat to the U.S.
However, one high-ranking lawmaker believes he knows where these drones are coming from, and that the White House is hiding the truth from the American people.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Tex., said yesterday he believes that some of the unidentified drones spotted above New Jersey and New York are “spy drones” from China.
McCaul’s speculation comes after Biden administration officials insisted many of the sightings are just innocent commercial aircraft.
“We want answers but the response I’m getting is ‘We don’t know whose drones these are,’” McCaul told reporters.
“I was with the NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, he said that these drones have been reported over military sites, military bases. I would not think those are friendly. I would think those are adversarial,” McCaul said.
“We need to identify who is behind these drones,” he said. “My judgment based on my experience is that those that are over our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming from the People’s Republic of China.”
“I believe they’re spy drones and the PRC and Communist China is very good at this stuff. We know they bought land around military bases. This would be very consistent with their policy over the past couple years,” McCaul added.
“We’re not getting answers and I think it’s because our government does not know who is behind them and that is very disturbing to me.”
“They seem to think that most of them are American-based commercial,” he went on. “It’s the ones over the military bases that I can’t explain and they can’t either.”
The drone sightings have drawn significant public concern and speculation.
Unidentified aircraft have been reported this month above New Jersey’s Picatinny Arsenal and the state’s Naval Weapons Station Earle.
On Sunday they forced the temporary closure of Stewart International Airport in New York near Poughkeepsie.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said many of the drones are commercial or are actually fixed-wing aircraft.
However, the White House has said it doesn’t know what accounts for the apparent surge in sightings.
The FBI, FAA, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security also point out a joint statement Monday that there was little reason for concern.
“We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” the agencies said.
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday accused President Biden of hiding information from the American people, but stopped short of saying he believes the drones are from a foreign enemy.
“Look, our military knows where they took off from — if it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went, and for some reason they don’t want to comment,” Trump said.
“And I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”
“I can’t imagine it’s the enemy,” Trump added. “Because if it was the enemy, they’d blast it out — even if they were late, they’d blast it. Something strange is going on. For some reason they don’t want to tell the people, and they should.”