Congressman Jeff Van Drew doubts the federal government's statements about the drones. (YouTube image)
South Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew criticized a senior White House official Wednesday for his “dismissive” statements about the flurry of mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey since November.
Van Drew said White House national security spokesman John Kirby has been ignoring the concerns of the American public while claiming that the drones represent nothing to be alarmed about, despite thousands of reported sightings in New Jersey and other states.
“People are reporting drones, some the size of SUVs, and instead of addressing those legitimate concerns, the administration is brushing them off and treating Americans like they are delusional. It is unacceptable,” Van Drew said in a statement.
Van Drew slammed Kirby for standing before the American people “red-faced and sputtering excuses.”
“(To) claim there is nothing out of the ordinary going on here after weeks of mounting concern is either sheer incompetence, willful ignorance, or a cover-up," said Van Drew, a Republican who represents the 2nd Congressional District, including Atlantic and Cape May counties.
In his most recent comments on the controversy, Kirby made the rounds on national media Monday to offer assurances that the drones are flying legally and do not appear to be a threat to the public.
“We don‘t propose to see any national security or public safety risk by these drones and these aircraft that are flying,” he said during an interview with CNN.
Kiby noted that there are “millions of drones that fly over the skies of the United States routinely” and are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration.
“And a lot of them do really good work for public safety and for the public good, such as law enforcement drones, commercial drones. To date, [there is] no sense and no indication that there‘s a national security or public safety risk posed by any of this activity,” he said.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby discusses the drone sightings in New Jersey during a press briefing. (Courtesy of Yahoo)Kirby’s comments were supported by a joint statement from the FBI, FAA, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, 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 statement said.
The statement went on to say that federal agencies “do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”
However, speculation about the source of the drones continues to swirl in public and government circles. Van Drew originally maintained that the drones were flying off an Iranian ship anchored off the East Coast. He later backed away from those claims when satellite imagery showed that three of Iran’s drone ships were in their home port.
Raising alarms in New Jersey, there have been drone sightings over sensitive military and energy installations, including the Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, the Naval Weapons Station in Monmouth County and the PSEG nuclear power plant in Salem County. There were also reports of drones tailing a U.S. Coast Guard ship off Ocean County.
“I have local law enforcement coming to me with serious concerns, yet the administration claims these sightings cannot be corroborated. At the same time, the PSEG nuclear power plant is requesting restricted airspace because of drone activity, something they have never done before, and still we are told everything is fine,” Van Drew said in a swipe at Kirby and the White House.
Gov. Phil Murphy, who has expressed his own concerns about the drone sightings, said that federal authorities sent three drone detection systems to New Jersey last week to help solve the mystery.
Van Drew maintained that the federal government will hold hearings and form task forces to analyze the drones, “but nothing will come of it” as part of a “bureaucratic runaround” in hopes that the public will forget and move on. He vowed that he will keep pushing to get answers for the public.
“If these drones are a part of a government operation, we do not need to know every classified detail, but we do deserve some level of transparency,” Van Drew said. “We have seen this happen before. They downplayed the Chinese spy balloon, assuring us it was not a threat, and then let it drift over our country for weeks collecting intelligence. To now dismiss these drones as routine is the height of arrogance and it is disrespectful to the people of America.”
Suspected drones streak across the nighttime sky in New Jersey. (Courtesy of CNBC)
