‘Nothing nefarious’: Biden seeks to reassure US on drone mystery
President Joe Biden says a shocking drone sighting over the US East Coast is “nothing untoward”.
seen in recent weeks In New Jersey and several neighboring states, incidents have sometimes occurred near airports. This incident has inspired many conspiracy theories about foreign involvement.
Officials have not provided many definitive answers other than to say that the sightings are not always those of drones, and that they do not believe there is a threat to national security or that a foreign power is at work.
Members of the US House Intelligence Committee, who were given a closed-door briefing on Tuesday, joined Biden on Wednesday in an attempt to reassure the public.
Democrat Chrissy Houlahan was among the committee members who spoke to reporters afterward.
“To date, they have found nothing that would indicate that foreign influence, foreign actors or even little green guys are at work on the American people,” The Hill quoted him as saying.
In his comments to the media, Biden said: “We are keeping a close eye on this, but there is no threat yet.”
He stressed that the footage was not evidence of any wrongdoing. “There are a lot of drones authorized out there,” he said. “I think somebody started it and they all — everybody wanted in on this deal.”
In recent days, sightings have led to the temporary closure of Stewart International Airport in New York and Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Government agencies previously said they had “not identified anything unusual”. He agreed with Biden that many of the drones sighted were legitimately flown by hobbyists and law enforcement – adding that people were reporting “manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and starships mistakenly as drones”. .
But public questions remain. Earlier in the week, New Jersey man Noel Thomas described to the BBC his experience of seeing a mysterious object in the sky. He said it was shaped like a school bus, rectangular with flashing lights, and “definitely like nothing I’ve ever seen”.
A police officer from the same state said: “We are just looking for some concrete, proper answers so that people can go about their lives and not live in this frenzy like we are.”
As the mystery continues, state governments are demanding more powers to deal with small, uncrewed aircraft being seen in the skies. Earlier this week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said officials were sending her a drone detection system.
Those who have expressed their skepticism include President-elect Donald Trump, who has said that the government “knows what’s going on”, but “for some reason they don’t want to comment”. However, he added that he “cannot imagine that it is the enemy”.
The Pentagon previously refuted a suggestion by a New Jersey lawmaker that the potential drones came specifically from an Iranian “mothership,” while an FBI official said there might be “a little overreaction” on the topic.
