By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-13 14:08:18 | Updated at 2024-12-23 23:04:28
1 week ago
A military analyst and retired United States Air Force colonel urged the White House to stop “pooh-poohing” reports of drones buzzing over New Jersey — and start taking the claims seriously.
Col. Cedric Leighton told CNN Friday that the Biden administration needs to stop telling Garden State residents not to “believe your own eyes,” as speculation runs rampant over the origin of the enigmatic flying objects, which have also been spotted in New York and Connecticut.
“We need to know if those are foreign assets or some other asset that is doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. So this is one of those areas where the public’s help really should be solicited, as opposed to, you know … saying, you don’t believe your own eyes,” Leighton told the broadcaster.
“And that’s really the critical issue here. I mean, you know, the government needs to be responsive to the people, not basically pooh-poohing what they say.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby dismissed concerns Wednesday, telling reporters that federal investigators have been unable to verify any of the 3,000-plus reports of car-size drones hovering in the night skies over the past several weeks.
Instead, he suggested that most claims of mysterious craft are actually people mistaking helicopters or airplanes that are legally flying for drones — even as members of Congress have suggested they could be malicious foreign entities.
The lack of information and non-answers from the feds have left New Jerseyans and lawmakers fuming.
US Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) this week sounded the alarm when he made the bombshell claim that a “highly reliable” source told him the drones could be coming from an Iranian “mothership” stationed offshore — a claim the Pentagon quickly shut down, without offering any further explanation.
He doubled down on his claims after the Pentagon’s dismissal, telling Fox News Wednesday “we are not being told the truth” and that the Pentagon is “dealing with the American public like we’re stupid.”
Meanwhile, there were two unconfirmed reports of drones crashing Thursday night in New Jersey, where skies were clear and flying conditions were favorable.
A call came over the Pequannock Township police scanner at 8:47 p.m. Thursday alerting officers to a suspected drone crash.
“A drone came down in the resident’s backyard,” the 911 dispatcher said. “It’s a small one, the lights are blinking and it has a tail on it.”
An audio clip from an open-sourced police scanner suggested cops were alerted to another drone that was brought down by power lines in Morris County around 9:35 p.m., which purportedly sparked a frenzy of drone activity.
“A drone fell out of the sky by the power lines by their house,” a dispatcher said.
“When she heard the crash, she reported 10 more drones showed up, circling the area.”
A decidedly unimpressed police officer responded: “Received, a drone fell out of the sky. If it’s actually true, just don’t touch it until I get there.”
The Post has reached out to the Pequannock Police Department and Morris County Sheriff’s Office for confirmation.
The strange sightings have drawn bipartisan concern in the tri-state area.
US senators from the Empire and Garden states — Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand from New York and Cory Booker and Sen.-elect Andy Kim from New Jersey — co-signed a letter to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday demanding they explain what is being done to “identify and address the source of these incursions.”
“We write out of urgent concern regarding the unmanned aerial system activity that has affected communities across New York and New Jersey in recent days,” the Democratic senators wrote, adding that “the ongoing nature of these drone incidents” had left them “concerned.”
Leighton said the drones could be something as simple as Amazon or FedEx testing out some new delivery method — or perhaps even our own military using new equipment.
“There could be some kind of test being run by the US government, either a law enforcement entity or the military, and they could be testing out some new technologies, but normally this kind of testing does not take place in a populated area,” he told CNN Thursday night.
Regardless, the lack of information has New Jersey residents on edge.
Ari Perez, 26, is adamant she saw a drone above Wayne, NJ, on Thursday.
“They’re f–king freaking me out,” Perez told The Post at the Craftsman restaurant bar in Fair Lawn, NJ.
“Me and my fiancée were on the way to the gym around 6:45 p.m. tonight when we saw one, it was freaky,” she said.
“We’re supposed to be living in a safe country but no one knows what’s going on.”
