Washington As the White House minimized any possible concerns to public safety or national security, prominent members of the House and Senate are calling for top federal law enforcement authorities to promptly update them on the strange drone sightings in New Jersey and New York.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, stated on Thursday that he anticipates receiving a classified briefing regarding the drones shortly and that he is eager to learn more about the situation.
Homeland Security, the FBI, and state and local law enforcement have not been able to confirm any of the alleged visual sightings” of the drones, according to White House spokesman on national security issues John Kirby told reporters Thursday afternoon.
Law enforcement officers have determined that these are manned aircraft operating legally after examining photos of the sightings, Kirby said, adding that they have not discovered any nefarious behavior and that there have been no verified drone sightings in restricted airspace.
We have no evidence at this time that these reported sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus, a White House National Security Council official told NBC News when asked about the drones.
However, following weeks of sightings in New Jersey and other states, politicians say they and the public need more information.
New Jersey Sens. Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker and Andy Kim wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Federal Aviation Administration head Michael Whitaker on Thursday, requesting a briefing on the drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
Given numerous drone incursions into critical military locations both inside and outside of the continental United States in the past year, the possible safety and security threats these drones represent in civilian areas are particularly relevant. According to the four senators, Congress and the executive branch must take a comprehensive approach to safeguarding military assets and troops as well as civilian infrastructure, safety, and privacy.
We thus ask that whatever authority, equipment, or personnel your agencies would need to handle these ongoing occurrences and the larger security threat posed by UAS be included in the briefing you provide,” they added.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and other senators have asked for individual briefings, and Senate staffers were scheduled to get one later Thursday.
In the House, former Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., now the panel s ranking member, said he would be on a classified call Thursday on a number of subjects and expected the drone issue to come up.
When do we consider these to be a threat that should be eliminated, either physically or even in terms of security? Smith enquired. And for that, we need definitive answers.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., a member of the Intelligence Committee, told NBC News he received briefings about the drones last week and this week. He called on law enforcement agencies to share more information with the public.
Based on briefings I received from the FBI, Homeland Security Department and governor, I don t think there are any immediate threats to public safety, Gottheimer said in a phone interview, referring to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat. But the public deserves to know more, and it s up to the FBI and Homeland Security to brief the public immediately.
This can t be the Wild West of drone activity, he said.
Murphy and other New Jersey state officials, as well as a representative from the Department of Homeland Security, held abriefing on the drones for local officialson Wednesday, according to those who attended.
For weeks, residents have been spotting and taking videos of drones, which officials have described as commercial-grade devices and not typical hobbyist drones. Eyewitness reports and officials confirm the drones are up to 6 feet in diameter.
Many of those videos have gone viral, racking up tens of thousands of views on social media and sparking worry among citizens. But the public grew even more alarmed on Wednesday after Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, appeared on Fox News and stated that the drones were coming froman Iranian mothership off the East Coast of the United States of America.
He called for the drones to be shot down.
Van Drew s remarks, however, were emphatically rejected by the Pentagon.
There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States, said Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh, who added that these are not military drones and there is no evidence they are originating from a foreign adversary or entity.
Still, constituents are worried about the drones and are reaching out to their elected officials for answers.
Listen, nobody wants unidentified drones flying over their home, flying over their cities, over our military installations, said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a member of the Intelligence Committee.
People, you know have a right to be concerned by that, and I share that concern, so we re going to look into it,” he said. “We re going to try to get answers, and we ll go from there.
So far, an all-member House briefing on the drones has not been scheduled, though some individual members have been briefed.
Another Intelligence Committee member, Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., said the hesitation of holding public hearings on this drone topic is that we don t want our adversaries watching our open hearings, looking for context clues.
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