Mystery Drones: Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes, Government Says

It’s been more than a month of nightly drone swarms over New Jersey, and the sightings have now spread to four additional military bases, as well as civilian sightings coast-to-coast. The government attempted to explain the sightings away as hobby drones and misidentified stars, and made a bizarre claim that no sightings have occurred in restricted airspace. But with Air Force bases being shut down due to drone incursions, no one finds this explanation convincing, which raises the troubling question: Why is the government lying to us about the drones?

12/12: Reddit Pandoras-effect: “They obviously thought they could sweep the UK and NJ UAP reports under the rug by referring to them as ‘drones’. Instead they destigmatized the phenomena - the general public who might have been hesitant to report ‘UFOs’ or ‘UAPs’ are quite happy to post all night long about ‘unidentified drones’, and local law enforcement is taking this a lot more seriously than they would have if people were calling in reports of UFOs flying over their houses.”
Military base incursions:
- 11/13: New Jersey (Picatinny Arsenal)
- 11/20: UK (RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Feltwell, and RAF Fairford)
- 12/03: Germany (Ramstein AFB)
- 12/09: California (Marine Camp Pendleton)
- 12/13: Ohio (Wright-Patterson AFB)
- 12/17: Utah (Hill AFB)
Civilian sightings:
- 12/5: New York (Staten Island)
  - 12/9: New York (Brooklyn)
  - 12/13: New York (Bronx, Queens, LaGuardia)
- 12/08: Oregon (multiple pilots report UFOs, given permission to maneuver to avoid)
- 12/09: Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
- 12/12: Massachusetts (police sightings in Harwich)
- 12/12: Maryland (governor)
- 12/13: Connecticut (Fairfield)
- 12/13: Texas (Houston)
- 12/15: Florida (Jacksonville)
- 12/16: Washington state (Tacoma, rumors of navy bases)
- 12/18: Iran (Coulthart report)
- 12/19: Portugal (CNN report)

Not Hobby Drones

12/09: Philadelphia Police Foundation President Maureen Rush says it’s important to note that many sightings include commercial-grade drones, some as large as small airplanes, not the kinds used by hobbyists. “My other concern is that there are multiple drone sightings. They’re almost in a flock. If they were geese, they’d be in a flock, and that’s what’s really unnerving for people.”
12/18: Lue Elizondo: “Some of these are sophisticated enough, and the size of an SUV, the only people who can pull that off are nation states like China, Russia, the US. You need a huge infrastructure to deploy these things, to recover them, to maintain them, to repower them and recharge them. And then you’ve got a communication issue, which is line of sight… These things are… loitering for 5-10 hours… and potentially can traverse tens if not hundreds of miles. You need a huge infrastructure and architecture to manage that, especially if you’ve got more than one drone in the sky.”

Are Drones Good For Spying?

12/13: Reddit Suitable-Unit: “Satellite imagery does not give nearly the resolution drones and planes give. Even high end satellites are not even close to the 1-2cm/pixel most drone results will give, more like 30-50cm/pixel… I'm sure the military is better but from what I've seen it's maybe 10cm/pixel at best. There is no ability to look under facades, or on oblique angles in general, or model anything from satellite imagery due to a general lack of appropriate overlap (Drone mapping uses a grid or linear pattern with 60-80% overlap between lines) I use drones almost daily and most people here don't even realize the mapping applications they have. You can create a full 3D model of the area once mapped and use that for planning, we do it at work all the time.”

What Happened with the UK Drones?

Daily Mail: “A senior officer, briefed on the drone incursions at RAF Lakenheath said 'The drones were flying in with no lights. When they were close to the site, they were turning on the lights going, "Here I am," and… not one piece of our equipment could bring it down or spot it. The drones were flying in… formation and… immediately locked on to [a police helicopter sent to investigate]. When the… helicopter climbed, the drones climbed with it. When the police helicopter tried to leave the area, the drones followed it. There is a [classified] 30-minute video of the incident… There is approximately one minute of footage when you can see a craft which looks like a fixed wing craft, and the maneuver that it does on the screen is like a very fast banking maneuver… Long range [drones] that the US military use, there's a couple of seconds lag in the system. A report from the pilot said it must have been controlled by a controller within the UK, as there was no lag in the response.”
The Sunday Times: “The mysterious drone activity in England stopped in the first week of December.”

Did Anyone Fly Their Drone Up To The Drones?

12/10: Fox News: a NJ local tried to use his drone to investigate: “The other night, there was a drone up here just hanging out. I put my drone up in the air and went towards it. I had full battery life. Not three minutes into the flight, I lost control of the drone, warning on my screen, my drone started going down, dead battery.”
12/11: Red Panda Koala: “People in New Jersey are reporting their personal drones batteries dying around the mystery drones” Then he shared a video showing a personal drone approaching a mystery drone and falling out of the sky.
12/20: NJ Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali: “A highly respected, professional and trustworthy Montvale resident informed me with 100 percent certainty that his son’s hobby drone attempted to follow one of the drones and it was ‘drone-jacked’. He lost total control of his drone and it disappeared into the air. It seems these are very sophisticated drones with counter offensive systems.”
12/11: TikTok user BeautyMrk: “One of my friends in NJ was trying to fly his drone up to three separate drones. They were the size of cars, hovering above his house. When he got his drone close to those drones, his drone automatically got hit by some kind of pulse. I wouldn’t think of it to be an EMP, but if it turned the drone off automatically, and it fell out of the sky, I don’t know what else it could be. The FBI knocked on his door and arrested him… He’s actually in jail at this very moment… According to his wife, he’s being fined tens of thousands of dollars for flying his drone in what was considered to be a no-fly zone. His wife said they seized his drone. I get fining a person, but why take his drone?”

Have Any Drones Landed or Crashed?

12/12: Morris County Police Scanner: “Per the caller a drone fell out of the sky by the power lines behind their house. Then ten more showed up.”
- Reddit: “It appears the downed drone might have been nothing. The County Office of Emergency Management was brought in and they seem to have reported nothing happened.”
- Reddit DogCatPatato: “I can explain what might be going on here because I'm working on a multi-agent algorithm that would react exactly like that. If you want to control an autonomous swarm, there needs to be at least one connection between each agent in the swarm, such that from any agent, you can reach all the others. If you want to reduce the amount of connections to reduce overhead, they might simply be linearly connected... For example 1 is connected to 2 is connected to 3, etc. If you were to break a link in that chain, the swarm can't function anymore. So what I would do is… have the… two swarms (remember, the connection is broken now) group up at the… last known location. From there, either they're able to re-establish contact with that drone, or the agents that were in contact with it try to establish contact between each such that the chain is once again connected and they can continue on their way. The ten drones coming over like that might seem ominous, but it's exactly how I would expect an autonomous swarming algorithm to react to this type of event.”
12/12: TapInto: “Hillsborough Township Police and other agencies responded to a report of a drone crashing in a field alongside the Lowe's store on Route 206 after the caller said it struck a nearby high-tension power line around 8:30 p.m., but despite an extensive search, they came up empty.”
- Belleville Mayor Michael Melham: “First of all, if there is a downed drone in our vicinity, we are immediately to call the bomb squad of our county. And second, our fire department has been instructed to make sure they wear hazmat suits. Because they are not sure if there’s a payload or not. And, that’s what we were told during our briefing on Wednesday.”

Does the President Know?

12/10: White House Press Secretary: “The president is aware. We’re closely tracking the activity and coordinating with relevant agencies including DHS and FBI. I don’t have anything beyond that to share.”
12/13: Donald Trump (who still receives the Presidential Daily Briefing) on social media: “Mystery drone sightings all over the country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge? I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!”
12/16: Trump, interview: “The Government knows what these are… where it came from & where it went… I can’t imagine it’s the enemy, because they’d blast it… Something strange is going on. For some reason they don’t want to tell the people and they should.”

The Loose Nuke Theory

12/13: Jersey Futures: “I’m one of a few groups of people who know exactly what these drones are in New Jersey… What you’re seeing are american made HPGe nuclear detector drones… They look weird because they’re heavy and have giant Cryocoolers mounted and giant horn antennas to communicate on mm wave frequencies that can't be jammed… They have bright lights on them to keep our air traffic safe - something an enemy wouldn’t care about… So what are they doing? collecting information on how the public will react and testing their ability to sweep a port city like NY for dirty bombs. Jersey was chosen because we’re the closest port city to NY, and NY would be too dense for reliable mm wave comms. Why is the DoD silent? Because in a scenario where we have a threat of a dirty bomb and the public doesn’t yet know, the DoD needs to know how the public would react if these were deployed to sweep a city.”
12/14: Reddit Chess0728: “Radiation is not something we can simply detect based on presence/absence alone. You get a stronger signal when you're closer to it… Nuclear weapons are shielded, meaning they are designed to not give off much/any radiation… because you don't want to get a massive dose… standing near it… HPGe detectors… are most effective at a range of 15-30 cm, rapidly lose their ability to detect radiation as the distance increases… The drones may very well be looking for WMDs or dirty bombs. But… they aren't using HPGe detectors to do so. To present that guy's theory as fact in light of that is misinformation.”
12/15: Ryan Graves: “I have spoken with sources inside the government who would be responsible for responding to potential nuclear threats within the U.S. I have high confidence the drone issue is unrelated to any potential nuclear threat.”
12/17: Chris Mellon: “My own discussions with federal officials track with this as well.”

Ongoing Drone Sightings

12/09: NJ Gov Phil Murphy: “I don’t blame people for being frustrated. Let me say most importantly, right up front… Homeland Security, FBI, Secret Service, our state police, authorities at all levels of government… we don’t see any concern for public safety. That’s number one. Number two, having said that, it’s really frustrating that we don’t have more answers as to where they’re coming from, and why they’re doing what they’re doing. We had, last night, 49 sightings.”
12/11: The Debrief: “Homeland Security officials reportedly briefed NJ legislators, saying sightings have occurred nightly, with as many as 180 sightings in a single night, and most activity reported between dusk and 11 PM. Many of the drones have been described as large, with some estimates placing them up to 6 feet in diameter and operating ‘in a coordinated manner.’ Currently, the takeoff and landing sites of the drones remains undetermined, although they are believed to maintain prolonged flight periods of up to seven hours, with an estimated range of 15 miles, ‘raising questions about their technology and intent.’ …Some of the drones were difficult to detect for a variety of reasons, which included some operating without lighting, and others appearing to avoid detection by radio frequency emissions or infrared cameras.”
12/13: NewsNation Reporter Rich McHugh: “Hours earlier, I was invited to join the ocean county sheriff department. They launched their own drones to see if they could intercept the mysterious aircraft NJ residents have been reporting in recent weeks. The department says these mystery drones evade detection because they don’t give off heat like regular drones, something they hadn’t experienced until now. One of their officers called 911 after seeing 50 of them come off the ocean.”
12/11: NJ State Sen Douglas Steinhardt: “The best information that we have available to us to this point suggests that these drones are coming from offshore. When you try to make contact with them, they become evasive or elusive.”
12/10: NJ Rep Chris Smith: “I spoke with a commanding officer from the Coast Guard, who said one of their [boats] was followed by between 12 and 30 of these drones… Followed. Right behind them.”
12/13: NewsNation Reporter Rich McHugh: “I gotta be honest here. You know when this story first came out a few weeks ago, as a resident of New Jersey, as a journalist, I didn't pay it much credence. I thought it would turn out to be a bunch of pranksters and this would all be over by now. The experience I’ve had, however, changed the way I feel about this story completely. What I saw was more sophisticated than I ever imagined. We've been looking for the past hour. I think we've seen about 40 or 50 of these drones. In fact there’s one over my shoulder right there. One after another after another, these drones appeared in the night sky… I’m not even sure I’m right in calling them drones… If you look real close, they look like fixed wing aircraft, about 8-10 feet wide, colorful, white blinking lights… It doesn’t look like a plane, it’s almost inverted… They almost look U-shaped, or V-shaped. They don’t make a sound. They’re a couple hundred feet above us…”

Growing Frustration with Lack of Federal Answers

12/09: Brooklyn Rep Nicole Malliotakis: “The FAA, FBI, DHS, and NYPD should let the public know what’s going on here? Are these drones and why are they flying over sensitive facilities and infrastructure?”
12/10: NJ State Sen Jon Bramnick called for a limited state of emergency banning all drone usage “until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings.”
12/13: NJ Rep Tom Kean: “We here in New Jersey are at our wits end with the complete absence of answers on drone activity over our neighborhoods. The federal government should either explain if these are our government’s assets in practice or, if these are truly unknown flights, responsibly remove one from the sky for examination.”
12/10: FBI Spokesperson Rober Wheeler Jr: “The Bureau is actively investigating... We do not attribute [the drones] to an individual or group yet... I don't have an answer as to who is responsible for the drone flights.”
12/10: Ross Coulthart: “Incredible that the FBI has been forced to admit to Congress that, after weeks of sightings, it has no idea what these supposed drones are or who is deploying them. Underlines there’s no certainty they are drones and just how grave a national security crisis this story is becoming.”
12/11: NJ Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia after a briefing for NJ legislators: “We know nothing. PERIOD. To state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading. State authorities, including the NJSP, are shackled with what they are able to do. Any interception or takedown of any [drone] is under the strict jurisdiction of the federal government.”
12/12: Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen Chuck Schumer, Sen Cory Booker, and Sen Andy Kim all signed a letter requesting a briefing: “We write out of urgent concern regarding the unmanned aerial system (UAS) activity that has affected communities across New York and New Jersey in recent days. Due to the ongoing nature of these drone incidents, we request that the DHS, FAA, and FBI brief us as soon as possible.”

Government Downplays Drones

12/11: Rep Jeff Van Drew: “From very high sources, very qualified sources, very responsible sources, I’m gonna tell you the real deal: Iran launched a mothership, probably about a month ago that contains these drones. That mothership is off… the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones.”
12/11: Pentagon Spokesperson: “There is not any truth to that. 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… Our initial assessment here is that these are not drones or activities coming from a foreign entity or adversary… These are not US Military drones.”
12/12: White House National Security Advisor John Kirby delivered a joint statement from the DHS and FBI: “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus… Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to… corroborate any of the reported visual sightings. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully… There is no evidence of any foreign-based involvement from coastal vessels. And, importantly, there are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted airspace.”
Fox Reporter Jacqui Heinrich: “Does the U.S. government have any of its own imagery or video of these systems?”
- Kirby: “I’m not aware that we have U.S.-government-produced imagery ourselves. But as I said in my opening statement, we have certainly done federal analysis of the existing imagery.”
- Heinrich: “With what you’re looking at, how can you credibly tell people that there is no public safety threat, there’s no national security threat, that there’s no reason to believe that a foreign government is involved?”
- Kirby: (condescending, slow) “Because the analysis thus far, in an investigation that is ongoing, has not revealed any national security or malicious intent or criminal activity. But, Jacqui, I would remind you, we’re at the beginning here, not the end. There’s a lot more work to be done, and we’re working closely with the state and local authorities to gain more information. We’re still in the middle of an ongoing investigation, and I’m up here explaining to you and to let you know what we know so far, what we believe so far. If information comes to light that changes that characterization, then, my goodness, you know, we’ll be the first ones to let you know.”
- Kirby: “But right now, there’s just no indication that this is some sort of foreign malign activity or, in fact, even criminal… I want to go back to something I said at the top: There has been no evidence of any of this activity in or near restricted spaces.”
- Heinrich: “That’s not what the senators said in the letter. They said, in fact, that they’ve been observed maneuvering near critical infrastructure, sensitive locations, including reservoirs and military installations, and cited a concern from law enforcement about public safety threats because a medevac helicopter was prevented from transporting a seriously injured patient for care because of the presence of these drones.”
- Kirby: “I stand by my opening statement.”
- Heinrich: “Can you make that make more sense?”
- Heinrich: “Because I think people in New York and New Jersey see drones the size of an SUV over their house every night and think that that doesn’t make any sense.”
- Kirby: “Certainly I understand why people would be looking at this and being concerned about it. We’re concerned about it too, which is why we have the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, my goodness, looking at this, and we’re taking it seriously. And we understand that people are concerned. We understand that they’ve got questions. We’ve got questions too, and we’re working hard to get the answers to that. What I can tell you, as we sit here today… is we haven’t seen any indication thus far that there’s a public safety risk.”
- Heinrich: “But does anyone in the government know what they are?”
- Kirby: “We are still investigating this.”
- Heinrich: “So, no.”
- Kirby: “I cannot characterize for you definitively what these sightings are. I can just go back to what I said at the opening: We’ve looked at the imagery. We can’t corroborate some of the reported sightings through our own expert analysis using sophisticated detection techniques. But that doesn’t mean that, you know, we’re putting our pen down here this afternoon and calling it a day. We’re going to keep at this.”
- Heinrich: “What are you doing though?”
- Kirby: “We are continuing to investigate it, as I said in my opening statement.”

Drone Sightings in Restricted Airspace

12/10: Picatinny Arsenal put out a news release confirming 11 sightings over the facility since Nov 13: “While the source and cause of these aircraft operating in our area remain unknown, we can confirm that they are not the result of any Picatinny Arsenal-related activities.”
12/12: Ross Coulthart: “This statement from White House National Security Spokesman Kirby is in direct contradiction to a statement issued by the NJ Picatinny Arsenal base commander… Why would a White House spokesman recklessly issue such a misleading and false claim?”
12/13: NJ Navy Weapons Station Earle public affairs officer Bill Addison: “While no direct threats to the installation have been identified, we can confirm multiple instances of unidentified drones entering the airspace above Naval Weapons Station Earle.”
12/13: WarZone: The airspace above Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio was closed overnight due to “heavy UAS activity.”
12/14: NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “Last night, the runways at Stewart Airfield were shut down for approximately one hour due to drone activity in the airspace. This has gone too far.”
12/21: War Zone: “The number of drone flyovers of nuclear plants for the entire year nearly doubled in one week, from December 10th to December 17th… Between Jan 1 and Dec 10, nuclear facility licensees reported a total of 15 drone events. As of Dec 17, that number had jumped to 26.”

NJ Pushback to Government Statement

12/12: NJ Assemblyman Brian Bergen: “I don’t believe anything that the spokesperson for the Pentagon said. I think he’s an idiot, honestly, because down here on the ground… I’ve seen these things with my own two eyes… He can do all the analysis he wants, but I think he’s a fool.”
12/12: Mine Hill Mayor Sam Morris: “So that means he thinks we’re all seeing small planes? I have to tell you, that’s incredulous. I’m incredulous about that. That’s ridiculous. I would invite Mr. Kirby to… come on out… behind my town hall, and you can count them with me all night.”
12/13: Sheriff Shaun Golden: “I’ll certainly invite the National Security Advisor to come to New Jersey, visit us, and listen to… his own personnel at Naval Weapons Station Earle, and speak with them, because these are trained professionals… calling it what it is, right? …When you have the Naval Weapons Station Earle, at the same time Kirby is at the podium, filing a report… for drone activity on the base, you know, there’s something afoul here.”

Congress Reacts

12/13: Sen Andy Kim, from a thread about driving with local police, said he personally saw dozens of drones in a two-hour period: “This has gone on for weeks. It’s hard to understand how with the technology we have we aren’t able to track these devices to determine origin and this makes me much more concerned about our capabilities more broadly when it comes to drone detection and counter measures.”
12/15: Rep Robert Garcia: “While I appreciate our federal agencies making it clear that these drones and or UAPs are not a national security threat, that is not enough transparency. People have questions, fears, and we must demand more answers. The public and Congress must be given more information.”
12/15: Rep Raja Krishnamoorthi: “The administration needs to be more forthcoming with information that they have. If they believe that some of these lights in the sky are civilian aircraft, then show us. Secondly, I’m getting a classified briefing along with my fellow members of Congress as to the nature of these drones.”
12/17: Sen Josh Hawley: “When we’re shutting down Air Force bases, Wright-Patterson AFB gets shut down for awhile, when commercial airlines are interfered with, they can't do their flight patterns because of these drones, uh, that’s weird! You can’t tell me the government doesn’t know what’s going on here, and the fact they will not brief us, they will not level with us, they won’t answer questions in public, there’s something really strange going on.”
12/18: Independent: “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed quickly advancing a bill that would allow local law enforcement agencies to track aerial drones, ensuring Congress won't act this year on the mysterious drone sightings that have bewildered residents of New Jersey and across the eastern U.S.”
- The Hill: Sen. Rand Paul blocked it, saying the federal government already has the authority to investigate and stop drones from flying into restricted airspace.
12/17: Sen Richard Blumenthal, following a classified briefing on the mystery drones by FBI, CIA, and DHS: “We’ve received only minimal information, which leads me to believe that our federal government has no idea, no clue, no reliable information about these drones.”

Reported Panic in White House & FBI

12/13: Good Trouble Show, Matt Ford: “Sources have informed us that the Biden Administration is in complete meltdown within the White House as they try to mitigate the New Jersey drone crisis. The Biden Administration, particularly National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and The National Security Council, are lying to Americans about what they know.”
12/13: Chris Mellon: “I've been in touch with several administration officials today, and law enforcement officials who are involved in this case, and I hear all of them say, ‘We have no idea where these things are coming from or what they are.’”
12/14: Ross Coulthart: “I can tell you that inside the FBI, there is a near panic about what’s going on, because they have no answers at all. The insiders are telling me that frankly, they are scrambling for answers, genuinely mystified as to what these objects are, and they are as… bewildered by the White House’s attempts to placate public interest in this issue as we are.”
12/17: ExoAcademian: “The incoherence of the narratives being spun by federal officials is making it clear that - far from this being a carefully planned psyop, pushing one self-consistent narrative - authorities are genuinely overwhelmed, discombobulated, and at this point merely attempting to buy time.”

White House Doubles Down

12/13: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: “We haven’t seen anything unusual. We know of no threat. We have gone to Congress repeatedly asking for more authority to counter drone activity… It’s not as though anyone can just take down a drone in the sky, that in and of itself would be dangerous. Our authorities are very limited, that is precisely why we’ve gone to Congress to expand those authorities… We can’t just shoot a drone out of the sky.”
- CNN Wolf Blitzer: “Do you know for sure these are drones or unmanned aircraft? What are they?”
- Mayorkas: “We believe there are cases of mistaken identity, where drones are actually small aircraft and people are misidentifying them. There very well may be drones in the sky, of course, but those are commercially available. One can go into a convenience store and buy a small drone. There are also commercial drones as well, but we know of no threat or nefarious activity.”
12/16: White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby repeated his mass hysteria implication: “Some of it's manned, some of it's unmanned. We absolutely acknowledge that a lot of these are probably drones, but they're flying legally. And it is legal to fly drones in non-restricted airspace as long as you're registered with the FAA, and there's thousands and thousands of these kinds of flights every single day… 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 even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones.”
12/17: Air Force Maj Gen Pat Ryder: “Just to kind of put this into context, … [there are] over a million drones registered in the United States, and on any day, approximately 8,500 drones are in flight. The vast majority of these drones are probably going to be recreational or hobbyist. They're going to be commercial drones used in things like architecture, engineering, farming or they could be used for law enforcement. Is it possible that some of those drones could be up to malign activity? It’s entirely possible, but the vast majority, that’s not the case. In the case of drones flying near or over US military installations, that in and of itself, just given the volume of drone flights we see on a given day, is not something that’s new. We take all of those seriously. Typically, when we detect them, we attempt to classify them and take appropriate measures. Is it possible that some of those are surveilling? Absolutely.”
- Ryder: “I would probably have to think back to the words of a very wise prophet, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who said these aren't the drones you're looking for.”

Sightings Could Be a Mix of Legit and Misidentification

12/19: The Debrief: “Any serious analysis of the recent drone situation should recognize the factors involving how some legitimate sightings (of drones, in this case) eventually lead to media coverage, which inevitably leads to more sightings (often of other things in the sky that end up being mistaken for drones). More sightings, in turn, lead to more media coverage, and the cycle repeats.”
12/18: Lue Elizondo: “I believe you could have a mix of UAP incidents with real drone incidents as a response to the drone incidents. What do I mean? In the old days, if there was some sort of UFO or UAP incident near some sort of critical installation, we’d have to wake up a pilot, he’d get into a helicopter, start up the helicopter and fly. And you can only cover so much space with a single aircraft. Now we have drones, so what we can do is have prearranged, coordinated areas, in sectors or zones, and have the entire area geofenced, so if something breaks that perimeter, these things are automatically deployed. They go to whatever area they’re supposed to go, and just start doing racetrack reconnaissance… Some people are reporting SUV-sized and larger craft where the lights are not consistent with any type of navigational lights that we have, or anti-collision lights that we have for aircraft, they are luminous, and potentially displaying some of the observables that we have at the Pentagon regarding UAP. And what you’re seeing in response is two groups of people. One group of people are reporting UAP incidents, while the other group are reporting the drone response by the US government to look into these incidents. They’re hearing the sounds of the roaring propellers and seeing the navigational lights. That’s a government quadcopter going up to try to find these things.”
12/17: Chris Sharp: “Note, White House and DoD want to keep focus on civilian sightings - easy to debunk. They don’t want to talk about failures of counter drone measures over military bases.”

FAA Restrictions

12/19: ABC: “There is a major development in the ongoing drone saga in New Jersey. Several federal agencies had tried to put it to bed earlier this week by saying they found nothing out of the ordinary. However, the FAA has now issued temporary flying restrictions in multiple cities across New Jersey… due to ‘special security reasons.’ The previously issued flight restrictions for Bedminster and Picatinny Arsenal remain in place. These areas have all now been deemed ‘National Defense Airspace.’ Unmanned aircraft are no longer allowed in those areas from now through January 17, unless approved by the federal government.”
- ABC: “The FAA says pilots who violate the airspace may be ‘intercepted, detained and interviewed by law enforcement.’ The FAA can also take administrative action including imposing civil penalties and suspend/revoke the airmen certificate as well as pursue criminal charges. The agency ominously warns that the U.S. government may use deadly force against any drones if they pose an imminent security threat.”

Nobody Believes the Government

12/16: NJ Mayor Michael Melham: “You can’t have it both ways. You can say we have no idea what you’re seeing, but there’s no known threat. You just can’t have it both ways. We were told by our state police that they know these things are hovering over our critical infrastructure. We had sixty drones hovering over a reservoir this past Sunday. You can’t keep telling us that we’re imagining stuff. Our own state police are telling us in a briefing that these things are not emitting a radio frequency. Our pilots witnessed the lights turn off and the objects disappear. Our residents are getting concerned, and the lack of transparency is doing nothing but fueling conspiracy theories.”
12/17: Michael Shellenberger sent a letter to the DoD, FBI, White House, DHS, and FAA, pointing out “significant discrepancies and changing narrative.” He specifically called out Kirby saying there were no drone sightings in restricted airspace: “Did Kirby not know of drone incursions over military sites last Thursday? If not, how is that possible given widespread reporting? If he did, then why did he make the false claim?”
- Shellenberger: “Kirby claimed yesterday, ‘We’ve done the detection and analysis. We’ve corroborated the sightings…. We've now examined some 5,000 different sightings.’ On Friday, Kirby said ‘ We're taking that imagery seriously and we're doing the best we can to analyze it… We want to do the best we can to triangulate it… We're going to do everything we can to find out.’ Does this mean that the investigation was done over the weekend? Don’t such investigations normally take months?”
12/18: Lue Elizondo: “The bottom line is that the Federal Government is not being honest, chalking all these drones up as 'legally operated aircraft and law enforcement'. If that's the case, they wouldn't be shutting down military installations over drone incursions. It simply doesn't make sense.”

Why Would the Government Lie?

12/14: Reddit Chess0728: “If the gov't says they are a threat, people panic. That's bad. If the gov't says they aren't a threat, and they're correct, they look like they're in-the-know and in control. If the gov't says they aren't a threat, and they're wrong, well the world suddenly has bigger things to worry about than blaming the U.S. Government.”
12/18: Lue Elizondo: “Governments are solution oriented. When you have a problem for which there is no apparent solution or immediate solution, there is this tendency to pass the buck or minimize the issue until you have a solution. I think… we’re seeing an administration that’s desperate for answers. It’s in its very last few weeks, and I suspect that they are passing the buck to the new administration.”

References

Episode 62, posted on December 23, 2024

Topics:

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