On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that “We haven’t seen anything unusual. We know of no threat” with the reported drone sightings on the East Coast but Congress needs to give more authority
The post Mayorkas on Reported Drone Sightings: ‘We Haven’t Seen Anything Unusual’, But Need More Authority on Drones appeared first on Breitbart.
On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that “We haven’t seen anything unusual. We know of no threat” with the reported drone sightings on the East Coast but Congress needs to give more authority to counter drones.
Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “What can you say to those Americans who are deeply concerned right now about all these sightings over New Jersey and New York, here and outside of Washington, D.C., in Maryland?”
Mayorkas answered, “Let me calm those nerves. We have not seen anything unusual. We have not seen any unusual activity. We know of no threat. We know of no nefarious activity. I want to repeat that. We have not seen anything unusual. We know of no threat or of any nefarious activity. And let me explain, people are reporting sightings of drones. It is very common for individuals who think they see drones to actually see small aircraft and we have a case of mistaken identity. Also, we have six different people reporting what they think is a drone, and all of a sudden, we have reports of six drone sightings. So, there’s some duplication. I have been in touch with Gov. Murphy (D-NJ) every day. Our experts have been in touch with the New Jersey State Police every day. What we have done is we have deployed our state-of-the-art technology. We’ve deployed our experts to New Jersey. That technology has not confirmed any drone sightings. In addition, it has confirmed that some reported drone sightings are, in fact, small aircraft. Pilots have not reported seeing drones. That’s not to say that there aren’t drones flying in the air, but we have no concern, at this point, with respect to a threat or any nefarious activity. The reality is, you can have a 15-year-old kid who buys a drone off the shelf and puts it up in the sky. We have not seen drones turn their lights off in the dark. We have not seen drones penetrate restricted airspace. Those are two indicia that would give us a cause for concern.”
He added, “We haven’t seen anything unusual. We know of no threat. Secondly, we have gone to Congress, repeatedly, asking for more authority to counter drone activity and we have also asked for more authority to give to the state and local officials under our supervision, because…those authorities need to be expanded.”
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