“No foreign involvement”, according to Alejandro Mayorkas
American authorities have been seeking to reassure the population for several days, while videos of lights in the sky invade social networks. On Friday evening, the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, who is due to take office in January, questioned the sincerity of the government and suggested “shooting down” the drones.
“There is no doubt that people see drones,” agreed Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday on ABC. “These are drones, or piloted aircraft which are mistaken for drones by mistake,” he added, repeating a message conveyed in recent days by the federal police (FBI) and the spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby.
“There are thousands of drones flying in the United States every day, recreational drones, commercial drones,” the minister further put things into perspective. “We have not seen any foreign involvement in relation to these sightings in the northeast and we remain vigilant.”
The mystery remains
The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, sent a letter on Sunday to Alejandro Mayorkas asking him to immediately use the most advanced drone detection technology and announcing that he would support a new law aimed at providing the authorities of the best tools to detect these devices.
“Currently, local authorities are trying to find answers to this serious problem with their hands tied behind their backs. If the federal government has the technology to respond to this epidemic of incessant drone sightings, we should do everything we can to help,” he said, according to a statement released by his office. “The meetings I have been part of have taught me that there are no indications that this is a government or foreign activity, so we have to answer the logical question: who (is behind this) ?,” he added.
Saturday evening, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, Andy Kim, explained on the X network that he had observed multiple devices in the sky but that after analysis with civilian pilots and the police, “the majority of observations of possible drones turned out to almost certainly be airplanes. He nevertheless called on national authorities to communicate better on the subject and to provide more resources to local authorities for better monitoring and regulation of these devices.
