US House Foreign Affairs Committee chairperson Michael McCaul on Tuesday (Dec 17) alleged that the unidentified drones recently spotted over New Jersey and New York are “spy drones” from China. McCaul’s claim comes after the Biden administration downplayed the sightings as largely commercial in nature.
McCaul’s warning
McCaul, the House representative for Texas’s 10th congressional district, as per a NY Post report, revealed his suspicions after meeting with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who reportedly noted drone activity over military bases.
“We want answers, but the response I’m getting is we don’t know whose drones these are,” said McCaul, adding “I would not think those are friendly. I would think those are adversarial.”
“We need to identify who is behind these drones,” he stressed.
“My judgment based on my experience is that those that are over our military sites are adversarial and most likely are coming from the People’s Republic of China,” McCaul said, citing China’s track record of espionage.
“I believe they’re spy drones and the PRC and communist China is very good at this stuff,” he alleged.
He criticised the government for its lack of clear answers, calling the situation “very disturbing.”
“We’re not getting answers and I think it’s because our government does not know who is behind them and that is very disturbing to me,” he stated.
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Sightings spark public concern
The drones have been observed in sensitive locations, including New Jersey’s Picatinny Arsenal, Naval Weapons Station Earle, and Stewart International Airport in New York, which was temporarily forced to close on Sunday due to an unidentified aircraft.
Federal agencies, including the FBI, FAA, Pentagon, and Department of Homeland Security, issued a joint statement Monday in which they attributed the sightings to “a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones”.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas supported this view while White House spokesperson John Kirby reported that authorities “have not been able to, and neither have state and local law enforcement authorities, corroborate any of the reported visual sightings”.
Trump slams Biden
President-elect Donald Trump meanwhile has accused President Biden of withholding information. Trump, however, dismissed the possibility of a foreign threat.
“Our military knows where they took off from — if it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage,” Trump said, suggesting a deliberate effort to keep the public in suspense.
“Our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”
“I can’t imagine it’s the enemy… Something strange is going on,” said Trump.
(With inputs from agencies)