National Security spokesman John Kirby said sightings were a combination of lawful commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones, aircraft, and helicopters.
The White House on Dec. 16 addressed the public’s concerns about the mysterious drone sightings in the United States, saying they were lawful aircraft and did not pose a threat to national security.
During a press conference on Monday, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said the government has assessed that the drones were a “combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones.”
“We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast,” he added. “The work continues.”
Kirby said the FBI had received 5,000 reports of drone sightings in the last few weeks and determined, after analysis, that only about 100 of these required follow-up.
“We obviously recognize the concern among many communities,” he said, adding that the federal government will continue to support state and local authorities on the matter.
Kirby emphasized that there are over one million drones registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, with thousands of commercial, hobbyist, and law enforcement drones flying over the country each day.
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“The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday. “For some reason, they don’t want to comment. And I think they’d be better off saying what it is our military knows and [what] our president knows.”
When asked about Trump’s remarks, Kirby said the government did not want to make any speculation or share information that it cannot be sure is accurate.
“I would say that we are making a very good faith effort to be as open and direct with all of you and with the American people as we can,” he stated. “There’s absolutely no effort to be anything other than as upfront as we can be.”
“I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings,” Mayorkas told ABC News on Dec. 15.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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