'What is going on in New Jersey?' Six clips from Tuesday's congressional hearing on drones infiltrating the U.S.
Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security also discussed drug traffickers using drones to watch law enforcement and a white supremacist's foiled drone attack at a Nashville energy facility
Federal officials said during a Dec. 10 hearing in Congress that they don’t know where the drones over New Jersey came from or who was flying them.
The House’s Committee on Homeland Security held a joint subcommittee meeting to discuss those recent sightings, as well as ongoing concerns about how drones can be weaponized against the U.S.
The first half of the hearing included …
Keith Jones, deputy executive assistant commissioner of U.S. CBP’s air and marine operations
Robert W. Wheeler Jr., assistant director of the FBI’s critical incident response group
Brad Wiegmann, DOJ’s deputy assistant attorney general for national security
Here are some of the highlights:
1) ‘What is going on in New Jersey?’
The question everyone has been asking over the past few days, posed at the beginning of the joint subcommittee meeting by U.S. Rep. Austin Pfluger, a Texas Republican.
2) 50 drones off the Jersey Shore
Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, isn’t on the Homeland Security Committee, but he participated because of the recent drone sightings within his Central Jersey district.
Smith said local police in Ocean County reported seeing 50 drones coming in off the shore two days ago, with no idea where they came from. He asked if it would at least be possible to track the drones as they go back out to sea to find out where they’re docking.
3) ‘We don’t know what the hell these drones in New Jersey are?’
“That’s right,” said Robert W. Wheeler Jr., FBI.
4) Current law enforcement capabilities
“The American people are looking at us and they think that we’re lying to them because they think how can you possibly not have answers to drones flying over some of the most critical airspace in the country,” U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) said.
5) On cartel drone usage at the border
Cartels use drones primarily to surveil U.S. law enforcement and occasionally to smuggle drugs, according to the CBP official who attended the meeting. Drug smuggling by drone is not as efficient or cost effective as other methods.