Nothing To See Here

 

Several three-letter agencies just issued a joint statement essentially dismissing concerns about the unidentified mystery drones flying over New Jersey.

 

Okay, now I’m really worried.

 

Here’s the main point from the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):

 

“We assess that the sightings to date include 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.

 

“We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”

 

Feel better? I don’t.

 

The statement makes no reference to the disturbing number of incidents we know about involving U.S. military installations in other states, as we and others have reported in detail. There is no question about these events.

 

The Pentagon cannot explain drone flights over critical military bases in Virginia last year that occurred for 17 days straight.

 

Government officials are obviously hoping that we won’t remember any of those events. But what was so alarming about those events were the credible reports that government officials at the highest levels, all the way up to the White House, were totally befuddled and had no idea what to do.

 

Meanwhile, I have heard no explanations for the drone sightings over Camp Pendleton in California or U.S. military bases in England and Germany. German officials reportedly “ruled out the possibility that the drones were operated by amateurs.”

 

We do know that several Chinese citizens and “students” have been arrested for flying drones near our military bases. In each case, the individual could be responsible for a couple of drones. But you’re still left with disturbing numbers of drones in the air at the same time.

 

Speaking to a local Fox affiliate, Michael Melham, the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, offered one possible explanation for what’s going on – at least in his state. Melham said:

 

“Well, potentially, we’re aware of a threat that came in through Port Newark. . . There was an alert that’s out right now that radioactive material in New Jersey has gone missing. On December 2nd was a shipment. It arrived at its destination. The container was damaged and it was empty.”

 

If that is what is going on, just say so. But military expert Colonel William Dunn is deeply concerned about what the government is saying. Dunn told Fox News:

 

“We are telegraphing right now that we do not know where these drones are. We’re telegraphing that we can fly these drones over U.S. bases and we can’t do anything about it. Now, our adversaries hear that, and they see that now they can take a drone and fly over [a] base and do something terrible.” 

 

 

 

Iranians Arrested

 

In related news, law enforcement officials arrested two Iranians yesterday. Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi was arrested in Massachusetts, and Mohammad Abedini was arrested in Italy. They are charged with stealing drone technology and giving it to Iran.

 

The information these Iranian agents gave to Tehran was used to build a drone that killed three American soldiers and wounded 47 more at a U.S. base in a remote area of Jordan near the Syrian border.

 

The devastating attack, which took place in late January, exposed serious questions about the effectiveness of our drone countermeasures.

 

Initial reports speculated that the Iranian drone was misidentified as a returning American drone. But it was later determined that the drone was missed entirely by radar because it flew too low to be detected and there were no defense systems at the base capable of shooting it down. 

 

Flying under the radar to avoid detection is not a new tactic. Did no one at the Pentagon think about the possibility that drones might also be capable of flying low?

 

 

 

Trump Talks

 

Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump held his first formal press conference since his historic victory on November 5th. Unlike the rare and highly-scripted press briefings from Joe Biden, who only takes a couple of questions from pre-selected reporters, Trump engaged with the media for more than an hour on a wide range of issues.

 

It was a stark reminder that we really haven’t had a president for quite a while. Even NPR conceded that “Trump Used His Press Conference Today To Show He’s In Charge.”

 

The CEO of SoftBank was with Trump at the press conference. He announced a $100 billion investment in the U.S. tech industry, saying that Trump’s victory tremendously increased his confidence in the U.S. economy.

 

Asked about the disturbing drone sightings, Trump demanded that our government come clean with the American people. He said:

 

“The government knows what is happening. . . and for some reason they want to keep people in suspense. . . Something strange is going on. For some reason they don’t want to tell the people and they should. . . I mean, [drones] happen to be over Bedminster [Trump’s New Jersey golf club], and I want to know the truth.”

 

Trump was asked whether Republican senators who oppose his nominees should be challenged in the primaries. He replied, “If they’re unreasonable, if they're opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons . . . I would say they probably would be primaried.”

 

Reporters peppered the president-elect with questions about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the use of vaccines. Trump said he supports vaccines, but he also wants answers to important questions like why autism has increased among our children. And he made it clear that he doesn’t like vaccine mandates.

 

On foreign policy, Trump said the carnage in Ukraine must end and that Ukrainian President Zelensky wants peace, too. Trump added that he will work quickly to get a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

 

President-elect Trump also said he had a great conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he repeated his warning that “all hell is going to break out” if the Israeli and American hostages being held by Hamas are not released by his inauguration.

 

By the way, a top administration official told NBC News that, “Pressure from President-elect Donald Trump was a major factor in Hamas relenting on two key issues during cease-fire and hostage-release talks with Israel.”

 

Here’s the bottom line: Donald Trump gave us more information and leadership on key issues in that hour and ten minutes than we have gotten from Joe Biden in the past year!

 

 

 

Charges For Cheney

 

Rep. Barry Loudermilk has been leading a congressional investigation into the events of January 6th and how the January 6th Committee, Nancy Pelosi’s kangaroo court, conducted itself. Loudermilk believes that the FBI should investigate Liz Cheney for witness tampering and other possible crimes.

 

In an interim report, Loudermilk states:

 

“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee. . . Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson. . .

 

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury. Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee.”

 

I’m not holding my breath that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray will do anything in response to this report. But Pam Bondi and Kash Patel just might. If they do, that would not be “revenge.” It would be accountability and justice.