If you read between the lines, the federal government thinks there’s a good possibility that irresponsible drone pilots are out there looking for a viral TikTok moment.
Over the weekend, the White House held a hastily scheduled Zoom conference between reporters and FBI, DHS and FAA officials who gave a background briefing on the spate of drone sightings that have dominated the news for nearly a month. On Friday, Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called on the federal government to take action and shared a video of what appeared to be dozens of drones outside of his home.
The White House didn’t say the Zoom meeting with reporters was a result of the Hogan inquiry, and I won’t speculate. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but we all have our suspicions. After the White House and its representatives briefed reporters Saturday, it was apparent the federal government believes that most sightings are of manned aircraft in normal air traffic patterns for nearby airports and that the confirmed drone sightings do not constitute a national security threat. But, they also admit they have no idea who’s piloting the drones seen along the eastern seaboard.
National Security spokesperson John Kirby said as much in the White House Brady briefing room Thursday. “The analysis thus far, in an investigation that is ongoing, has not revealed any national security or malicious intent or criminal activity,” he explained.
How can the government be so sure the drone pilots aren’t engaged in criminal activity, have malicious intent, or aren’t a security threat if they don’t know who’s flying the drones? Well, according to DOD, DHS, FBI, and FAA officials on the weekend call, the information gathered thus far confirms the drones aren’t being launched from foreign powers from a secret Iranian mothership at sea — nor from a secret airbase at the North Pole set to find out who’s naughty or nice. Apologies to “Red One.”
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Instead, the DOD officials claim it was “irresponsible” of the drone pilots and that they were very frustrated with the flights, making it sound like a bunch of stoned or drunk teenagers are having fun at everyone else’s expense. So, maybe it is someone doing the naughty or nice list thing.
Obviously the administration wants to take it seriously since even government officials have seen the drones. And, the........