Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said Wednesday on CNN’s “OutFront” that the federal government needs to tell the public about the mysterious drones flying over the East Coast.
Blumenthal said, “I don’t know what’s going on and neither do the agencies who have responsibility for it. And that’s why I’ve demanded answers from them. At the very least, to tell us what they are doing to determine what’s going on. There is a system of rules relating to the altitude that’s permissible for these drones. The kind of remote identification that is necessary when they are flown. There is a whole fabric of restrictions on where they can go in terms of sensitive sites, and there’s no explanation for why these agencies the FAA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and others like the FBI have no knowledge about apparently any of these drones and now there are hundreds of them. People are texting me, constituents are alarmed. I am alarmed as well, as much by the lack of disclosure and transparency as the suspicion about what may be going on.”
He added, “We should take it down and there are ways to take it down safely. There are ways to remove it from the skies without necessarily shooting it down. And the kinds of means we have to do so, some are classified, some not, are used around the world in sensitive situations. Now, they may not be applicable here, but one way or the other, we should be in control of the skies over people’s homes and businesses and communities and neighborhoods. People expect to know that the skies are safe above them, for airplanes, medevacs and helicopters, and also for their own privacy. It is a matter of national security. We should be taking action and the public should know what action we’re taking to determine who is running these drones, who’s behind them, and also what we’re going to do about them.”
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