"A perfect storm of mistrust": Drone paranoia fueled by conspiracy theories and a lack of answers

Mysterious sightings of alleged drones over New Jersey, New York and other eastern states have sparked outcry from officials and residents even as the federal government has attempted to reassure the public and emphasize that it has no evidence that there is any threat to public safety. In a joint statement released Monday, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense said that after closely examining the technical data and citizen steps, officials had concluded 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." Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a Sunday appearance on ABC News "This Week" that the federal government is "deploying additional resources, personnel" and technology to assist New Jersey state police in investigating the drone, or unmanned aircraft systems, sightings. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism Javed Ali, a former DHS and FBI official now teaching national security law at the University of Michigan, said that — reading between the lines in their early statements — federal authorities "really can't explain the phenomena either." Contrary to the conspiracy theories currently en vogue, the least likely explanation for the drone sightings is aliens; second to that is that they come from some "hostile foreign power," Warrick said, noting that the federal agencies monitor hostile foreign actors "very carefully" and don't allow them to "get away with" such activity for "very long."