# The New Jersey drones > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The New Jersey drones," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-new-jersey-drones/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's shifting account of the New Jersey drone flap: his state trooper friend's report of a missing Defense or Energy Department convoy load, and the 60 Minutes segment in which Air Force generals concluded the drones were hostile and probably Chinese.* - **His first assumption:** A Defense Department exercise - **The trooper's account:** A missing DOE or DoD cargo, possibly nuclear, lost from a convoy - **The 60 Minutes account:** Hostile, likely Chinese - **The obstacle:** Too small to engage with a fighter jet - **The gap he names:** The US can stop ICBMs but not drones Asked what he made of the drone sightings over New Jersey, [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) gave an answer that moved through three positions and settled on none of them. ## The first assumption At first, he said, he simply assumed it was a Defense Department exercise of some sort.[1] ## The trooper's account Then came a friend's report. Kiriakou has a friend who is a New Jersey state trooper, and who told him that the police were working under the impression that a Department of Energy or Department of Defense cargo had gone missing, *"that perhaps it was nuclear, perhaps it was maybe a weapon of some sort or a missile,"* and that the convoy had lost the eighteen-wheeler carrying it.[2] Kiriakou is careful about the standing of this. *"I don't know,"* he said. *"He said that's what he thought it was. That's what he had been told it was."*[2] ## The generals The third account came from a *60 Minutes* segment he had watched shortly before the interview, in which the current and former commanding generals of an Air Force base, Langley, he believed, were interviewed. Their explanation for the absence of any response was technical: people think the objects can simply be shot down, but *"they're so small that you can't use a fighter jet to shoot something that is so small and is guided by hand."*[3] Their conclusion, as he reports it, was that the drones were hostile and *"likely Chinese."* He notes that a Chinese ship was off the coast of New Jersey, at least for a while, during the period the objects were flying.[4] ## The gap in the defences The line he quotes from the generals is the one that stayed with him: that the United States has to come up with a better system to protect itself. *"We can protect ourselves against incoming ICBMs, for example,"* he said. *"But we can't protect ourselves against drones."*[4] His host's reply, that the same thing has been happening worldwide, and at the same time of year over several years, is left unanswered. ## See also ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [CIA and the UFO question](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-ufo-question) - [The Lake Michigan sightings](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-lake-michigan-sightings) ## Sources 1. Podcast UFO Live Shows (2025-09-12), at 09:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBMOS09-qx4&t=598s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-12-podcast-ufo-live-shows-podcast-ufo-live-shows/ 2. Podcast UFO Live Shows (2025-09-12), at 10:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBMOS09-qx4&t=630s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-12-podcast-ufo-live-shows-podcast-ufo-live-shows/ 3. Podcast UFO Live Shows (2025-09-12), at 11:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBMOS09-qx4&t=662s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-12-podcast-ufo-live-shows-podcast-ufo-live-shows/ 4. Podcast UFO Live Shows (2025-09-12), at 11:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBMOS09-qx4&t=694s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-12-podcast-ufo-live-shows-podcast-ufo-live-shows/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-new-jersey-drones/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt