Reporter reveals new info about 'super duper secret weapon' that closed Texas airspace
Axios reporter Marc Caputo told MS NOW he's been seeking answers about the mysterious military exercise involving an anti-drone weapon and "party balloons" that shut down airspace around El Paso, Texas for 10 days — and while he has found some answers, much remains a mystery.
"You've been reporting on this all day," said anchor Willie Geist. "Yesterday we woke up. We're discussing on the show yesterday there was some concern about is there about to be a military operation? Are we going to strike drug cartels, the United States military? Very confusing. Contradicting claims by different departments of the government, and the FAA saying we had to do this because we didn't know what the heck was going on. What did you find after sifting through all this?"
"Well, I kind of found what you just found, as I'm having to reconcile contradictory accounts," said Caputo. "The best I can tell is this, is they have the super duper weapon, and they deny it's a laser. It's some sort of direct energy weapon. So when I asked, were drones shot down? They said no, drones were downed, whatever that meant as far as a distinction, and that they had gone out in this exercise, actually looking for drones that make incursions with some regularity. They wouldn't tell me the frequency."
"And here's the rub," said Caputo. "The Customs and Border Patrol had borrowed the super duper secret weapon from the Department of Defense or Department of War, whichever you want to call it. And at a certain point, the FAA is like, hey, what are you guys doing? Not only can this thing shoot down drones or down drones, it can possibly take down airplanes. And allegedly, I was told by one source, the Department of War, the DOD general wasn't very clear on exactly what was happening. And FAA, unable to get any answers, then made the decision to shut it down for ten whole days and didn't coordinate that with anyone."
"Now, why they had to shut it down for ten days, no one can explain why the Department of Defense general, whoever this is, wasn't clear on exactly what they were doing because there was a big airport around and FAA was worried about downed planes," he continued. "No one can explain. What we do understand is Customs and Border Patrol is sticking by their story, which is like, yeah, sure, we borrowed the weapon and we pushed the button, but it was always in control and under the supervision of the Department of War."
"So everyone is sort of doing the Washington blame game, and it does look like there's enough blame to go around," he added. "But essentially the administration here hit the brakes, stepping part of a crisis management where everywhere you turn you step on a rake and you get bashed in the head with it. It just becomes a sort of positive feedback loop of negative consequences. And nothing got better. And the explanations at the end of the day didn't get any clearer."
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FBI agents at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, Georgia. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer