Barry Finn's link provided something of a challenge. Typically, it takes about 4 times as long to preload the "ad links" as to load the article at the Wash Post site, and in this case, just as the article appeared, the link to one of the ads would fail and my browser would delete everything. It only took about 8 (total) refreshes to get the article up to read it...

Ain't commercial pimps wunnerful?

Given that the sightings described were in New York and Washington DC, where none of the native/resident population is likely to have ever seen an actual insect, the most reasonable explanation for the "mysterious objects" seen probably was "bugs." (i.e. mating/courting dragonflies in flight?)

Given the extent of research current in any number of university labs on micro-machinery (and nanotechnology) a fairly bright junior year student from "almost anywhere" quite possibly might have launched a few left-overs from a class project just as a tweak on the spy-culture snoops - who quite obviously were there with their lesser and obsolete spy gimmicks.

John