Pet Worth: This Month's Highly Adoptable Animals
New Whole Foods to Open Up Exactly Where it is Needed Least
The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Jack Evans Hops Aboard a SmartBike at Bike Lane Unveiling
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
The U.S. Coast Guard was conducting a training exercise on the Potomac River this morning, which initially caused a scare due to its proximity to the Pentagon during Sept. 11 memorial ceremonies.
CNN originally reported that the U.S. Coast Guard had opened fire on a boat in the Potomac River this morning, but the incident was actually a training exercise. Given the exercise's timing and location, on the morning of September 11, near the Pentagon, at a time when President Obama was laying a wreath to honor the victims of 9/11, the incident initially caused panic across the area.
10:31 a.m.: The Washington Post now has a banner up calling the incident a "Coast Guard training exercise." Given how calm everything looks (and how much CNN is now hedging on their original report), this seems likely, though there's no story as yet to back up the Post's assertion. Who in their right mind would schedule a Coast Guard training scenario on the Potomac River, right by the Pentagon, on Sept. 11?
10:46 a.m. Coast Guard Chief Keith Moore finally confirmed with the AP that no shots were actually fired as part of the exercise, contrary to CNN's earlier report. D.C. Police officials have also said that they were told ahead of time that the Coast Guard's activity on the Potomac River this morning was a training exercise.
10:49 a.m. And, here's the Post's story.
11:59 a.m. ABC News' Jake Tapper writes how White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that he blames CNN, not the Coast Guard, for today's scare. 'He said media should "check before reporting" such events, and suggested other training exercises are likely going on right now that we don't know about, and rejected any comparison with the Air Force One flyover of Manhattan.'
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
wtop says it was a training exercise?
cnn says otherwise.
Washington Post:
Coast Guard Training Exercise on Potomac River Causes Concern
what a bad day for a training exercise
Ahh yes. A possibly live-fire training exercise, adjacent to the Pentagon, on the morning of Sept. 11. Apparently brought to you by the same people who thought it'd be fun to buzz lower Manhattan with Air Force One for a photo shoot.
Great. People high on "boat" are getting shot at. It's like 1987 all over again. Next thing you know, you'll go to a shootout and a go-go concert will break out.
They're on a boat and it's going fast and they've got nautical themed pashmina afghans.
Oh look, Louis Caldera is back in action.
QUICK! Everyone to West Texas to get all the gas!
we're-not-being-told-something-we're-not-being-told-something...
Move along people. There's nothing to see here.
COVER UP!!! Haven't you people seen Hunt for Red October or Broken Arrow, or Iron Man? "Exercise" is code for "there was some bad shit we don't want to talk about"
epic fail.
Nice pic you have there. Good to see the production values at DCist are so high.
I guessed they called off Air Force One's low flyover of the Pentagon to photograph the exercise in all its glory?
Here is what I think happened, from piecing together various media reports.
1. There is a restricted zone in the Potomac this morning due to the memorial events at the Pentagon. Coast Guard is in the water to keep boats out of the zone.
2. Coast Guard is simultaneously conducting communications training over its radio systems (this is from Pete Williams at NBC)
3. As part of the communications training, someone "orders" a boat to fire. There is no boat, and no actual order, its just part of the script for the training.
4. CNN, or someone else, is monitoring the Coast Guard radio system, hears the "order" to fire, then sees the boats in the water, and comes to the conclusion that this is an actual order for the boats in the Potomac to fire.
5. CNN, rather then calling the Coast Guard for more information, runs with a story about the Coast Guard intercepting a boat in the Potomac and firing on it.
In other words, nothing happened at all. Coast Guard was more the likely just doing its job, twice. Once by patrolling the restricted zone in the Potomac, and once by conducting a daily radio training. One had nothing to do with the other.
CNN screwed up here, not the Coast Guard.
Well reasoned!
Blame corporate broadcast news? OK, I'm in on that.
Don't forget though--CNN's source for the initial report was Metro PD...
Wait, CNN wasn't using Twitter or Facebook for their source? I thought that's what they did now...
hillvada your "logic" and "reasonable explanations" have no place here. Now -- everybody panic!
@jakers
yeah, they needed Air Force One to do a doughnut run and the Coast Guard was the best photo op the could come up with.
Unbelievable, did they really did schedule an exercise today and did now notify the public? Is that where Louis Calderda (the guy who authorized the flyover) is working now?
Who put WMATA in charge of the Coast Guard?
I was kidding with my "cover up" post above, but the more I think about it, the training exercise story is BS.
Who schedules training on Sept. 11 at a time when the President is close to the area?
My guess is that someone screwed up. Maybe a DCPD boat went in the area and the coast guard didn't know about. Something like that and they are just trying to CYA
It does seem like nobody on this entire planet could be *THAT* stupid... but then again, there is WMATA. *shrugs*
Jesus. The Truthers just sprouted huge wood.
It's nice to know that in this era of instant journalism, in less than 19 minutes, an unidentified vessel being fired upon for violating Pentagon territory can end up being two guys named Cooter and Skeeter burning off their Ranch Beans farts in a fishing boat.
Up next: we have exclusive footage of mysterious white bicycles appearing on DC streets. Has the KKK finally embraced an eco-friendly urban lifestyle? Tonight on Fox News!
I miss the good old days of not having anything to fear but fear itself. "Who schedules a training exercise on Sept. 11th?" Someone who isn't a wuss that isn't afraid of his own shadow. Congrats, CNN- you scared a bunch of people into tuning in and have convinced them it's the Coast Guard's fault instead of your half-assed fear-mongering unsubstantiated "journalism".
The only thing we have to fear is...IN MY PANTS!
Herpes, yuck!
I bet they don't get whale cake at CNN's next anniversary party.
(I'm still in pain from the rejection.)
Oh wow someone's head is going to end up on a stake tonight! This is just DUMB, and a perfect example of how administrators don't THINK about the details of their plans... how dumb!
However, looking at this critically it really goes to show just how prepared (or not) we are for emergencies and just how much we panic and become crippled with fear under a little unexpected pressure. Also, we clearly communicate very poorly since nobody seemed to know about this.
Haven't we learned from that Air Force one fly-over?!
Perhaps no vessel was fired at, but they ought to say then what those shots echoing off the river were. Because they were clearly audible from my neighborhood above Georgetown. It was an orderly, regular series of booms. I didn't count -- maybe 10?
Didn't most of the memorial services today include a gun salute after the moment of silence?
I don't know, but that would certainly seem plausible. It wasn't like a rifle salute though, more like cannon. Maybe it came from Arlington. But couldn't they just announce that?
Cannon fire isn't uncommon at National Cemetery. They are not going to announce every time there are funeral services for someone of sufficient rank to get cannon fire. I live in Arlington not far from the cemetery and hear it and the guns on a regular basis.
When the two choices are coverup or stupidity, I'm inclined to go with stupidity.
that's what makes it so easy! ;)
CNN are morons. They actually played a scanner audio recording on air in which you could hear someone say "bang bang bang bang". They ran with the story based on listening to a scanner/radio transmissions and without confirming anything.
The terrorists are laughing their asses off ...
Not to seem insensitive, but do people actually "panic" as much as these reports indicate? We live in Washington, DC, so, personally, it occurs to me that (as poorly timed as it might be) some form of training exercise might be in progress. Do darker suspicions cross my mind? Sure. Do I run around in a histrionic panic about every report of dubious security activity? No.
dumb planning + media frenzy. kudos to the washington post and (i never thought i would say this) wtop for checking before they posted the story.
re: washington panic, i would say very few people even noticed the story before it was corrected except news junkies. okay, that is a lot of washington, but no one seems to have run screaming for the freeway.