Hmmm: Security incident on the Potomac River?; a “training exercise?!”
CNN reporting:
The U.S. Coast Guard tried to prevent a boat from entering a security zone on the Potomac River not far from the Pentagon Friday, where President Obama was at an event commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks.
There were reports on police scanners of shots being fired, but those reports could not immediately be confirmed.
The AP calls it “training.”
What the…?
More from CNN:
There were reports on police scanners that the Coast Guard fired 10 rounds of ammunition, but those reports could not immediately be confirmed. It was not immediately clear from the reports whether they referred to warning shots.
The incident took place between the Memorial and 14th Street bridges, in a zone that had been blocked off because of the ceremonies.
And from WaPo:
D.C. police say a Coast Guard vessel that appeared to fire live shots at a recreational boat on the Potomac River Friday morning was nothing more than a training exercise and posed no public threat…
…D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said the incident near the Memorial Bridge was a training exercise. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said they could not confirm any information about the incident.
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Nothing to see here, move along citizen.
How about some “free” stuff?
I’m suspicious. Ten shots are not warning shots, even from a machine gun.
Ten shots is the entire ammunition supply in a short magazine.
If it is training…what the heck is this admin thinking? Didn’t they learn anything from the Air Force 1 scraffing incident!
Fox confirms: It was a training exercise. Law enforcement wasn’t notified.
Here’s hoping they were on target if need be.
How is it that they can get the scoop so quickly?
Well, I mentioned on the other thread I hoped they wouldn’t use this day for another photo op, but I suppose a ‘training’ exercise will do in a pinch.
For morons.
It would seem to me that any “training exercise” would have notification of local law enforcement as SOP. Particularly in the nation’s capitol.
Heck, most training exercises in such areas are joint exercises.
It may have been, but I’m skeptical.
Well, Obama had to find some way to top having Air Force One buzz Lower Manhattan. I’d say he’s toped himself with this.
Sounds like the Obama administration did just like with the flyover a few months ago and forgot to coordinate and notify the rest of the branches of the government before time.
A training exercise… on September 11… on the Potomac? Who is the genius that thought that was a good idea?
Is Janet going to pretend she didn’t see this report, either?
Come on guys, don’t you know that LE training exercises on September 11th in DC is nothing unusual?
Heh.
Yup. It just inspires confidence, doesn’t it?
Training exercises are not coordinated by the White House. I’m not gonna try to pin this on Obama.
Someone in the Coast Guard would have notified the locals. It is someone’s job to do so.
I’m still thinking the shots fired (if true) were live ammo. Ten shots is alot of rounds in an urban area, even for blanks. People get understandably alarmed by the sound of battle.
A “training exercise” that was not coordinated with local law enforcement which simulates an attack on the president as he is attending a 9/11 event? All I can conclude is that once again the White House thinks it’s all about the One and not the 2,996.
I got your TE right here!
Sorry but I am throwing the BS flag on this one. Training exercise on the Potomac on 9/11. Why don’t they fly some large planes over NYC say, oh, for a photo op.
Yeah, Salt – and it was near the Pentagon where the POTUS was speaking and under the bridge his entourage used. Amazing in it’s nearsightedness. As even one of the CNN pundits said, it is “felony stupidity”. (The same term she used for the WH buzzing NYC)
I heard Obozo’s motorcade crossed the river just as this was happening. I hope his panties got all wee-wee’d up worse than the heart attack he nearly gave all us New Yorkers with his Air Force One stunt.
What. A. Schmuck.
Is this another “manufactured crisis”?
Some crazed leftist idiot is going to think that there was a coup or assasination attempt. You watch. It’ll happen sure as the sun rises.
Idgits!!
I agree, 7htson.
And since this was too quickly identified as a training exercise; the WH didn’t have the opportunity to say anything else e.g. “The public should be relieved to know that the President is safe ….yada yada.”
I understand what you’re saying about the President, but I wouldn’t be so quick to let his administration off the hook.
As purplepeep mentioned the proximity to the President, one would think that if this is really a TE, the Coast Guard would alert the Secret Service.
It’s DC. I find it hard to believe that the locals in this case would not include the Federal Government. Also, this is the Coast Guard we’re discussing. I would think someone in the Pentagon or DHS would have known if this was planned.
The problem b-cat is that this didn’t happen on MuckeyPoo Swamp in East Buzzard Township on a lazy Sunday afternoon. We’re talking the capital of our Republic om 9-11. I won’t even get into how close the Pentagon is and how it’s not as if there’s no one of major rank around.
It wasn’t true:
“Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards said references to shots fired were picked up in radio chatter. As part of its exercise Friday, the Coast Guard aired simulated instructions to participants to fire 10 rounds. But Edwards said there were no shots actually fired and there were no suspicious boats”.
Apparently they neglected to state in their communications the shots were stimulated/exercize-only. (I believe that it’s standard practice to make that clear in exercizes.)
Major stupidity from the the WH military staff – which should be apprised of all DC area military ops – down to the boat COs who didn’t stop and ask themselves “is this really a good idea on 9-11″?
Yup, Salt. As I sez, we’re not talking about the village of Lower Podunk here.
HMMMMMM!
When I get home tonight, I’d better clean my guns and have my own “security exercise.”
“down to the boat COs who didn’t stop and ask themselves “is this really a good idea on 9-11″?”
The commanders to those USCG boats are not in the habit of telling their Commanding Officers or some Admiral, “Hey boss, those orders you issued just don’t strike me as something my crew and I are going to do.”
They very well might have expressed some concern, were told to shut up, and then when down to the river to do what they were ordered.
It was a Black Panther training exercise for the next round of elections. The Coast Guard wasn’t informed and tried to do their job. The AG called them off because they were close friends of Obama./sarc. It could be true couldn’t it?
no, purplepeep, but we are talking about an administration of Village People.
This is fishy. You do not schedule training exercises at a time when you should be on full alert on the job at hand, securing the waterways at an event commemorating 9/11. Not to mention the distraction that it causes other security details.
If this was only a training mission, it qualifies as one of the most boneheaded moves ever. Uh, but for that little incident involving AF1.
If reports about the secret service moving into an area days before One’s appearance or movement in an area are true – they would have known.
Makes you, again, wonder if they’re not using these incidents as a means to encourage the public to lose fear.
Agreed.
There’s probably a rear admiral somewhere wondering when the bus is going to hit him as Napolitano denies knowing anything about the exercise.
I think that’s what you meant.
Although, I did (very briefly) have YMCA stuck in my head.
“down to the boat COs who didn’t stop and ask themselves “is this really a good idea on 9-11″?”
They boat CO can’t refuse to obey a lawful order, just as the AF1 pilot who was ordered to buzz lower Manhattan could not. However, they can point out when an order is incredibly stupid – and potentially dangerous if it panics the public.
I suspect someone along the line wishes they had thought of that and noted it right about now.
I’m not buyin’ the training exercise explanation. B’Oh is trying hard to downplay 9/11 so why would they schedule ANYTHING of this sort today? Given the proximity to Teh One, the SS must have known. …and if the answer is that they really didn’t, that option is just as alarming.
Lucifer nailed it:
Who would have remotely thought, “Yeah! Let’s pull our guys off and run this exercise today. No worries that it diminishes the number of security forces on hand. What’s that? Today’s 9/11? That seems familiar to me… Oh well! Let’s train!”
I just don’t buy it.
Well at least the Village People were “diverse” before “diversity” was a PC buzzword. They had cowboys, injuns, cops, construction workers. And they’d bend over both backward and forward to entertain!
Add my voice to the ones calling BS. If it is a TE, then fire the command responsible.
If it was a real incident, bravo for the CG, who it seems made a brief and good collar.
Salt, no I meant the Village People….you know, like you mentioned in your own post:
LOL
Under Obama I buy it, Coffee.
The scary thing is how much info such idiocy makes available to those who would plan to run a nuke up the Potamic on a mockup of a CG boat or the like. It reveals weaknesses.
All the clumsiness, with officials not knowing “is this real or is somebody just conducting another military exercize or what?”. It’s a how-to recipe/invitation for another Islamist “man made disaster”.
Can’t say for sure, but when I was with the police dept of a semi-major city, anytime an official of any importance were coming, ALL forces were alerted: fire depts., police, highway patrol, county sheriff depts., etc.
With The Won coming into NYC, I am sure that SOMEBODY knew what they were doing. And on this special day.
I think it was scheduled specifically on this day to show that this is NOT a SPECIAL Day anymore. The memory will fade faster if “we” act like it is just any other day in the year.
Maybe Jamie ‘the Wall Gurellick’ is the new interagency communications CZAR?
This is just a prelude to soften the public’s reaction when the WH directs its independent “training exercise” in a neighborhood near you.
“oh…ignore it, they didn’t really just take away that nice guy and his family. It was just a training exercise” /sarc
A training exercise on 9/11?
Why don’t they just perform reenactments of the whole thing so they can get their jollies out of scaring people.
Morons.
The USCG falls under the auspices of Homeland Security….Don’t forget who the head of DHS is……that clueless individual, Janet Napolitano….
’nuff said….
It was Hollywood shooting a movie for a TV special on preparedness with TOTUS appearing as himself in the dramatic fire fight on 9/11/2009.
What if this was simply a CG unit performing its own internal training?
If that’s the case, then most of this criticism seems unfair.
I should add that I would also think that Gibbs’ answers were appropriate.
Are Barney, Gomer and Goober the commanders of the USCG boats?
Sounds like it.
Maybe something really happened … maybe there’s more … Just too dumb an incident.
Anyone think this would have even been reported if BO had been at Ground Zero instead of at the Pentagon? …
TEMA …
IMHO this was an intentional effort to distract all the attention away from the “Inconvenient Truth” that there is a war on terror … soon the troops will be carrying a pocket full of cards in many languages … printed on the card? … Miranda Rights …
I’ve been traveling all day but I just heard Obama mouthpiece Ed Rendell on Cavuto calling it a law enforcement issue again …
Won’t go with you that far, JamieD, but I do believe this does help those who would attempt a terrorist attack. In the event of a real attack we’ll lose precious time (and likely lives) as political leadership & top brass, media and citizenry recall the “cries of wolf” such as this and AF One buzzing of NYC.
Way to go, CNN. Not exactly the best day to be crying wolf.
I doubt very seriously that this was a training excersise. Honestly, would anyone be stupid enough to schedule on this day near where a memorial service was being held??? Once again, the government is whitewashing the incident to keep the public from panicking.
I think CNN was doing their absolute best to create a news story, on 9/11 no less, just to provide Obama with some sensational exposure.
It was a scheduled training exercise, no shots were fired.
The only thing that will come out of this is some poor guy with the Coast Guard will have his head handed to him, all for the cause of gravitas to dear leader.
People, this is BS.
First, NO SHOTS WERE FIRED. This was a training excercise. Something we do every day. As part of the excercise, the boat was autorized, over the radio, to fire 10 warning shots. The boat operator acknowledged and responded ‘bang, bang, bang’ simulating warning shots. Some dimwit listening to the radio called CNN and they over reacted.
For those of you who think we should not train on 9/11. The CG does not have the luxury of entire armies in reserve. We are staffed as if everyone of us reports to work every day and puts in a full work day. There is no allowance in additional personnel for training, sickness, transfer, family emergencies, etc… we take advantage of time when it is available. We are there to protect you, we must train when the opportunity presents itself.
As for the communication thing. If some idiot screams he/she heard gunfire, everyone comes running regardless of what we told them. This was routine training of one boat crew. No one was interested in knowing with the possible exception of the bad guys. Had this been a major drill, not only would everyone know that needs to know, they would have most likely been involved. We routinely train with other entities.
And, for those of you unaware. The U. S. Coast Guard maintains the protected air space over Washington DC. Our helos are a regular fixture in DC skies.
Again, this is just an example of people over reacting to a non event based on a single report from an idiot.
Have a great day all