False Flag Operation goes Wrong: Media Fear Mongering

[jetxvii]

I can justifiably call Bullshit on this one in the case of the media and the US government. "bang bang bang." was said... another close call fear campaign against the American people.. oh My god we were attacked again on 9/11..... this pisses me off...


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... QD9ALBFVO2

River drill shakes up DC on 9/11 anniversary

By CALVIN WOODWARD and EILEEN SULLIVAN (AP) – 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — A morning of remembrance turned into one of flashbacks, fear and media missteps Friday when a Coast Guard exercise — unfolding near Pentagon ceremonies marking the Sept. 11, 2001, anniversary — was mistaken as an attack. The false reports of gunfire on the river briefly spooked the capital, sending FBI agents to the scene and grounding flights.

The episode left the Coast Guard promising to "take a good hard look at what we did here today" and military families sore that officials would simulate a confrontation on the Potomac River on a day of raw emotions and high security.

But the exercise, involving speeding boats and at least one helicopter, probably would have passed unnoticed except that two TV networks confused simulated chatter over a Coast Guard radio for actual events and reported that the Coast Guard had opened fire on a suspicious vessel near ceremonies attended by President Barack Obama.

A chain of errors on television and online raised fears the capital might be under assault eight years to the day — almost the moment — after the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. CNN reported 10 shots had been fired, based on information it heard over the network's police scanner.

On Twitter, the network reported: "Coast Guard confronts boat as Obama visits Pentagon, police scanner reports say shots fired."

After the Reuters news agency reported on what CNN was saying, Fox News followed suit, telling viewers: "Here is what we are learning. The U.S. Coast Guard ship of some type fired on what is considered a suspicious boat in the Potomac River."

Anchor Bill Hemmer said: "I can't recall a time or moment like this, on an American river, where the Coast Guard has opened fire."

In fact, no shots were fired and there was no trouble on the river.

The Coast Guard's chief of staff, John Currier, said participants in the exercise were given simulated instructions by radio to fire 10 rounds, and someone said "bang, bang, bang," — the routine signal of compliance in drills that don't involve live fire.

Unaware that it was an exercise, CNN opened its reporting on the incident by saying at least one boat was intruding in a security zone on the river and the Coast Guard was chasing it. As the network showed pictures of the river, a banner read: "Breaking News: Coast Guard fires 10 rounds at boat on Potomac River."

"This is pretty incredible," said the anchor, Heidi Collins. CNN played audio from the scanner, with a man saying: "Stop your vessel. ... You will be fired on."

The exercise played out on the stretch of the Potomac closest to the Pentagon — between the 14th Street and Memorial bridges — as Obama joined families of the victims in remembrance of the attack that killed 184 people when hijacked American Flight 77 plowed into the building.

The Coast Guard began the drill at 9:30 a.m., five minutes after Obama arrived at the Pentagon for ceremonies keyed to 9:37 a.m. — the time of the 9/11 attack. Other agencies were not widely notified of the drill because the Coast Guard considered the exercise routine.

Currier said no apology was necessary for conducting a routine drill. Still he said, "We're going to take a good hard look at what we did here today and ensure that if we need to modify procedures, if we need to modify notification, we will do so in the future."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asked the Coast Guard commandant, Adm. Thad Allen, "for a full account of what happened," said Sara Kuban, speaking for the secretary.

A group for military families expressed outrage over the timing and setting of the exercise.

"Absolutely inexcusable," Military Families United said in a statement. "September 11th is a day to remember the loss of 2,973 innocent victims in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon; not a day to create an unnecessary panic near a terrorist's target."

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs defended the Coast Guard's decision to train in the Potomac on the Sept. 11 anniversary.

"I tend not to question law enforcement in keeping the nation's capital safe," he said. "If they feel they need a training exercise, best not to second-guess."

As for the errors of the networks, he said: "Before we report things like this, checking would be good."

CNN said in a statement hours later that it called the Coast Guard twice and was told "its National Command Center and other command posts knew nothing about any activity in the area." But CNN said "it would have been irresponsible not to report on what we were hearing and seeing."

The Associated Press reported that the Coast Guard was conducting a drill in the area and quoted Coast Guard Chief Keith Moore as saying no shots were fired.

Departures from Reagan National, which is also along the Potomac, were halted for about 20 minutes, delaying 17 flights until the confusion cleared.

Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett and Joan Lowy contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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The Associated Press

[Theduck Profile]

and military families sore that officials would simulate a confrontation

[Thewatcher Profile]

and military families sore that officials would simulate a confrontation

Oh duck your so cynical You are going to be correcting many members over there spelling errors i see

[jetxvii]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 3921.story

False media reports on Coast Guard gunfire raise concerns

CNN reported a boat confrontation near the Pentagon, where Obama was attending a 9/11 memorial. It was later clarified as a training exercise.
By Joe Markman and Matea Gold

September 12, 2009

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Reporting from Washington and New York - Initial reports of shots being fired during a Coast Guard exercise near the route of President Obama's motorcade Friday afternoon proved false, raising questions about how the media and the military handled the incident.

The exercise, which the Coast Guard said was routine and planned in advance, occurred on the Potomac River near the Pentagon, where Obama attended a memorial for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

CNN and Fox began reporting that the Coast Guard had opened fire on a suspicious vessel. On Twitter, CNN reported: "Coast Guard confronts boat as Obama visits Pentagon, police scanner reports say shots fired."

It took the network almost 30 minutes to get clarification and report that the boats were merely in a training exercise.

"The higher the stakes, the more careful you have to be to make sure you are correct," said Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University's College of Communication. "Unfortunately, this is one of those examples of ready-fire-aim journalism."

The false reports of gunfire were based on radio calls in which Coast Guard personnel imitated "bang bang" noises, agency spokeswoman Lt. Nadine Santiago said.

"It's a really dangerous practice to use radio traffic as your principal source of information because it so often turns out to be incorrect," said Al Tompkins, a faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a journalism center.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also rebuked CNN for not confirming its information.

"Before we report things like this, checking would be good," Gibbs said.

CNN defended its reporting, saying in a statement that the network had aired the story after observing the maneuvers of Coast Guard vessels on the river and hearing a radio transmission in which someone said: "We have expended 10 rounds."

Before reporting the incident, CNN said, it contacted the Coast Guard public affairs office and a spokeswoman for the agency said she was unaware of any activity on the river.

Frances Fragos Townsend, a former Homeland Security advisor to President George W. Bush and a frequent contributor to CNN, said in an interview that if the Coast Guard had not bungled its responsibility to communicate with other agencies and the public, then the entire incident could have been avoided.

"It's incumbent on the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security to inform people, " Townsend said.

The Coast Guard said it was not required to tell any federal or local agencies about the exercise in advance.

Security consultant and former Secret Service agent Ron Williams also criticized the Coast Guard's lack of interagency communication. He said that though there was no danger of the Secret Service overreacting, such a breakdown was appalling, especially on Sept. 11.

matea.gold@latimes.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

[jetxvii]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryla ... 5532.story

9/11 panic on Potomac
Coast Guard exercise, false media reports fuel fear on commemoration day


By Paul West | paul.west@baltsun.com

September 12, 2009


WASHINGTON — - The Coast Guard promised a full investigation Friday after a training exercise on the Potomac River grounded flights at Reagan National Airport amid media-fueled fears of another Sept. 11 incident.

False TV reports about machine gun-equipped Coast Guard vessels firing on a suspicious craft in a security zone not far from a 9/11 commemoration at the Pentagon prompted sharp criticism of the government for staging the drill at such a sensitive moment. In turn, the White House pushed back against cable TV networks for erroneous "breaking news" reports.

Vice Adm. John P. Currier said the Coast Guard would conduct "a top-to-bottom review" of the exercise, which had been authorized by its commander in Baltimore.

Democratic Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard, said he could not understand why the service would be simulating an incident on the Potomac "when the nation was on high alert, when families of 9/11 victims were nearby and when the president was either in the vicinity or had just left," without at least notifying relevant authorities in advance.

The Baltimore congressman said that he was listening, with alarm, to CNN's live coverage on his car's satellite radio, "and I was wondering, 'Do we have another terrorist-type situation where they want to commemorate 9/11?' " He said his committee would look into the incident.

During the exercise, which began about 9:30 a.m., four 25-foot patrol craft churned up the surface of the river while a Coast Guard helicopter zoomed low overhead.

Unaware that it was only a simulated confrontation, CNN, which was monitoring police radio frequencies, relayed the Coast Guard conversations to its audience. Within minutes, Reuters news agency and Fox News Channel picked up the CNN story.

FBI and local police vehicles rushed to the scene, apparently in response to the CNN report. The Federal Aviation Administration halted takeoffs at National Airport, whose flight paths follow the river, for about 20 minutes.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs harshly criticized the news coverage.

"Before we report things like this, checking would be good," he said.

CNN said it called the Coast Guard public affairs office in Washington before airing its initial report and was told by a spokeswoman that she was unaware of anything happening on the Potomac. It took about 30 minutes before the network let viewers know that it had raised a false alarm.

"Given the circumstances, it would have been irresponsible not to report on what we were hearing and seeing," the network said in a statement.

At a hastily called noon news conference, Currier, the Coast Guard's chief of staff, said there had been "really no reason" to provide any advance warning to other law enforcement agencies or the public about the drill, which he called an "everyday exercise."

Public advisories are routinely issued in advance about exercises involving military flights over the Washington area, to help avoid unnecessary confusion.

President Barack Obama, who attended the Pentagon ceremony with his wife, Michelle, crossed a Potomac bridge close to the scene around the time that the exercise was under way.

Currier said the exercise had been authorized by the Coast Guard unit in Baltimore that is responsible for operations in the national capital region. The Baltimore office is commanded by Captain Mark P. O'Malley, a 28-year Coast Guard veteran. A call to O'Malley's office was not returned.

The incident "sounds very much like the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing," Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio said in a statement.

Voinovich, senior Republican on a homeland security subcommittee, said that the "anxiety caused by this situation on such a solemn day is extremely disturbing."

A military families' advocacy group that has been critical of Obama administration policies, including its handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, issued a statement deploring the training exercise as "absolutely inexcusable." It called on the government to hold accountable those responsible for authorizing the Coast Guard training.

"This training exercise not only caused unwarranted stress for [9/11] families but it was a distraction from the purpose of today," the group Military Families United said in a prepared statement.

The incident had echoes of a White House photo shoot last spring, in which two fighter planes and an Air Force jumbo jet from the presidential fleet flew low over New York harbor, panicking residents who feared a repeat of the 9/11 attack. A White House aide who authorized the flight subsequently resigned.

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun

[Theduck Profile]

and military families sore that officials would simulate a confrontation

Oh duck your so cynical You are going to be correcting many members over there spelling errors i see

Not members man the two guys/gals who wrote the top 'report' (By CALVIN WOODWARD and EILEEN SULLIVAN) you'de think with two people working on something just one would proof read..