The “panic” over the exercise originated entirely at CNN, due to their rush to go live with a story before properly verifying it.

But they couldn’t be bothered with the real Van Jones story. The “Watchdogs on Power” are barking at the mailman while the house is being robbed. Time to put them down.

“Wasn’t the exercise the main reason that they were able to get planed in the air at all that day? They were vectored out over the water until they could get higher approval to approach the hijacked panes.”
lexhamfox on September 12

Not really.

They flew out over the Ocean cuz for the last 50 years it was assumed that an attack on the USA would originate outside the USA.

The standard drill for an attack was to scrabble out over the Ocean and intercept “bombers” before they could hit the mainland.

The highjacked plane’s flights all originated within the USA, making the highjacked planes a “domestic law enforcement” issue.

By law, The Posse Comitatus act 1878, the US military cannot be used for domestic law enforcement without the permission of Congress, yes Congress not the President.

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention

TwilightAuthor on September 11, 2009 at 5:58 PM

I heard the “bang, bang, bang” “shots fired” on Rush’s show.

I don’t know which is the scarriest, the CNN report, or I actually agree with Robert Gibbs.

It made me laugh on an otherise somber day.
B-

I think all these ‘smart’ newspeople should go out in the real world and contribute something tangible to society.

This training runs the risk of distracting security operations and panicking the local populace who maybe unaware of training operations. This really becomes a problem when a media outlet gets involved.

CNN is clearly at fault for not checking with the Coast Guard or anyone else before running the story.

thmsmgnm on September 11, 2009 at 4:50 PM

Do you have any clue as to what training actually is? When you see any security unit – be it secret service or the local police – they all conduct training as part of their day, that is how they stay prepared for an oh sh!t situation.

Quit trying to defend the Communist News Network and get over it. Like many others have already pointed out, units train constantly. We don’t get the luxury of relaxing on holidays.

Incidentally, on 9/11/2001, the Air Force was holding a military exercise over the Atlantic east of Virginia, which is why fighter jets were not available to intercept the plane which hit the Pentagon, and Flight 93 which may have struck the Capitol if its passengers hadn’t fought the terrorists to a stalemate resulting in its crash in PA.

Steve Z on September 11, 2009 at 5:09 PM

We only have four? Oh crap.

Ronnie on September 11, 2009 at 5:25 PM

Wasn’t the exercise the main reason that they were able to get planed in the air at all that day? They were vectored out over the water until they could get higher approval to approach the hijacked panes.

But they did get the one about that guy who called Obama a liar!

Even found out he’s taken “No Doze” ya know.

DSchoen on September 12, 2009 at 12:04 AM

OH! NO! Say it isn’t so.

The horror! The humanity!

Even found out he’s taken “No Doze” ya know.

The “panic” over the exercise originated entirely at CNN, due to their rush to go live with a story before properly verifying it.

And yet they missed “Pimps are Us” at Aporn
The wackie 9/11 truther in the White House.

Amazing.
Sad but Amazing.

CNN = Consistently Nutcase Network.

There’s no reason why this couldn’t have been announced ahead of time. That it wasn’t was idiocy on the part of the Coast Guard. Gibbs is doubling down on that idiocy.

LMAO…

It’s CNN!

nuff said.

Thank you! :O)
I read this blog daily!

I am seeing a LOT of comments saying that the Coast Guard shouldn’t have been performing exercises today. I am sorry, but that is just horse hockey!
I did four years in the Navy, and I can tell you without a doubt, there is training of some type EVERY DAY. I have done fire drills on Christmas Eve, and security alerts on Thanksgiving. It may be only the “on-duty” personell involved, but training is a constant.

ArkCon on September 11, 2009 at 6:47 PM

Training is constant… but its also PRIVATE. You don’t go out and train where your Excercise can be miscontrued as the real thing…

You do know that when you ran Security training, it is SOP for your Officer of the Deck to send the Messenger to all Ships on your Pier, telling them you are doing a drill?

It could be a change in SOP since they’re now under DHS. Or is could have been a joint operation with civilian law enforcement and so it had to be on a clear channel since there are so many variations between local agencies.

SPCOlympics on September 11, 2009 at 6:46 PM

Wasn’t the communication infrastructure one of the things that was supposed to be addressed? I remember somthing to that effect in the 9/11 Commision report…

I mean… come on… its been 8 years…

The CG should have interjected the words “this is a drill” during the exercise. People do use scanners. The CG failed to do that.

ChickaBOOMer — CNN: Crank News Network
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2009/09/cnn-crank-news-network.html

Makes sense then…. we used to run this type of training ALL encrypted… nothing ever went over any channel which Civilians could pick up…

We’d “simulate” the Civilian Radio traffic over Encrypted channels… for just this reason… so those around us would not Freak out because they didn’t know it was a training excercise…

Of course, we were also very careful to let any other Military unit around us know that we were going to be holding a drill… especialy in higher threat areas, like Foreign Ports.

Romeo13 on September 11, 2009 at 4:42 PM

It could be a change in SOP since they’re now under DHS. Or is could have been a joint operation with civilian law enforcement and so it had to be on a clear channel since there are so many variations between local agencies.

WTF? How dare our military folk work on a day like 9-11?!

Le Gasp!

sarainitaly on September 11, 2009 at 5:13 PM

You should post here more often. Love your blog.