This is the photo that the White House released today of the Air Force jumbo jet that serves as Air Force One when the president is aboard -- though he wasn't on this day -- flying over New York City last month. This and other shots cost the Air Force about $357,000 -- mostly for the flight of the aircraft itself and also for two F-16s escorting it.
by Mark Silva and updated at 12:15 pm EDT
Anyone with an eye on a television set in Washington this morning was transfixed for a moment as the cable news flashed reports of the Coast Guard firing several rounds on the Potomac River -- not far from the Pentagon, where the president was laying a wreath in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks eight years ago today.
But there was no story here: The motorists moving along the 14th Street Bridge and Memorial Bridge on either side of the apparently troubled waters probably served as best testament to the fact that this was a training exercise, only an exercise.
Yet the timing of the faux drama on the river could prove to become something much more for the people who authorized it -- much like that "photo op" flyover that Air Force One made over the Statue of Liberty earlier thiis year. That photo-op, with a low-flying presidential aircraft trailed by a fighter jet in the skies where New Yorkers had witnessed the first attacks of 9/11, cost the White House military liaison his job.
After many minutes of confusion surrounding what people were seeing, or weren't seeing, on this rainy morning of a 9/11 anniversary of Washington, the Coast Guard finally said that it had conducted a training exercise in the Potomac.
Initial cable news accounts of perhaps 10 shots fired on the river were wrong. Coast Guard Chief Keith Moore told the Associated Press that no shots had been fired near the bridge where the president's motorcade had passed on its way to the Pentagon this morning.
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Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards said references to shots fired came from radio chatter in the exercise -- simulated instructions to fire 10 rounds on a boat in the restricted waters. The Coast Guard conducts this sort of training every day.
The training had nothing to do with the 9/11 anniversary, Edwards added. "This is routine training for us and we train everyday.''
The Coast Guard, in a midday news conference to explain the event, said that it routinely runs four training exercises a week on the river, though it will conduct a "top to bottom review'' of the timing of this one. It also said that it routinely "verbalizes'' shots being fired for timing in these exercises, but wasn'r sure if anyone had actually said, "Bang, bang, bang,'' on the radio this morning.
The White House, for its part, wasn't ready to question the Guard's judgment in public today. "I tend not to question law enforcement,'' Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, said-- though he was ready to question the media's reporting of the initial impression of shots being fired on the Potomac. CNN was saying that it tried to get comment from the Coast Guard before airing its report this morning.
Indeed, Gibbs sounded a little like his boss, who has spoken of the late Walter Cronkite's practice of getting a story right before getting it first -- Obama mentioned this at a memorial for the newscaster this week.
"We all owe it to everyone,'' Gibbs said, "to ensure that we may not get this story first... but (we'll) be the first to get it right.''
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Christi Parsons contributed to this report.
(The costly photo of the Air Force One flyover over the Statue of Liberty above was released by the Air Force earlier this year. The potentially costly training exercise of the Coast Guard on the Potomac River today is pictured in a photo by Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP)
Comments
SORRY LOONY LEFTIES, YOU'RE GETTING TOSSED UNDER THE BUS.
Top Democrats in Congress soften on public option
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/11/health.care/index.html
SUPPORT STUPID POSTS, POST THEM DAILY, IDIOTIC AND REPETITIVE. NOW.
Posted by: Bobbie Mobbie | September 11, 2009 11:29 AM
This seems like a result of the Rumsfeld-stacked, Cheney-monitored pentagon. So, why did Cheney remain close by in the DC area and not return to his "home" state of Wyoming?
Posted by: Vivian | September 11, 2009 12:18 PM
I hope they were training to fend off the hate filled, knuckle dragging right wing nut jobs that show up to town hall meeting with assault Rifles. You know it's only a matter of time before the radical right wing demogogues like Beck, Rush and Palin get one of their weak minded followers riled up enough to attemp an act of political violence. I hope they profile angry conservatives and check them closely to ensure that they are no danger. Isn't profiling a small price to pay for security?
Posted by: Profile right wingers. | September 11, 2009 12:28 PM
Posted by: Bobbie Mobbie | September 11, 2009 11:29 AM
Well that certainly would be more than we ever recieved from a republican. Unless a useless war is something you treasure.
Posted by: bill r. | September 11, 2009 12:33 PM
What will it take for government agencies to co-ordinate their efforts? there is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588
Posted by: carly | September 11, 2009 12:56 PM
SORRY LOONY LEFTIES, YOU'RE GETTING TOSSED UNDER THE BUS.Top Democrats in Congress soften on public option
Posted by: Bobbie Mobbie | September 11, 2009 11:29 AM
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Faux lied again?
I'm Shocked!....not.
Will someone please give me some more GOP kool-aide, I'm starting to foam at the mouth again!
Posted by: I wanna be a Republican idiot, Don | September 11, 2009 1:00 PM
"Vivian" blames the Pentagon? Sorry, the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Defense Department. So let's see, what Bush appointments there could we blame? None, of course. And why blame anybody? The Coast Guard was appropriately conducting a training exercise. It was CNN that was improper in monitoring a Coast Guard radio channel and using that pirated information to go on the air without verification. Oh, just to be clear, the Homeland Security secretary reports to PRESIDENT OBAMA, not to Donald Rumsfeld.
Posted by: Garrick | September 11, 2009 1:40 PM
On this day of 9/11 it's a good time to not only double our resolve to fight international terrorism but also Right Wing Domestic Terrorism here in America:
>> Mythbusting Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism
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http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/mythbusting-right-wing-domestic-terr
>> Jim D. Adkisson Charged In Tennessee Church Shooting That Killed 2
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/28/jim-d-adkisson-charged-in_n_115281.html
>> Pittsburgh Cop Killer: “Obama Scheming to Take My Guns”
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http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/pittsburgh-cop-killer-obama-scheming-to-take-my-guns/
>> The suspect in custody for the slaying of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was a member of a right wing anti-government group in the 1990s and a staunch opponent of abortion.
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/256/story/69151.html
>> The violent right wing extremists never let us forget. Sooner or later, they act on their beliefs. And that's when we start to see just how short that distance has become -- regardless of their attempts to claim the opposite.
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http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/glenn-beck-and-his-fellow-wingnuts-p
Posted by: Mobbie Bobbie | September 11, 2009 2:04 PM
" Isn't profiling a small price to pay for security?
Posted by: Profile right wingers. | September 11, 2009 12:28 PM"
I agree! And if they haven't done anything wrong they don't have to worry.
Posted by: T. Herman Zweibel | September 11, 2009 2:38 PM
Idiot,
This story was broke by those rocket scientists at CNN.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/white-house-blames-media-for-scare-resulting-from-coast-guard-exercise.html
Posted by: Terry | September 11, 2009 8:04 PM
Garrick--"The President of the United States can transfer part or all of the Coast Guard to the Navy in times of conflict." That crazy thing called "war on terror" allowed for (Bush) all kinds of crap during the eight years of "conflict". Garrick, sounds as if you just fell from the sky yesterday.
Posted by: Vivian | September 13, 2009 12:31 AM
Vivian,
Good thing we don't have a "war on terror" anymore just a "overseas contingency operation"
Posted by: Terry | September 13, 2009 4:25 PM