Coast Guard Explains Role in Sept. 11 D.C. Drill

The Coast Guard promised a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding a regularly scheduled training mission that was conducted in the Potomac River on Sept. 11, not far from the Pentagon site where terrorists crashed a hijacked airliner eight years earlier. Persons who monitored the training mission on police scanner radios misinterpreted the dialogue, concluding that a real terrorist threat loomed. Word soon spread to CNN, the cable news channel – which reported the incident incorrectly and without checking it for accuracy, including references to "gunshots" that were never fired. Other news agencies then also picked up the story, again, without checking its authenticity. CNN retracted the story about a half-hour later. "The exercise was planned in advance and was being conducted on a marine radio frequency reserved for Coast Guard training operations," the Coast Guard said in a statement issued later that day. "We are still gathering information of how this training event might have been misconstrued as an actual incident."