Washington, DC - Training Exercise on Potomac Creates Media Frenzy

[blantonl]

Vice Adm. John Currier of the U.S. Coast Guard indicated that unspecified "members of the public" intercepted clear-channel, unencrypted Coast Guard radio transmissions regarding the exercise and apparently concluded erroneously that a real interdiction of a suspect vessel was taking place on the Potomac not far from the Pentagon, where President Obama attended a ceremony Friday morning marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091102255.html

[aaron315]

Another report on the same topic:

Coast Guard Refuses to Apologize for Training Drill During Tribute to 9/11 - Political News - FOXNews.com

This is exactly the type of irresponsible behavior by the media and others that will lead to everything being encrypted.

[Lynch_Christopher]

Originally Posted by aaron315

Another report on the same topic:

Coast Guard Refuses to Apologize for Training Drill During Tribute to 9/11 - Political News - FOXNews.com

This is exactly the type of irresponsible behavior by the media and others that will lead to everything being encrypted.

From what I saw on MSNBC it sounds like the radio call went over marine channel 81A so they weren't using one of the CG-Net channels. In terms of everything becoming encrypted I say we wait till what the investigation reveals.

[ac7xc]

Originally Posted by blantonl

Vice Adm. John Currier of the U.S. Coast Guard indicated that unspecified "members of the public" intercepted clear-channel, unencrypted Coast Guard radio transmissions regarding the exercise and apparently concluded erroneously that a real interdiction of a suspect vessel was taking place on the Potomac not far from the Pentagon, where President Obama attended a ceremony Friday morning marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091102255.html

You can watch CNN and hear the intercepted audio at youtube.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_sFaDJ2pz8

[Audiodave1]

And now more USCG comms will be encrypted....Here in Philly they have been using a 165.xx channel for most routine ops, 90% encrypted. I believe this is similar to NY and Boston also.

Just goes to show how un-trained ears can go off the deep end quickly.

Around me CG always says "This is an exercise" before and after every comm. Maybe this wasn't the case in DC. Maybe protocol wasn't followed, assuming there is one on radio transmissions of this nature.

Dave

[ac7xc]

Originally Posted by aaron315

Another report on the same topic:

Coast Guard Refuses to Apologize for Training Drill During Tribute to 9/11 - Political News - FOXNews.com

This is exactly the type of irresponsible behavior by the media and others that will lead to everything being encrypted.

No, The only thing that went wrong is that the USCG didn't preface every message with "This an exercise. blah blah blah."

It is common to use such a preface when on a exercise and using unencrypted comms. The media is also to blame for jumping the gun based on wild eyed civilians calling about a terrorist attack on the Potomac.

[FFPM571]

Its the media looking for any excuse to pimp 9/11 into a story for ratings

[Audiodave1]

Originally Posted by FFPM571

Its the media looking for any excuse to pimp 9/11 into a story for ratings

Well, yes unfortunately. In general it was a bad day to have an exercise.
I even caught a TSA exercise on their main channel today at PHL. Surprised the Media didn't pick up on that also.

[elk2370bruce]

Originally Posted by ac7xc

No, The only thing that went wrong is that the USCG didn't preface every message with "This an exercise. blah blah blah."

It is common to use such a preface when on a exercise and using unencrypted comms. The media is also to blame for jumping the gun based on wild eyed civilians calling about a terrorist attack on the Potomac.

Ding Ding Ding! You've hit the nail on the head. Its drumbed into the head of every dispatcher.
The USCG three star has made the comment that all exercise traffic "was on a drill channel". Apparently not!
The choice of doing the drill during the 9-11 memorials was, of course, a major boo-boo.

[eorange]

Originally Posted by ac7xc

No, The only thing that went wrong is that the USCG didn't preface every message with "This an exercise. blah blah blah."

I didn't believe it until I listened to the audio. Every sentence of every exercise I've heard on Lake Erie is always prefixed and suffixed with "this is a drill". Unreal, especially the timing!

[Spec]

What we have heard so far is a excerpt of radio transmissions. Perhaps there was a "this is a drill" that was not recorded. But then again everything must be true if it is reported by the media or better still on the Internet. I think someone was a bit fast on the repeat button on this one. I'm willing to give the CG the benefit of the doubt.

[mdulrich]

Originally Posted by elk2370bruce

The choice of doing the drill during the 9-11 memorials was, of course, a major boo-boo.

That is thing that jumped out at me. Who thought it was a good idea to do this drill on 9/11, near the Pentagon, during the time of the memorial services, while POTUS was in the vicinity. This makes as much sense as flying the Air Force 1 jet at low levels over NYC.

I had to laugh when the CG admiral said they are a 24/7/365 operation. Gives them plenty of time to do the drill.

Mike

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by FFPM571

Its the media looking for any excuse to pimp 9/11 into a story for ratings

I agree,i dont believe it was a REGULAR TRAINING EXCERSIZE...

[PrivateUser]

Is there some exemption afforded the media that allows them to report what they hear on scanners? It seems to me the rest of us aren't able to repeat or rebroadcast what is heard directly from scanners based on some old FCC law from the 1930's? It's as if someone thought, lets get this on the air and we'll ask questions later... Whatever happened to news entities confirming their leads before publishing/airing thier "news". Instead, of accepting responsibility for erring in their story, lets blame the source.

[newsphotog]

Originally Posted by PrivateUser

Is there some exemption afforded the media that allows them to report what they hear on scanners? It seems to me the rest of us aren't able to repeat or rebroadcast what is heard directly from scanners based on some old FCC law from the 1930's? It's as if someone thought, lets get this on the air and we'll ask questions later... Whatever happened to news entities confirming their leads before publishing/airing thier "news". Instead, of accepting responsibility for erring in their story, lets blame the source.

No, there is no exception. Members of the press have no more or no less rights than the common American citizen. However the "no right to divulge" is interpreted many many different ways by many many different people. I'm not going to get into that war, I'll let other people get into it if they want. I probably wouldn't know what I'm arguing about anyways.

Although a common practice in many newsrooms to avoid the entire "right to divulge" argument is when you hear a fire call go over the scanner, for example, is the assignment editor calls the public information officer to get details. This is a good practice anyways because information that goes out over the scanner is not always 100% accurate.

It was a terrible idea for the media outlets that broadcasted the misinformation yesterday to report the incident without confirming with someone in the USCG. There is no excuse for that.

I can't speak for what the USCG protocol is, but even if their policy is to state "this is a drill" during every transmission and they failed to do so, the media outlets that reported the false incident are still to blame because they didn't check their facts like they should have. I sincerely hope this will not ruin it for all other scanner listeners. Like the government needs another reason to go encrypted!

One time when I was working at a newspaper, we were listening to the scanner during what sounded like a police chase. No warnings, no "this is a drill" or "this is an exercise." We went over to the Big Huge Magical Map of the City on the wall in the newsroom and figured out they were driving through the state fairgrounds and it was an exercise only. It would have been reckless of the newspaper to spread misinformation.

[DaveNF2G]

The media have always claimed a First Amendment right to violate the Communications Act.

Maybe it will be tested thoroughly in the courts this time, if the Feds decide to prosecute somebody at CNN.

Their "out" would be the fact (if it is a fact) that nobody from CNN directly intercepted the radio call. In that case, of course, their criminal defense would be that they have no journalistic integrity.

[wa8pyr]

Originally Posted by DaveNF2G

The media have always claimed a First Amendment right to violate the Communications Act.

Maybe it will be tested thoroughly in the courts this time, if the Feds decide to prosecute somebody at CNN.

Their "out" would be the fact (if it is a fact) that nobody from CNN directly intercepted the radio call. In that case, of course, their criminal defense would be that they have no journalistic integrity.

Good point. Something else to consider is that those comms were heard on 81A, which IIRC is reserved in the US for Coast Guard use; had they really been trying to contact a suspicious craft, those comms would likely have been on 16, the international calling channel.