9/11 Scare: 'Shots' Reported Fired by Coast Guard

Coast Guard Admits it Was Having Training Exercise -- Right Near Pentagon Memorial

Washington, D.C., residents mourning the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks this morning heard an eerie echo just an hour later -- reports that a Coast Guard vessel had fired shots at a boat in the Potomac River near the Pentagon.

But after half-an-hour of anxiety, the Coast Guard and local police said the whole thing was a training exercise, and no shots were fired at all.

Before the Coast Guard announcement, departures from Washington's Reagan National Airport were halted from 10:08 a.m. to 10:29 a.m., delaying 17 departures, and FBI agents scrambled to the scene near the river. A law enforcement official, asking not to be identified, told the Associated Press the local FBI office had not been told ahead of time about the exercise.

Network news programs broke into regular morning shows to report the incident, and cable networks went to blanket coverage.

Read more....