[The Pack Knight]

I will say that if the White House is lying about this, then it's more likely that it's to downplay an actual threat, rather than to play up a phony one. Everything Obama has done so far suggests that he does not want September 11th to be associated with terrorism any longer.

[RinaseaofDs]

Oh, I agree.

The USCG needs to get permission to fire on a vessel before it does, and it uses disabling fire first unless fired upon.

In all cases, the minimum force necessary to maintain compliance. Period.

If they discharged their weapons without issuing a Notice to Mariners and Aviators prior to the drill, then it was a REAL threat, and they had a ‘weapons free’ command from an O-6 or better.

Something happened today that wasn’t an exercise.