By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm with expertise combating terrorism and investigating money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering.
Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management.
Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC's Nightline, NBC's Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world, including the Center for Research and Strategic Studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He represented the U.S. Government at the July 1996 OSCE Terrorism Conference in Vienna, Austria.
From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He managed crisis response operations for terrorist incidents throughout the world and he helped organize and direct the US Government’s debriefing of US citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq, which provided vital intelligence on Iraqi operations following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr. Johnson also participated in the investigation of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103. Under Mr. Johnson’s leadership the U.S. airlines and pilots agreed to match the US Government’s two million-dollar reward.
From 1985 through September 1989 Mr. Johnson worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. During his distinguished career, he received training in paramilitary operations, worked in the Directorate of Operations, served in the CIA’s Operation’s Center, and established himself as a prolific analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence. In his final year with the CIA he received two Exceptional Performance Awards.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He taught at The American University’s School of International Service (1979-1983) while working on a Ph.D. in political science. He has a M.S. degree in Community Development from the University of Missouri (1978), where he also received his B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976.See Authors Posts (886) on August 6, 2008 at 5:09 PM in Current Affairs
Crude warning. This is too funny to resist. Thanks to the Daily Howler we get this precious Bob Herbert moment:
HERBERT (8/4/08): You guys have seen the ad a number of times, I am sure, and you have it here in-house. First thing you see are a couple of images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, right? And we see an image of Barack Obama right after that, comes quickly at the beginning of the ad. You remember that, right? Do you remember any other startling images right there at the beginning? All right. There is an image right there in that very beginning of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and there is an image of the Washington Monument. Look at the beginning of that ad again. And you tell me why those two phallic symbols are placed there—pow!—right at the very beginning of that ad. I really wish somebody would answer the question—I think it’s really important. Why are those two phallic symbols in this ad…
Here’s the video in question:
Word to Bob. That ain’t the Leaning Tower of Pisa nor the Washington Monument. Can you say, Siegesaule? That’s the crowd of adoring Berliners waiting for the second half of the concert to start. And all you see is a penis like structure?
But wait, there is more.
Howler also astutely points out:
Keith Olbermann: Herbert’s presentation occurred on Monday morning. Twelve hours later, our own Mr. O was still recycling his howlers:
OLBERMANN (8/4/08): It seems like the celebrity ad continues to echo and Bob Herbert of the New York Times was on this network pointing out something—I don`t know that anybody noticed before—this morning: That not only in that McCain ad were there two underdressed blondes mixed with the black guy in the ad, but there are also images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Washington Monument, and the Victory Column in Berlin, as Bob Herbert put it, “phallic symbols”—three phallic symbols, two blondes and Barack Obama.
He’d had twelve hours to check his facts—but he still was repeating these world-class blunders. For the record, no one had “noticed” those famous structures because they aren’t there in the ad.
Its even worse than Olberman and Herbert say. Did you see the fountain in front of the White House. This is an obvious play to male racial stereotypes.
don’t know what ad you were watching Larry…but it is very clear that the three - tower of pisa, victory column and washington monument are present in this ad…yup, all three of them.
Comment by David A., Is That You Trolling?
| 2008-08-07 00:35:24
Obama and his supporters are much more delusional than neo-cons. And, I didn’t think it would be possible for any other group to be that far out in la-la land.
Of course, when you have a candidate that has no character, you have to make-believe.
[...] August 6, 2008 Too funny: Keith Olbermann keeps talking about Obama’s rally at the bast of Berlin’s largest outdoor sandstone monumental phallus. Posted by hillbuzz under Uncategorized Via No Quarter [...]
WTF? This is just hilarious! Now everyone’s going to take another look at McCain’s ad for those “hidden” penises? Obviously, you have to have your Kool-Aid goggles on.
“no one had “noticed” those famous structures because they aren’t there in the ad”: this is a racist comment plainly designed to suggest that BHO is a eunuch!
Having the wrong buildings aside, what are these guys suggesting the phallic symbols suggest? I mean, so what? Wait, let me guess…phallic symbols are racist?
Well yes, because … and you have to be over the age of 50 to remember this … there used to be white hysteria around black men raping white women, and then that transformed into white hysteria about black men being more well endowed and so attracting white women. And it followed from there that the white power structure was motivated to kill off black men so as to protect, defend, and horde their own white womenfolk.
Gawd, it’s all such ancient history I can hardly remember how the narrative went, because it always sounded pretty darned flattering to black men if you ask me.
Those penises are much bigger than any politicians penises that I’ve ever seen! WOW! Now I know Freud wasn’t kidding when he talked about Penis Envy! I’m green with jealousy!
Please explain to me, how when a person basically mows down the German Chancellor to speak somewhere she’s asked him not to, can these men have the testicular fortitude to actually accuse mccain of making racial insinuations. Ago month before obama even went to Germany, people on hillbuzz were giggling about how the victory column looked like a phallic symbol. Now he’s winning about it. Come he heck on. The people in the MSM really need to grow some self respect. Obama is making them look down right stupid. this man can not get into the white house.
I personally wasn’t crazy about the Paris/Britney part of the ad, but it showed that Obama has a glass jaw, inviting further attacks.
My apologies in advance for any subliminal messages or phallic symbols in this message, not to mention the use of a boxing analogy against a black man (can I be a racist who sees McCain as the great white hope?) without having cleared it with Bob Herbert.
And weird that KO and Herbert didn’t notice the phallux symbols of rockets and missles during Shock and awe. They only notice them with women in the picture. Pigs.
I mean … cod piece? How often in everyday life does one get to read those words in print? Unless you’re a Shakespeare scholar. You noquarter people are a hoot!
This will be considered off-topic — but it isn’t. I thought I’d share this letter which was sent to the Editor of the Times-Dispatch by a gentlemen who escaped Cuba in the 1960’s. His words come from the experience of believing in someone, without taking the time to know who they really are, and the consequences that followed:
Subject: Celebration
From Richmond Times-Dispatch, Monday, July 7, 2008
Dear Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4, I celebrate America ’s. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.
On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few months later, I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.
I’ve thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, so when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.
When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said, ‘Praise the Lord.’ And when the young leader said, ‘I will be for change and I’ ll bring you change,’ everone yelled, ‘Viva Fidel!’
But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner’s guns went silent, the people’s guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education, it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over, more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I’m back to the beginning of my story.
Luckily, we in America would never fall for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America ?
Would we?
Manuel Alvarez, JR.
posted by
Kathleen | 08.06.08 - 2:48 pm | #
Wow. Great letter, and a great analogy. In 1960, the Cuban people wanted “change” too. What they got was Fidel Castro and 48 years of oppressive socialist stagnation. Be careful what kind of “change” you vote for!
As a fellow Cuban-American, I agree 100% with the author.
Because of my exiled family’s history I have always been extremely wary of charismatic orators… Their circular logic, half-truths, utopian rhetoric and pandering. Exploitive demagogues.
I saw him on Morning Joe doing his rant, Leaning Tower and Washington Monument?? He always had that Thorazine look to him but I’ve never seen anything like that. Didn’t he watch a few times first? I think the NYT better remove this guy from their pages
When i read about the phallic symbols, I had to immediatel check the ad. I did not think that I had seen the Leaning Tower of Pissa. I was right. I had not seen it. Is this what passes for our “more educated” that are supporting Obama overwhelmingly.
I have noticed the same thing. All the blather about how smart Obama and the bots are is contradicted every time one of them opens their mouths and inserts a hoof or two.
Uppity note: Dig up that link to the woman who met Keith in the hotel room, when he brought a bottle of merlot. Cripes. Merlot. Jesus. At least bring pinot noir or something.
Its even worse than Olberman and Herbert say. Did you see the fountain in front of the White House. This is an obvious play to male racial stereotypes.
I saw more of a phallic symbol in the video when BO shot Hillary and her supporters the finger!
PUMA HAKA
I’m deeply offended by the pervasive big O that Obama uses as his primary symbol. It is clearly a symbol of female sexuality.
I am similarly offended by Winston Churchill’s V sign — it is clearly a symbol for a sexual position.
Oh my god. There is sexual symbolism everywhere! This must STOP!
The number 69 must go. It is just too full of innuendo.
6666666- that’s bad too.
whats that, group sex?
http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cza0363l.jpg
You always come up with good ones. How do you find them?
ROFL.
don’t know what ad you were watching Larry…but it is very clear that the three - tower of pisa, victory column and washington monument are present in this ad…yup, all three of them.
Sorry janine, but all three images are of victory column. Better check you glasses.
Obama and his supporters are much more delusional than neo-cons. And, I didn’t think it would be possible for any other group to be that far out in la-la land.
Of course, when you have a candidate that has no character, you have to make-believe.
Obama made his bed with his BIG NAZI PENIS STATUE, and now he has to lie with it. He wanted to give a speech at the Siegessaule.
God I surely hope he uses a condom and all.
[...] August 6, 2008 Too funny: Keith Olbermann keeps talking about Obama’s rally at the bast of Berlin’s largest outdoor sandstone monumental phallus. Posted by hillbuzz under Uncategorized Via No Quarter [...]
I see were thinking the samething. I am so sick of obama’s whinning.
This Jon Stewart parody is the best. “We’ll all get teabagged by Barack’s giant black balls!…”
http://vodpod.com/watch/921899-daily-show-the-race-genie?pod=dpolitico
Right. Maybe you will, Heather. I’m just going to wish I could pour bleach on my brain and make that image go away.
Olbermann is the Rush Limbaugh of the left and just as invincibly arrogant.
Not to mention ignorant, bombastic and just generally obnoxious and worst of all UNSIGHTLY!
Vapid, too.
I’ve always felt Olberman has issues about size. This may prove this hypothesis.
You’ll be on the worst-person’s list for that crack. LOL
Don’t say crack- that’s a double whammy!
OMG, you’re right. Mea culpa.
Mentioning crack is racist! Don’t you remember that from the primaries?
Keith Olbermann is hung like a hamster.
Yeah especially when he’s spinning on his wheel.
If “unsightly” means “ugly,” you’re damn skippy.
Olberboyy is a Bill O’Reilly in a tackier suit and “hip for an old guy” glasss.
Bob Herbert has single handedly done more damage to the faux “post-racial” meme than anyone…
except for Waffles himself.
You’d think someone would ask Bob Herbert why Barak Obama would choose to give his speech next to a giant phallic symbol, wouldn’t you?
LOL
Too funny! What do you think Freud would make of these visions????
That sometimes a structure is just a structure?
Let’s call a spade a farming implement.
Got me on that one! ROFL.
As I think about it, that is wrong in just so many ways. I love it.
WTF? This is just hilarious! Now everyone’s going to take another look at McCain’s ad for those “hidden” penises? Obviously, you have to have your Kool-Aid goggles on.
And it’s just more free advertising for McCain.
If not Hillary then it’s McCain 2008.
Wish McCain or someone else would make an ad about that, just fill it full of symbols.. ta da Obama the self made symbol.
That would be great. They could make it a game “Where’s Dildo?”
ROFLMAO
Laughing into my chihuahua to muffle the roars.
Something like this, perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVNCVDlANTs
“no one had “noticed” those famous structures because they aren’t there in the ad”: this is a racist comment plainly designed to suggest that BHO is a eunuch!
Well, every time you see a picture of Keith Olbermann there’s a giant douchebag in it.
Why is that?
ROFL.
wayne
ROFL!!!!
Oh My! LMAO!
“Why is that?”
Sometimes a douchebag is just a douchebag.
LOL I thought of that too… heh
“That’s not the douchebag I knew!”
bwahahahahaa, i just spit Coke all over my keyboard.
lmao
ROFL
LOLOL!!!!
Olbermann is an expert at recognizing penises, he sees one every morning when he shaves. He is an orginal peckerhead.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Having the wrong buildings aside, what are these guys suggesting the phallic symbols suggest? I mean, so what? Wait, let me guess…phallic symbols are racist?
You guessed it. There will be no more buildings or structures over 5 stories high from now on.
They’ll have to bomb Dubai then..
Shhh! Don’t give them any ideas. You know how they like to steal them.
What? Penises are racists? So all men are racists?
OY!
Yes indeed and so are blonds….
Well yes, because … and you have to be over the age of 50 to remember this … there used to be white hysteria around black men raping white women, and then that transformed into white hysteria about black men being more well endowed and so attracting white women. And it followed from there that the white power structure was motivated to kill off black men so as to protect, defend, and horde their own white womenfolk.
Gawd, it’s all such ancient history I can hardly remember how the narrative went, because it always sounded pretty darned flattering to black men if you ask me.
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show had a hyserical commentary
Those penises are much bigger than any politicians penises that I’ve ever seen! WOW! Now I know Freud wasn’t kidding when he talked about Penis Envy! I’m green with jealousy!
Coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you!
Its probably from an old viagra tape and they didn’t erase it…LOL! Actually the monument at the back looks like a ‘bird’ flip off.
Please explain to me, how when a person basically mows down the German Chancellor to speak somewhere she’s asked him not to, can these men have the testicular fortitude to actually accuse mccain of making racial insinuations. Ago month before obama even went to Germany, people on hillbuzz were giggling about how the victory column looked like a phallic symbol. Now he’s winning about it. Come he heck on. The people in the MSM really need to grow some self respect. Obama is making them look down right stupid. this man can not get into the white house.
Don’t give blonds and phallic symbols a bad name, by relating them to Obama, he’s perfectly capable of doing that himself.
I personally wasn’t crazy about the Paris/Britney part of the ad, but it showed that Obama has a glass jaw, inviting further attacks.
My apologies in advance for any subliminal messages or phallic symbols in this message, not to mention the use of a boxing analogy against a black man (can I be a racist who sees McCain as the great white hope?) without having cleared it with Bob Herbert.
Excellent.
Very Good! Got me laughing like hell
and if it had been at the brandenburg gate like he first wanted…it would have been a vagina
And weird that KO and Herbert didn’t notice the phallux symbols of rockets and missles during Shock and awe. They only notice them with women in the picture. Pigs.
They were too busy looking at Bush’s codpiece right after Mission Accomplished. You notice how KO always discusses that day.
EW…LOL I remember- it was eye-catching- I thought “Gee that looks like it hurts.”
It was disgusting.
HA ROFLMAO, Great, just passed tea through my nose.
Me too, I’m laughing into my chihuahua just to muffle it so the neighbors don’t think I’m nuts.
I mean … cod piece? How often in everyday life does one get to read those words in print? Unless you’re a Shakespeare scholar. You noquarter people are a hoot!
Maybe they suffer from “size inferiority complex”.
Or they’re reliving their adolescence, if they ever left it, that is.
That’s what Olberman gets for premature pontification.
Drudge Report is reporting that Hillary is pushing for convention vote.
He linked it from ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5528104&page=1
Check this out ev1
Does this sound familiar
This will be considered off-topic — but it isn’t. I thought I’d share this letter which was sent to the Editor of the Times-Dispatch by a gentlemen who escaped Cuba in the 1960’s. His words come from the experience of believing in someone, without taking the time to know who they really are, and the consequences that followed:
Subject: Celebration
From Richmond Times-Dispatch, Monday, July 7, 2008
Dear Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4, I celebrate America ’s. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.
On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few months later, I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.
I’ve thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, so when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.
When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said, ‘Praise the Lord.’ And when the young leader said, ‘I will be for change and I’ ll bring you change,’ everone yelled, ‘Viva Fidel!’
But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner’s guns went silent, the people’s guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education, it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over, more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I’m back to the beginning of my story.
Luckily, we in America would never fall for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America ?
Would we?
Manuel Alvarez, JR.
posted by
Kathleen | 08.06.08 - 2:48 pm | #
——————————————————————————–
Powerful…..
Wow. Great letter, and a great analogy. In 1960, the Cuban people wanted “change” too. What they got was Fidel Castro and 48 years of oppressive socialist stagnation. Be careful what kind of “change” you vote for!
As a fellow Cuban-American, I agree 100% with the author.
Because of my exiled family’s history I have always been extremely wary of charismatic orators… Their circular logic, half-truths, utopian rhetoric and pandering. Exploitive demagogues.
Dangerous to all.
Tell me one reason why I should take seriously a man who thinks the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in Germany anyhow.
If HE says it’s there, by thunder it IS there. The invincible ignorance is dumbfounding.
I should have said “The invincible ignorance of the Obamabots is dumbfounding.” Mea culpa
ROTFLMAO!
At least they know it isn’t in America, right?
You crack me up Uppity!
Piza…. Berlin…what’s difference does it make when where ever the guy turns he sees dick. BIG THROBBING DICK BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
I saw him on Morning Joe doing his rant, Leaning Tower and Washington Monument?? He always had that Thorazine look to him but I’ve never seen anything like that. Didn’t he watch a few times first? I think the NYT better remove this guy from their pages
Another diversionary tactic from the goose-stepping crowd. They have no ideas, so all they can do is shout “fire” in a crowded theater.
Uppity, will you marry me?
When i read about the phallic symbols, I had to immediatel check the ad. I did not think that I had seen the Leaning Tower of Pissa. I was right. I had not seen it. Is this what passes for our “more educated” that are supporting Obama overwhelmingly.
I have noticed the same thing. All the blather about how smart Obama and the bots are is contradicted every time one of them opens their mouths and inserts a hoof or two.
Internal polling by camp Obama revealed many Americans probably assumed it was the leaning tower, Olbermann and Herbert got the memo.
Uppity note: Dig up that link to the woman who met Keith in the hotel room, when he brought a bottle of merlot. Cripes. Merlot. Jesus. At least bring pinot noir or something.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10092006/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm
You mean this story Uppity?
Ooh that’s nasty.
Kieth Doberman is in the closet and sees phallic symbols everywhere. If he comes out the anger will go away.
Best title to a post ever, Larry.
Herbert’s absurd overreach was beyond embarrassing.
No wonder Dana Milbank left “Meltdown.”
And Keith actually believed he was up for the Meet The Press job.
Ha ha ha!
Meltdown? ROFL. That is too rich!
OMG “Meltdown,” what an appropriate title. And to think I was once a loyal viewer who planned my afternoon around that show.
Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed it!
Larry’s title just helped my mind focus on a pun.
And it sure fits, too. Olbermann’s like a little Napoleon.