Larry Johnson to be on Anderson Cooper (UPDATED from Larry Johnson)
By SusanUnPC on March 20, 2008 at 9:56 PM in Current Affairs
About the Obama State Department whatever-it-is.
UPDATE (From Larry Johnson)–Folks, this is really a non-story. If high level political appointees were involved then one could make the case that someone was up to something unsavory. But you have two low level contractors and different points in time. The State Department will probably have to do an official investigation to demonstrate they were not acting on behalf of a candidate. However, they were fired when their bosses at State discovered they had been snooping.
But what could they find: Apart from his Social Security Number, all other information on the passport application is already public by virtue of Barack’s books and what has been written about him during his presidential campaign. Here’s the application. Look at it for your self. I am assuming he had a passport as very young child by virtue of his travel to Indonesia. So there may be some unflattering passport photos. But otherwise, he has not been a globetrotter. We know he has not visited Europe. His only real overseas travel before joining the Senate was to Africa. And the passport records do not contain info about that trip, other than the date he made the trip. People with no need to know should not have been checking out his documents, but at the end of the day there is no there there.
(Hat tip to CS for getting me the youtube version of my chat with Anderson Cooper. Great work as always.)
on sale for only $16.95.
also comes with a special spatula.)
(List Price: $27.95 - Your Price: $15.47)
“The story of poker is that of risk-loving America ... a crazy ride in unparalleled detail, driven by wit, wisdom, true love, and sizzling style. As analyst, historian, devotee, and no mean player, James McManus is poker’s most eloquent advocate.”
By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
Jebus, will there be a disclaimer?
Why would there be three separate breaches of security, when one breach would do? The information is the same all three times. This can only mean one thing. Low-level civil servants were sneaking peeks at celebrity paperwork.
Thanks Susan for letting me know I was getting ready to turn it off…I will stay tune.
That’s exciting. When??
Ugh. Just got back from one of my former favorite sites. I knew it would take less than five minutes before some Obamatron accused Hillary of pulling a black bag job… for cryin’ out loud, if Hillary wanted to get info on Obama, she’d hire Larry, who wouldn’t leave a mile wide trail to follow. Boneheads.
I took a nap so i have no clue what this is all about … except that it may be a diversionary tactic by Obama’s campaign.
That is what I was thinking. Now he looks like the unsuspecting victim. This is bull.
My husband just said that…Obama’s campaign and the msm want to continuously paint him as the victim. Like we want a VICTIM for President?
Why would Hillary want to look at his passport info? To find out his birthday so she can send him a card?
It sounds like a few low level Obama supporters took advantage of their positions to check out their hero and set off a few security bells and whistles. But yes the Obama camp has asked for a FULL INVESTIGATION!
That doesn’t make any sense. Why would the Obama campaign engineer a security breach of its own candidate’s passport info?
I think this overhype is the media’s doing, because it’s invested a lot in Obama’s success, and has a lot riding on the outcome, credibility-wise. The “Obama as victim” meme certainly plays a lot better in middle America than “Obama in the ‘Hood” …
To paint him the victim, and stunt the criticism versus Wright.
This is also a typical Cheney/Bush ploy, used when they’re criminal fingers are exposed in the cookie jar.
But Obama and Rezko, you know, it just doesn’t go away.
But you should see Hillary’s momentum, MAYBE, drop a bit.
And that was the goal.
>>> To paint him the victim, and stunt the criticism versus Wright.
Bingo!
All that’s on now is Barack’s passport…
Greta on FOX although weakly standing up to Sharpton, did use it as an excuse to play over 6 minutes of Wright tapes including some I have never seen. Vote in her poll may help keep her going with this rather than this pasport thing that MS is making a top news event.
http://gretawire.foxnews.com/
This is a common violation of the Privacy Act which applies to all federal employees and contractors. You may not access confidential information unless it is needed for the task you are working on or it is requested by the person or an authorized person. All federal agencies which have confidential information on the public have computer programs that make lists of records requested on famous or notable persons, AND random spot checks to see what is being requested. I reviewed and investigated this back in the mid 1990’s. It is very common that an idiot will look at a movie star or sports hero records and think they can get away with it.
Why did it take so long for this to come out? The federal government does not have enough employees to do the work. Two of the violations were by contract employees and a civil servant had to check it along with their other duties. Most of these violations are stupid snooping, but many are serious violations such as selling information. Let us see what was done with the information before we let the Obamarama’s go bananas. My guess is a person who had access could not forgo the temptation to do it.
Gooooo Larry..i hope he says this is a bunch of baloney..and to take the heat off the Obama won’t let 2 million votes count in Fla and MI !..that is what this is about..don’t want a black man held accountable for disenfranchisoing 2 million + voters now do we..in the democratic party..and Dean and Donna Brazile are accountable too..but hell we don’t want that story on any front pages…hell no..
and that liar says he didn’t even run in MI well Obama that wasn’t in the “RULES”
AND THE dnc APPROVED OF THE VOTE IN MI..but it was obama and obama only who disenfranchised the voters …
so they need a “breaking BREAKING” to get that off the front page..so ..PASSPORTGATE!
GIVE THEM HELL LARRY!!
Once more unto the breach, eh, Lar? I still get steamed when I think about Anderson Cooper saying (about why CNN and others didn’t ask more questions of the White House in the time leading up to the invasion of Iraq), “Well, the entire world thought Hussein had WMDs.” Idiot or liar? Hard to say.
Did you see that Obama’s solution for the MI and Fl debacle is to split the votes evenly between Obama and Hillary? Now if this is an example of how Obama finds a solution to a big problem we are fu**ed. Nothing like coming up with a solution that is unfair, unjust and undemocratic. What does that do that doing nothing accomplishes? If he isn’t worried about Hillary being able to catch him, why doesn’t he just give Hillary the votes she won in MI and FL. That would be fairer than his “solution”. I can just see him trying to solve a problem with our economy, or the envirnment or a terrorist event. He would first make a speech and then say the problem is solved. And if that didn’t work he would just whine and complain and accuse everyone of racism. And if that didn’t solve the problem, he would find the most ridiculous solution imaginable and profer it and wash his hands of the problem. Yea, we all need him as a leader.
Person CC: Half for me and half for you.
Rezko: ON the lot or the money from the hospital construction?
Person CC: Both
I really love that these non-stories that the Obama camp plays up are no longer sticking. They do it every single time they drop in the polls (free falling, actually).
Finally…they are becoming transparent… in their obvious attempts to change the news story, that is. Releasing the Senator’s records - a real sign of transparency - we’re still waiting.
Senator Obama?
(Insert cricket chirps here.)
In simple terms, this will be blown up to try by the media to derail the story from a week ago on Obama and Wright!
Funny after watching Larry, the talk turned to Clinton, and there we go again about how she cannot win, now that Mich legislators left without a resolve for the week-end!
How they used Clinton’s words of last fall against her! Yet hardly ever do you see CNN use Obama’s against him! If they did, Monday’s speech by Obama would have been trounsed on completely, because itr was Obama kept saying the campaign wasn’t about black or white, well it is now, because he made it so!
Incredible how quickly Rezko and Ayers have barely been mentioned in almost 2 weeks and the Larry King letting Obama get away with everything tonight!
Politics is now full media control in outcomes, since they blew it in 2000 by after the fact goofs, now they take the approach of controlling before the fact to control the outcomes!
This needs to be spoken of and vetted, but the meida will spin it too, as Clinton said, vet Obama and his support will fall, look what happened, yet the media steps in and does damage control to protect their sorry asses once again!
I see that another website (not DK) is suggesting that the Clinton campaign is involved in the unlawful access to Obama’s passport. This attack on Clinton is disgusting.
I bet you it takes roughly five seconds for Randi Rhodes, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann to just ASSUME that Hillary is behind all this passport stuff.
Because naturally, who has bigger incentive for trying to get the media to drop the Rev. Wright and “Typical White Person” gaffes than Hillary?
Have you seen Huffington Post? Good grief. Obamatrons can’t think their way out of paper bags. It was a BADLY done security breach done by low level contractors. They left a huge trail behind… sorry, only republicans are THAT incompetent.
good lord, the MSM are as dumb as fish! just show them something shiny, OOOOOO, shiny!!! and they are hooked. this passport thing is pretty damn lame.
Andrea Mitchell practically pointed a finger at the Clinton campaign…
Even if the Clinton camp is somehow involved, which i doubt, what would they be looking for that’s not already known? How is this controversial?
Why is this a ” red alert breach of privacy” that flies up the chain of command to Condi…surely all thats in your passport info is innocuous information already on the public record?
This recorded a shoulder shrug of indifference measuring 3 out of 5.
Larry, why didn’t you identify yourself publicly, or to Anderson Cooper’s producers before commenting on AC 360 as the vocal Hilary Clinton supporter that you are? Are you afraid that a disclaimer as such would discredit your trivializing of the security breach in respect to Barack Obama? Or was it your wish to attempt to do more damage while pretending to be a non-partisen expert in the field?
while pretending to be a non-partisen [sic] expert in the field?
Ellie…do you think he went on A.C. because he’s a Clinton supporter or because of his bonafides such as this: From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy
Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism.
D U H !! Check his bio!
Yes Freddie, I’m familiar with Larry Johnson’s bio, but that doesn’t excuse him from stating a disclaimer on air. He, and CNN’s producers did CNN’s viewers a diservice by failing to make the disclaimer. Johnson’s commentary was clearly swayed by his support for Hilary Clinton and simultaneous distain for Obama. Larry was unable to speak with complete objectivity, and as Carl Bernstein on the show’s panel pointed out, cannot possibly estimate (or trivialize as Larry did) the amount of private information dating back a lifespan that may be a part of Barack Obama’s file. Nor should he or others rush to accept the State Department’s “just snooping” excuse without a proper investigation.
Well, I still disagree with you Eleanor and now it seems all 3 candidates’ passport files have had a “look-see” by lower
level employees.
I still don’t see how Larry’s support of Clinton had anything to do with his comments.
If you want a conspiracy theory maybe you should post that at Kos, TPM or HuffPo. I’m sure
there are enough conspiracy theorists over there who will be tut-tutting over poor Barry.
But now, it’s not just Barry is it?
You seem to be confusing my criticism with the arguments of others. Nothing I said in my two posts above implied that Hilary supporters were behind the breaching of Obama’s files. The plain truth is that Larry should have presented himself as a Hilary supporter in addition to his professional credentials, because even the other panelists sensed that he was both jumping the gun in believing the State Department’s explainations from the outset. They also noted Johnson’s trivializing the breach of security in Obama’s files in comparison with Bill Clinton’s, saying when it was way too early to make any such determinations. Johnson’s statements would have been better put in context had Anderson and the viewwers been aware at the time of his agenda.
Well, the least those snoopers could have done is stamp his passport with a few European countries; maybe add a fake Russian stamp, too, and possibly one to Israel! Make the guy look like he’s been somewhere, doing a little homework for being the leader of the western world. Maybe the Obama campaign sent them to do just that.
But I’m just a “typical white woman” so what do i know?
” Breaking News” Three times Obama’s rights were violated!!! RUN for the HILLS!
The media is clueless! This andministration has access to every Blackberry in Washington DC…with no oversight…and no requirement for a warrent.
Including reporters. What bloody Sods! They point fingers, but they won’t investigate that…will they?
Who ever did the Intel on BO, did their homework months ago.
OT:
“A number of politicians are invested now in the falure of Iraq…” Richard Pearl.
On charlie rose tonight.
Insert finger and gag….
Including those with shares in Exelon.
Interesting angle, I was not considering the share holders when he said it.
Avitars?
Years ago when I was a teenager I went to a church where one of the members was California Highway Patrolman. He had formerly been stationed in parts of LA like Beverly Hills and Malibu where he would see famous people.
He said sometimes for fun they would run the names or license plates of movies stars just to see what was there. They meant no harm, they were just bored.
Back then they could get away with it.
More recently I knew someone who worked for the IRS. He said they would get fired if they were caught snooping in someone’s tax records and that there were measures in place to catch anyone who tried.
They have just released a picture of Bill Clinton and Rev. Wright from a 1998 prayer breakfast. Somehow they also found a thank you note Bill had written to the Reverend following the breakfast
And this means ………….
This means Rev.Wright’s Christmas speech bagging on Hillary was his way of helping her get victim’s status from an expert on victimization.
[...] Or maybe there’s nothing there. From Hillary booster and spouse of world famous super spy Valerie Plame: [...]
David Shuster, MSHBN, reported this morning that the Supervisor of these low-level employees is connected to Bill Clinton’s administration, BUT he “isn’t insinuating the Clintons had anything to do with this Passport security breach.” Yeah, riiiiiiiiight, David…. We believe you. The Mr. Hope campaign is trying their best to change the subject from Wright and MSHBN is obliging them, as usual.
[...] Larry’s remarks last evening here on his appearance on CNN’s AC360 and on the [...]
[...] But just as that trick didn’t hurt Clinton, security expert Larry Johnson says there’s nothing important to be found in Obama’s passport files. What this incident does do, however, is give the opportunity to [...]
[...] But just as that trick didn’t hurt Clinton, security expert Larry Johnson says there’s nothing important to be found in Obama’s passport files. What this incident does do, however, is give the opportunity to [...]
[...] but not fired, McCormack said. [Emphasis added, in all cases.] Just remember that there’s no important information that can be obtained from someone’s passport application file, according to security expert Larry [...]