{"id":9360,"date":"2007-06-30T13:14:55","date_gmt":"2007-06-30T19:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9360"},"modified":"2007-06-30T13:14:55","modified_gmt":"2007-06-30T19:14:55","slug":"larry-johnson-so-wrong-so-often-that-hes-actually-a-nearly-pitch-perfect-predictor-of-whats-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9360","title":{"rendered":"Larry Johnson:  So wrong so often that he&#039;s actually becoming a nearly-pitch perfect predictor of what&#039;s right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even as the London terror siege <a href=\"http:\/\/news.independent.co.uk\/uk\/crime\/article2723750.ece\">appears to be ramping up<\/a> &#8212; and even though new prime minister Gordon Brown and his cohort acknowledge that what Britain is witnessing is, in fact, the work of  terrorists  with &#8220;Asian&#8221; ties (which, in Brit speak, means &#8220;Pakistani,&#8221; perhaps of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/19495826\/\">potentially home-grown<\/a> variety) &#8212; former CIA member and DU hero Larry Johnson, along with his smarmy, truthy media enabler Keith Olbermann, <a href=\"http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2007\/06\/30\/video-olby-and-larry-johnson-shrug-at-the-non-event-in-london\/\"> spent last evening<\/a> talking about the &#8220;non-event&#8221; in London.<\/p>\n<p>Writes Allah of Johnson&#8217;s appearance on Olbermann&#8217;s &#8220;news&#8221; show:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s a segment six years in the making, starting with Crazy Larry\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s now-legendary \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cstop worrying about terror\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d op-ed published <a href=\"http:\/\/ace.mu.nu\/archives\/231986.php\">in July 2001<\/a> and continuing through to this morning when he wowed the dKos faithful by pronouncing the car-bomb plot a <a href=\"http:\/\/littlegreenfootballs.com\/weblog\/?entry=26056_Daily_Kos_Kids-_London_Bomb_a_Crock_of_Crap&#038;only\">\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201ccrock of crap.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Larry [&#8230;] sniffs about \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cyuppie terrorists\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d who drive Mercedes but naturally doesn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t mention that the Mercedes was<a href=\"http:\/\/news.independent.co.uk\/uk\/crime\/article2723248.ece\"> ten years old<\/a>, which means it probably cost <a href=\"http:\/\/www.internetautoguide.com\/usedcars\/14-int\/1998\/mercedes-benz\/clk-class\/new-york\/long-island-city\/208496020\/113\/index.html\">considerably less than 10 grand<\/a> assuming it was purchased recently. He also scoffs at the idea that a bomb this crude could have done much more than torch the car itself and maybe singe a few people within 20 or 30 feet. The (left-leaning) weapons experts at Danger Room, who are taking this very seriously,<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wired.com\/defense\/2007\/06\/house-sized-fir.html\"> beg to differ<\/a>, as does ABC News, which was told by British officials that the explosion would have been lethal within a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/theblotter\/2007\/06\/a-most-lethal-a.html\">\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cseveral hundred yard radius.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/a> And then there\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s this:<\/p>\n<p><tt>    The cell phone had received at least two calls, which should have detonated several gallons of gasoline, but when the calls came in, the bomb failed to go off, the official said.<\/p>\n<p>    Had it done so, that blast then would have ignited six to eight tanks of propane in a mist to make a fuel-air explosion, creating a fireball <strong>the size of a small house<\/strong> and propelling 18 to 20 boxes of roofing nails around a large area at bullet speed, counterterrorism officials said.<\/tt><\/p>\n<p>The news organization responsible for that report? The same one that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/19495826\/\">signs Olby\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s checks.<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It ends with a stirring note about the only thing we have to fear. Hint: It doesn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t involve a wild-eyed guy sitting on a pile of hurtling high explosives and muttering about Allah.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It used to be there came a time when even your most ardent supporters began to doubt you when you were so often wrong on the pronouncements you made as a result of extrapolating out from   <em>facts<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems that nothing Johnson can say or do &#8212; remember his run-in with Seixon and, later, <a href=\"http:\/\/rightwingnuthouse.com\/archives\/2007\/06\/30\/stop-overreacting-to-terrorism\/\">Rick Moran<\/a>? &#8212; can disqualify him as an &#8220;expert&#8221; so long as he&#8217;s willing, regardless of the evidence, to maintain the positions that his ideological fellow travelers wish to hear.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a strange cycle of enabling:  Johnson, as expert, reinforces the beliefs of those who look to him for such reinforcement; and they, in turn, continue to prop Johnson up as an expert.<\/p>\n<p>Me,  I&#8217;m no expert on <em>any<\/em> of this stuff, quite frankly. But then again, I&#8217;m rarely invited on news programs to give &#8220;expert&#8221; analysis about how that the Brits are getting all stupid with fear over nothing, even as car bombs are turning up on the West End, and &#8220;Asian&#8221; men are trying to drive SUVs loaded with gas canisters into airport terminals.<\/p>\n<p>Once again, Johnson&#8217;s wannabe-hipster pessimism &#8212; which is temperamentally tied to the grand conspiracy scenarios  he and his acolytes like Olbermann cling to like Lindsay Graham might a victory sombrero &#8212; has led him to look like an utter &#8220;denialist&#8221; (hi, Commissar!), one who, if his track record is any indication, wouldn&#8217;t be  able to spot imminent Islamic terrorism were it wearing a &#8220;Hi, I&#8217;m a Jihadist&#8221; name tag and galloping towards him on a camel wrapped in explosives and sporting a riding blanket made entirely from roofing nails and the severed heads of western journalists.<\/p>\n<p>****<br \/>\n<b><i>update<\/i><\/b>:  COBRA is <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/uk_news\/6257606.stm\">meeting now<\/a>, and the UK terror alert level is now at &#8220;critical,&#8221; meaning authorities believe a new attack is imminent.<\/p>\n<p>Reached for comment, Larry Johnson reminded people that he is ex-CIA, and so who are they gonna believe &#8212; him?  Or some hysterical government officials and their lackey &#8220;witnesses&#8221; in whose interests it is to scare the population with a lot of hooey about suspects running away from the scene <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/article\/0,,2007300227,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&#038;attr=TheSun:News\">while their skin falls off<\/a>&#8230;?<\/p>\n<p><em>Reality-based<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>(h\/t) <a href=\"http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2007\/06\/30\/breaking-car-on-fire-drives-into-glasgow-airport-terminal\/\">Allahpundit<\/a>, who has been updating continuously, and who will be keeping you up to date on the story long after I&#8217;ve left for Target to pick up some deli and dill pickle spears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even as the London terror siege appears to be ramping up &#8212; and even though new prime minister Gordon Brown and his cohort acknowledge that what Britain is witnessing is, in fact, the work of terrorists with &#8220;Asian&#8221; ties (which, in Brit speak, means &#8220;Pakistani,&#8221; perhaps of the potentially home-grown variety) &#8212; former CIA member and DU hero Larry Johnson, along with his smarmy, truthy media enabler Keith Olbermann, spent<\/p>\n<div class=\"belowpost\"><a class=\"btnmore\" href=\"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9360\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":9196393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9196393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}