Larry C. Johnson
3 platforms tracked
Former CIA analyst and US State Department counter-terrorism official who publishes geopolitical and intelligence analysis at Sonar21. He writes near-daily on the Ukraine war, US intelligence and Middle East security, drawing on a career in intelligence and special-operations training.
Presence
Primary topics
Credentials
Former CIA analyst; former Deputy Director, US State Department Office of Counter Terrorism; co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS); CEO of BERG Associates
Why Offstream tracks this voice
Applies a career intelligence analyst's tradecraft — sourcing, assessment, and scepticism toward official narratives — to current conflicts. As a VIPS co-founder he belongs to a lineage of former intelligence professionals who publicly challenge official assessments, and his analysis is grounded in operational familiarity with the institutions he scrutinises.
Biography
Larry C. Johnson is a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and former Deputy Director of the US State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism. Since leaving government he has worked as a security consultant and, in recent years, as an independent commentator publishing under the banner Sonar21.
A co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) — a group of former US intelligence officers known for publicly contesting official intelligence assessments — Johnson writes and broadcasts near-daily on the war in Ukraine, US intelligence, and security in the Middle East. His analysis draws on decades inside, and adjacent to, the intelligence community.
His independent platform has not been without friction: his original YouTube channel was terminated in early 2026, and his work is now anchored on Substack and his own Sonar21 site, with a rebuilt YouTube presence — a pattern common among politically sensitive independent commentators.