An image on the explosive device sent to former CIA Director John Brennan on Tuesday appears to be a parody of an ISIS flag taken from a meme that has been circulating on right-wing corners of the internet since 2014.
ADVERTISEMENTAn image on the explosive device sent to former CIA Director John Brennan on Tuesday appears to be a parody of an ISIS flag taken from a meme that has been circulating on right-wing corners of the internet since 2014.
The print-out appears to show a parody flag that replaces Arabic characters with the silhouette of three women in high heels, and a middle inscription reading "Get 'Er Done" — which is the catchphrase of standup comedian Larry the Cable Guy.
The Daily Beast's Lachlan Markay first noted that an image that appeared inside the explosive package sent to CNN's TimeWarner building and addressed to Brennan bore a striking similarity to the black-and-white flag of the terror group.
A senior law enforcement official said that the image contained on the Brennan device that appears to be an ISIS flag is in fact a mocking parody of it. The official confirmed that the words "Get Er Done" were on the device.
The "Get 'Er Done" flag was originally created in 2014 by the right-wing parody site World News Bureau, for an article titled "ISIS Vows Retribution For Counterfeit Flags." It has since been shared as a meme on right-wing websites and forums.
World News Bureau is run by a man claiming to be from Scottsdale, Arizona who goes by the name Scooter Van Neuter and also runs the parody news site BigHairyNews.com. Van Neuter is afrequent commenter on right-wing websites like Breitbart and The Daily Caller, and his account waspermanently suspended from Twitter in 2017.
World News Bureau frequently posts satirical news articles along with Photoshopped images. Its most recent article, which jokingly claimed the city of Baltimore won this year's "Liberal Utopia award" for "breathtaking mismanagement," was accompanied by a Photoshopped picture of the trophy.
Van Neuter, the proprietor of the site, did not respond to NBC News' request for comment. His account on Disqus, a commenting platform, has been active on both political and sports forums over the past two days.
The explosive device also appears to have a picture of a face next to the fake ISIS flag. The identity of the person in that picture is still unknown.
Pipe bombs were sent to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday. Earlier this week, an explosive device was found in the mailbox of liberal billionaire George Soros at his home in upstate New York.
The explosive devices, which were in manila envelopes, were sent with former Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz listed as a bogus return address.
The bomb package sent to Holder, which listed the wrong address, was mailed to Wasserman-Schultz instead.