Looks like a duck

New government logo: Can you say 'crescent'?

Missile agency symbol also compared to Obama campaign emblem

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Posted: February 24, 2010
8:22 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2011 WND

While some say a new Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency logo appears to have striking similarities to President Obama's campaign logo and an Islamic crescent, the government agency called that notion a "ridiculous" idea thought up by "people who are just different."

The logo features a red ribbon of color striking the center of a medium blue crescent. The crescent contains an eight-pronged white star. The Missile Defense Agency shows the following logo in the upper left corner of its website:

Missile Defense Agency recruiting logo

A Washington Times blog, the Drudge Report and several bloggers noted that emblem features similarities with the following logo used by the Obama campaign:

Obama campaign logo

The Obama campaign symbol and the Missile Defense Agency emblem feature a ribbon of red, divided by two white lines and a blue "O" from left to right. The logos each have similar shades of red and blue.

Some also say the agency logo may be suggestive of an Islamic crescent moon and star, as seen on Islamic flags.

Islamic crescent moon and star as seen on the flag of Turkey

However, Rick Lehner, Washington spokesman for Missile Defense Agency, laughed off the notion in an interview with WND today.

"I think it's just people who are just," he hesitated for a moment, "different."

Lehner laughed at the comparisons and said, "I don't know where they would even begin to come up with something like that. It's ridiculous."

He said the logo was designed for use on recruiting materials three years ago, and that the official Missile Defense Agency logo features five colors and says Missile Defense Agency Department of Defense. The following is an image of that logo:

Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency official logo

"That's our official logo," Lehner said. "The other one was just developed for recruiting materials years before the Obama campaign. We're trying to attract a younger workforce because we want to get kids out of college. Instead of using the official shield, a company that the agency hired in Washington, D.C., to do recruiting stuff developed that logo."

He explained that the white, eight-pronged explosion signifies an intercepted missile.

"That's why we have a star," he said, laughing. "It's really not a star; it's a flash from the interception of a missile."

Lehner said the agency redesigned its website "about 14 or 15 months ago" and used the recruiting emblem for a more contemporary look. The official logo is still featured in the bottom left corner of the website, though it is much smaller and less prominent than the recruiting symbol.

A similar controversy arose in 2008 when a proposed design to commemorate victims aboard the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11 featured a broken circle lined with trees outlining the crash. Critics said it looked like an Islamic crescent pointing toward Mecca, the Muslim holy city.

The designer, Paul Murdoch of Paul Murdoch Associates of Los Angeles, maintained he used the term crescent only in the architectural sense of a curved line.

As for any link between the Missile Defense Agency's recruiting insignia and an Islamic crescent or the Obama campaign logo, Lehner added, "I don't understand why people would make that connection."