John Guandolo
John Guandolo in an ex-Marines and ex-FBI officer who moved into anti-terrorism work after the 9/11 attacks. He started his involvement with Strategic Engagement Group in 2008 as Vice-President. In 2012, Guandolo also created Understanding the Threat, a consulting company meant to spread his message to law enforcement officials and others. [1]
Career
FBI controversy
He quit the FBI in December 2008, just when he was put under investigation by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility for:
- having affairs with several female FBI agents
- having an affair with a confidential source he was assigned to protect during the corruption case of William Jefferson
- soliciting that same witness for a $75,000 donation to an 'anti-terrorism group'. [1]
Allegations
- In 2013, he asserted that John Brennan, then President Obama’s nominee to lead the CIA, was a secret convert to Islam working for the Muslim Brotherhood. These claims were revealed to be unfounded.
- In 2011, National Public Radio reported that he had suggested to a Columbus, Ohio, law enforcement seminar class that Omar al-Omari, a college professor who worked with local and national officials to do Muslim outreach, was tied to terrorism. Officials of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Columbus police department dismissed the claim.
- Speaking at a Tennessee church in November 2011, heclaimed, despite the Constitution’s clear wording to the contrary, that mosques 'do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.'
- Guandolo said that 80% of U.S. mosques were run by the Muslim Brotherhood to WorldNetDaily on April 3, 2016, further claiming that the organisation should be shut down, with all its leaders arrested, as it 'has organizations in every locale across the United States'.
- He accused Obama of having purposely placed 'communists, Marxists and jihadists … inside our system'.
- In a 2016 radio interview he warned that Americans would soon see 'dozens of jihadis doing multiple operations in conjunction with the Marxist and socialist groups like Black Lives Matter, which will be, you know, burning and looting cities like they did in Ferguson [Mo.] and Baltimore.' This statement closely resembles the arguments of a 'left-Islamist alliance' put forward by Frank Gaffney. [2]
- In June 2016, he also wrote an article accusing the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) of being a terrorist organisation, when one of his law enforcement trainings was canceled after criticism from the organisation. He added: 'Suit wearing jihadis are no less dangerous than ISIS soldiers on the battlefield.'
- He was invited to speak on Rob Schilling's radio show a day after the Orlando massacre of 49 LGBT people took place in June 2016. During the interview, he alleged that Democrats were bringing 'tens of thousands of jihadis' into the country as refugees. He added derisively that Democrats are then 'shocked or feign shock when something like what happened in Orlando [Florida] happens'. [1]
Affiliations
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,Southern Poverty Law Center, October 25, 2016. Accessed 07 November 2016.
- ↑ Nabi Dressler, John Guandolo: Black Lives Matter Working ‘In Conjunction’ With ‘Jihadis’, 'Right Wing Watch', June 22, 2016, Accessed 07 November 2016.
