Frank Wuco

Frank Edward Wuco is a United States government official and former conservative talk radio host. He has served in multiple positions in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Wuco has been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories, including through a fictional character who supposedly is a former jihadist who now exposes aspects of Islam-inspired terrorism.

Career

Wuco previously served in the United States Navy as an intelligence officer.[1][2] Wuco completed Navy recruit training at the Naval Training Center San Diego in 1981.[3] His postings included the USS Fox between 1987 and 1989.[4] He reportedly retired from the Navy in 2004.[5] He later worked at CENTCOM, where he served under future White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.[5]

Wuco is the Founder and CEO of a security consultancy called Red Mind Solutions. He was the editor of a blog titled The Daily SITREP.[6][7] He hosted the weekly Frank Wuco Radio Show on WFLA AM 970 in Tampa Bay from 2011 to 2013.[5]

From 2017 to November 2019, Wuco served as a senior White House advisor to the United States Department of Homeland Security.[8][9] As White House adviser to DHS, Wuco led a team tasked with enforcing President Donald Trump's executive orders, including the administration's travel ban policies.[1][5][10] According to Politico, John F. Kelly and his staff were often at odds with Wuco, with one person close to Kelly commenting that Wuco "knows nothing about the mission" of the department and "serves little purpose or value."[2]

In November 2019, Wuco was appointed a senior advisor in the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance of the State Department.[11][12][13][14] In August 2020, Wuco was hired by the U.S. Agency for Global Media.[15] In 2020, the White House unsuccessfully sought to place Wuco in the Department of Defense.[16]

Promotion of conspiracy theories
Frank Wuco portraying Faud Wasul in "As the Jihadist"
Frank Wuco portraying Faud Wasul in "Ask the Jihadist" January 2013

Prior to serving in the Trump Administration, Wuco hosted a talk radio show in Florida, where he promoted birtherism and criticized Islam.[17] He commented, for instance, that "Obama knew nothing of the 'black American experience,' defended the initial speculation in the media that Muslim extremists were responsible for the mass killing in Norway, and said that gay people had hijacked the word 'gay' from happy people".[1] He also created and played the part of a supposed former Muslim jidahist on his radio show, which he used to vent critiques of Islam and American policy.[5]

Among the many conspiracy theories he promoted on his radio show was that Barack Obama's memoir was actually ghostwritten by former radical left militant Bill Ayers, that former CIA director John Brennan was a Muslim and that former attorney general Eric Holder had been a member of the Black Panthers.[18]

In January 2010, Wuco created a fictional character called Faud Wasul. According to reporting by Mother Jones, Wasul is a "fictional terrorist whose 'model behavior' led him to be released from US custody so that he could tour the United States to talk about jihad". Wuco co-hosted or guest hosted role-playing as "Faud Wasul" sporting a keffiyeh scarf, faking an Arab accent, and impersonating a jihadist in multiple video blogs, on radio shows, and in live speeches.[19][5]

In a September 2012 appearance on a right-wing radio program, Wuco claimed that Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political group, and that her parents were members of the organization.[20]

In January 2013, Wuco attacked Colin Powell for his condemnation of racism in the Republican Party.[21] In February 2013, he claimed that John Brennan, then the nominee to be the director of the CIA, had converted to Islam when he was stationed in Saudi Arabia. Wuco interviewed former FBI agent John Guandolo, who is the only source for the unsubstantiated claim. In a May 2013 episode of his radio show, Wuco falsely claimed that then-Attorney General Eric Holder was involved in the Black Panthers in the 1970s.[20]

In January 2016, when speaking to The Dougherty Report, he was asked why the U.S. doesn't just turn Syria and Iran into "glass already". Wuco responded: "Um well, I — I mean, I know what you're getting at... I mean, it's, it's that our, I mean it's been our — I don't think it's been our policy really to just start nuking countries. I think if we were going to have done that, my preference would have been to have dropped a couple of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons over Afghanistan the day after 9/11 to send a definite message to the world that they had screwed up in a big way".[22][14]

References
  1. Kaczynski, Andrew; Massie, Chris; McDermott, Nathan (December 14, 2017). "Homeland Security senior adviser promoted birtherism, said Obama knew 'nothing about the black American experience'". CNN.
  2. Grunwald, Michael; Restuccia, Andrew; Dawsey, Josh (May 1, 2017). "Trump starts dismantling his shadow Cabinet". Politico. Retrieved December 15, 2017. For example, Kelly and his staff have often been at odds with the senior White House adviser at Homeland Security, Frank Wuco, a former Navy intelligence officer, according to two people familiar with the situation.
  3. "The Tustin News from Tustin, California". The Tustin News. October 1, 1981. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017. Navy Seaman Recruit Frank E. Wuco, son of Walter P. Wuco, 17021 Alta Dena, has completed recruit training at the Naval Training Center, San Diego.
  4. "Shipmate E-mail List for USS Fox DLG/CG-33". Archived from the original on December 15, 2017.
  5. Lanard, Noah (November 1, 2017). "A Fake Jihadist Has Landed a Top Job at Homeland Security". Mother Jones.
  6. Rein, Lisa; Eilperin, Juliet (March 20, 2017). "The White House has installed aides at every cabinet agency to ensure loyalty to Trump". The Toronto Star. Retrieved December 15, 2017. At Homeland Security, for example, is Frank Wuco, a former security consultant whose blog Red Wire describes the terrorist threat as rooted in Islam. To explain the threat, he appears on YouTube as a fictional jihadist.
  7. Hesson, Ted; LeVine, Marianne; Leonor, Mel (February 7, 2017). "Showdown over Trump's travel ban". Politico. Frank Wuco, White House senior advisor: Wuco is a national security expert and the CEO of Red Mind Solutions, a company that provides consulting, training and data analysis services.
  8. Shaw, Al; Kravitz, Derek (August 31, 2017). "Here are More than 1,000 Officials Trump has Quietly Deployed Across the Government". ProPublica. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  9. Reitman, Janet (November 3, 2018). "U.S. Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism. Now They Don't Know How to Stop It". The New York Times. Another new senior Homeland Security official, the retired Navy officer Frank Wuco, had made a career of lecturing to the military about the jihadi mind-set, often while role-playing as a member of the Taliban in a Pashtun hat and kaffiyeh.
  10. Delk, Josh (December 14, 2017). "Homeland Security defends White House adviser after Obama comments resurface". The Hill. Retrieved December 15, 2017. Frank Wuco, who hosted a conservative radio program before joining the White House in January, floated the conspiracy that Obama was not eligible to be president because he was not a natural born U.S. citizen and claimed that Obama knew 'nothing about the black American experience'.
  11. Sullivan, Kate; Kaczynski, Andrew (November 27, 2019). "Trump official who promoted fringe conspiracy theories now senior adviser at State Department". CNN.
  12. Dibble, Madison (November 28, 2019). "Trump official who suggested nuking Afghanistan takes new role as senior State Department adviser". Washington Examiner.
  13. Hudson, John (November 27, 2019). "Trump official who suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Afghanistan now responsible for arms control issues". The Washington Post.
  14. Watson, Kathryn (28 November 2019). "Former talk radio show host who floated questionable theories now a top arms control official". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  15. Lippman, Daniel (August 13, 2020). "U.S. global media agency hires shock jock who called Obama 'Kenyan'". Politico. The U.S. Agency for Global Media has hired Frank Wuco, a controversial former talk radio host who once called President Barack Obama "a Kenyan" and said Nancy Pelosi was a Botox-using Nazi, according to three USAGM officials.
  16. Seligman, Lara; Lippman, Daniel (November 11, 2020). "'Devastating': Top Pentagon leadership gutted as fears rise over national security". Politico. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  17. Arrazola, Andres A. (2011). "Deconstructing the Religious Archive and its Secular Component and its Relationship to Violence". Florida International University: 71–72. doi:10.25148/etd.FI11090101. Retrieved December 15, 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. Greenwood, Max (December 21, 2017). "Key Trump adviser regularly promoted far-right conspiracy theories: report". The Hill. Retrieved December 28, 2017. Among them was the claim that former President Obama's memoir was actually penned by anti-war activist and radical Bill Ayers, as well as claims that former Attorney General Eric Holder had once been a member of the Black Panthers and that former CIA Director John Brennan had converted to Islam. There is no evidence to support such claims, which are widely considered false.
  19. "This Homeland Security adviser role-plays as a terrorist to get inside the mind of jihadists". theweek.com. 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  20. Kaczynski, Andrew; Massie, Chris; McDermott, Nathan. "Senior White House adviser at Homeland Security repeatedly promoted fringe conspiracy theories on the radio". CNN. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  21. Andrew Kaczynski, Chris Massie and Nathan McDermott (14 December 2017). "Homeland Security senior adviser promoted birtherism, said Obama knew 'nothing about the black American experience'". CNN. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  22. "Trump official who said he'd nuke Afghanistan now senior adviser at State Department". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
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