| John Guandolo | |
| Birth Name: | John David Guandolo |
| Education: | United States Naval Academy |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Counterterrorism activist, retired FBI Special Agent and US Marine |
John D. Guandolo (born)[1] is an American former FBI Special Agent and anti-Islam counterterrorism activist who has provided training seminars for law enforcement and local elected officials, and who has been described as an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist.[2]
Guandolo graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1989, after which he served in the Marine Corps and took part in Operation Desert Storm[3] as a platoon commander in the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines.[4] He joined the FBI as a field officer in 1996.[3] According to press reports, Guandolo was a counterterrorism expert in the FBI[5] following the September 11 attacks,[6] after having been part of the recovery and investigation of the airline crash into the Pentagon.[1] He also became involved in other cases, and according to court documents, Guandolo was found to have "had an intimate relationship with a confidential source that he thought could damage an investigation," in connection with the corruption case against former US Representative William Jefferson.[5] Guandolo resigned from the FBI on or about December 1, 2008, before the bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility could question him about his sexual liaisons with the source, as well as with women FBI agents.[5] He later expressed "deep remorse" for the relationship.[5]
Since his resignation from the FBI, Guandolo regularly provided training courses for law enforcement and elected officials across several US states under the title "Understanding and Investigating the Jihadi Movement" with his consulting company Understanding the Threat (UTT),[5] a counter-jihad organization[7] founded in 2010.[8] Other activists working for the organization at various times have included Chris Gaubatz, John Andrews, Peggy Mast and John Bennett.[3] He also helped run a company called Strategic Engagement Group with Stephen Coughlin,[9] which aimed to "educate the public on the counter jihad movement,"[10] and has worked with groups such as ACT for America and the Center for Security Policy (CSP).[6] In 2007 he was awarded the "Defender of the Homeland Award" by the CSP.[6]
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) routinely monitors Guandolo who it describes as "a disgraced ex-FBI agent" who makes a living from "anti-Muslim witch-hunts,"[5] and has categorized UTT as a "hate group".[3] Guandolo in turn claims that the SPLC is "intentionally supporting a terrorist organization in violation of U.S. Law."[5] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on local Republican Party chapters to cancel events with Guandolo, who it describes as "a disgraced ex-FBI agent and anti-Muslim extremist who has peddled conspiracy theories about Islam and Muslims."[5] Guandolo in turn claims that CAIR is a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.[11] In 2014, it was reported that Guandolo had helped draft a bill introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann that would have designated the Muslim Brotherhood a "foreign terrorist entity".[6]
In 2016, a planned event at Cedar Valley College in Texas was cancelled after pressure from CAIR.[12] The same year the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) attempted to cancel an event in Maricopa County, Arizona.[13] In 2018 Guandolo hosted a law enforcement training in San Angelo, Texas, which after pressure from advocacy groups was rejected by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement because it "paints an entire religion with an overly broad brush" and "does not seem to provide any law enforcement training value to attendees."[14] The same year, several of his planned events in the Midwest were cancelled due to local activism.[15] He was also secretly filmed by an Al Jazeera undercover investigation.[16] By 2022, Guandolo's bookings from law enforcement had "lessened significantly."[17]
By 2022, Guandolo organized training sessions for right-wing citizens about the perceived threat of "communist & Jihadist networks," and to "organize communities into operational forces to identify roots of corruption & dismantle the hostile networks behind it, and re-establish a Republican form of government at the local level," which were joined by former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.[18] In June 2023 his organization Understanding the Threat closed down, stating that "the assaults from our adversaries financially and legally have been withering and overwhelming."[19]
Guandolo was accused in 2017 of assaulting Hennepin County, Minnesota sheriff Rich Stanek at a National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) expo in Reno, Nevada, where Guandolo was a presenter.[6] Guandolo had previously claimed in a blog post that the sheriff "works with jihadis in the community".[6] [20] Nevada prosecutors quietly dismissed the charges against Guandolo, stating that even from a video of the incident, it was not clear who made first contact.[5] [20] [21] Two years later, a Dallas County jury, however, awarded Stanek $600,000 in a civil lawsuit.[22] [23] Guandolo later lost a self-defense appeal in court.[24]
Guandolo has claimed that "nearly every single Muslim organization in North America is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood or a derivative group, and that they seek to impose Islamic law in furtherance of establishing an Islamic state here."[6] He has stated that the US Justice Department should have prevented two Muslim women (Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib) from being elected to Congress, and has claimed that former CIA Director John Brennan is a secret Muslim convert.[5] [25] In 2018 Guandolo's Twitter account was suspended after he posted a tweet that tied the Democratic Party to the Ku Klux Klan and the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.[22] [26] In 2019 he suggested the US should bomb the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia with cruise missiles in retaliation for the Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting.[27] Following the January 6 United States Capitol attack, having been present at the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" rally with a group to pray,[3] he praised insurrectionists for "showing restraint by not publicly executing lawmakers," most of whom he claimed are "traitors" who should be "swinging from a rope."[18] [28]
Guandolo is the lead vocalist, guitarist and a songwriter for the band Boats Against The Current.[1]