‘Expert’ Fox News Peddled As A ‘Former CIA Analyst’ Arrested By FBI For Lying About Working At CIA

Fox News for 13 years claimed a man arrested yesterday for fraud and lying was a “terror expert” and “former CIA analyst.” He wasn’t.

Since at least 2002 Wayne Simmons appeared on Fox News as their “terror analyst” and “national security and terrorism expert.” Billed as a “Former CIA Analyst” on the network, Simmons claimed he had been an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the Central Intelligence Agency and worked for the Agency for 27 years.

On Thursday, the FBI arrested Simmonds “after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government,” the Bureau said in a statement. The FBI says Simmons never worked for the CIA.

Simmons used his false credentials “in an attempt to obtain government security clearances and work as a defense contractor, including at one point successfully getting deployed overseas as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel,” the FBI says. “Simmons also falsely claimed on national security forms that his prior arrests and criminal convictions were directly related to his supposed intelligence work for the CIA, and that he had previously held a top secret security clearance,” the indictment states.

Fox News allowed Simmons to spew his opinions on their network, and may even have gained so much credibility that he helped push Congress into creating the Benghazi Select Committee that Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy admitted was designed to take down Hillary Clinton.

“A March 5, 2014, letter signed by Simmons and other conservative activists urged House Speaker John Boehner to ‘create a House Select Investigative Committee on Benghazi — fully resourced with staff and subpoena powers — to conduct a thorough, coordinated investigation.’ Boehner announced plans to form a select committee on May 2, 2014, and the House approved it on May 8, 2014,” Media Matters, in an extensive article detailing Simmons’ undertakings, reported yesterday.

Salon has a list of “11 outrageous lies” Simmons made on Fox News.

“In his appearances on Fox, Simmons regularly made extreme and factually dubious statements pertaining to terrorism and national security. Just this January, he claimed there were ‘at least 19 paramilitary Muslim training facilities in the United States,'” CNN reports. 

“Simmons also claimed that waterboarding was not torture and accused President Obama of being a novice who lacked spine — claims that were given greater credence because of the perception that he was a veteran CIA paramilitary officer.”

For their part, Fox News delivered a very brief 24-second report on Simmons’ arrest, but has not apologized for positioning him as an expert or billing him as a “Former CIA Analyst,” and has not announced an investigation to determine the validity of his statements made on their network, as most reputable news organizations would do immediately. 

Fox News spokesperson Irena Briganti told CNN that Simmons “was never a contributor for Fox News,” and only a non-paid guest.

 

Image: Screenshot via Fox News