Recurring Fox News “terrorism analyst” Wayne Simmons probably isn’t the best authority on the subject, seeing as he was just arrested by federal officials for making false claims about serving in the CIA, among other fraudulent accusations.
CNN reports:
Wayne Simmons, a recurring guest on Fox News who claimed to have 27 years of experience with the CIA, was arrested Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he lied about his service.
Simmons is accused of falsely claiming that he worked as an “outside paramilitary special operations officer” for the CIA from 1973 to 2000. On Fox, this was often shortened to “former CIA operative.”
He was also indicted for using that false claim to gain government security clearances and an assignment as a defense contractor, where he advised senior military personnel overseas.
Dude has been guesting on Fox News since 2002 just spewing utter bullshit. Incredible. Just making it up as he went along, and providing some ridiculously egregious statements in the process.
On his website, Simmons claims to have joined the U.S. Navy in 1973, before being recruited by the CIA where he “spearheaded Deep Cover Intel Ops against some of the world’s most dangerous Drug Cartels and arms smugglers from Central and South America and the Middle East.”
I love it. Because that sounds exactly like what someone who was lying about being in the CIA would say. That they were the biggest, baddest dog in the pack. Ran shit all over the world. Had access to the deepest, darkest intelligence secrets our country has. When really, all of the totally egregious statements he’s been making for the past decade based on “impeccable sources” – as stated on Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano – were really just completely made up the whole time.
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.”
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.
Exactly the kind of in-depth, straight-forward, fact-based reporting Fox News is usually heralded for, right? LOL. Human resources is probably having a goddamn nightmare right now. And rightly so; if convicted, Simmons is pretty much fucked, just as the news network’s credibility is at the moment.
Simmons made his initial appearance in court on Thursday afternoon. If convicted, he could face up to 35 years in prison on charges of major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that along with the CIA-related fraud, “the indictment also alleges that Simmons defrauded an individual victim out of approximately $125,000 in connection with a bogus real estate investment.”
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the wire fraud counts, 10 years in prison on the major fraud against the U.S. counts, and 5 years in prison on the false statements count.
All because you wanted to live out a fantasy of being Fox News’ go-to terrorism analyst, Wayne? If you’re going to fake your entire life, surely you can do better than that.
[via CNN]