A former FBI agent who says Islam is “barbaric and evil,” has been training Texas police.
John Guandolo, who tweeted that February’s Parkland, Florida, school shooting was the work of a “jihadi” and says former CIA head John Brennan secretly converted to Islam, conducted a daylong teaching session this month for Texas law enforcers called “Understanding the Jihadi Threat to America,” according to The Texas Tribune.
The class, held in San Angelo, was officially approved by the state commission for Texas law enforcement officers who are expected to take 40 credits of continuing education and training every two years.
Muslim advocacy groups and the Southern Poverty Law Center (which has bashed Guandolo’s “looney pronouncements”) said in a letter Monday to the state Commission on Law Enforcement that Guandolo’s teachings are not based on expertise, but on his “unrelenting anti-Muslim bias.” The groups demanded that the commission rescind approval of Guandolo’s law enforcement seminars.
Because of the controversy, a representative of the Texas commission observed Guandolo’s class and found “no concerning material that would cause reason to deny continuing education hours for law enforcement attendees,” Gretchen Grigsby, the organization’s director of government relations, told The Texas Tribune.
Guandolo could not be reached for comment.
Guandolo has made statements in the past that Muslims are plotting the overthrow of America to enact religious Sharia in a “civilization jihad.”
His Twitter postings include photos of random U.S. airport security officers with beards (which he calls “sharia adherent beards”), labeled as “jihadis” and “terrorists.”
He once claimed a Delaware imam was signaling “civilization jihad” when he touched his nose during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Guandolo resigned from the FBI in 2008 following accusations about a sexual relationship with an informant in a corruption case, and his alleged attempt to solicit money from her, according to a government court filing.
He founded his training company, Understanding The Threat, in 2010 based on time working in the FBI’s counterterrorism division.
Last year, Arizona’s Mesa Police Department hosted Guandolo for a three-day seminar, for which he was paid thousands in taxpayer money. Following an outcry, police officials said he would not be invited back. (Check out video from the seminar above.)