page_title: Frank Wuco
section_title: Promotion of conspiracy theories
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Wuco / Promotion of conspiracy theories
caption_attribution_description: English: Video Capture of Frank Wuco dressed as Fasal Wasul in "Ask the Jihadist"
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: Prior to serving in the Trump Administration, Wuco hosted a talk radio show in Florida, where he promoted birtherism and criticized Islam. 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". 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.
  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.
  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.
  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.
  In January 2013, Wuco attacked Colin Powell for his condemnation of racism in the Republican Party. 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.
  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".
caption: Frank Wuco portraying Faud Wasul in "Ask the Jihadist" January 2013
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