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NY Times, November 27, 2019
Trump official who suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Afghanistan now
responsible for arms control issues
By John Hudson
A former conservative talk radio host and naval intelligence officer who
suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks
now works on arms control issues at the State Department, according to
two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Frank Wuco, a senior adviser at the State Department’s Bureau of Arms
Control, Verification and Compliance, came under scrutiny last year when
his past comments involving the promotion of far-right conspiracy
theories surfaced.
Some of those included debunked claims that former president Barack
Obama was not born in the United States, former CIA director John
Brennan converted to Islam, former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr.
had been a member of the Black Panthers and former Hillary Clinton aide
Huma Abedin had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
When a CNN investigation unearthed the remarks last year, Wuco was
working at the Department of Homeland Security. A spokesman for the
agency defended him at the time, saying the comments had “no bearing on
his ability to perform his job for the American people.”
Now Wuco works at the State Department, though some arms control
advocates have questioned his suitability for the area of arms control
given his past remarks.
The State Department declined to comment.
During an exchange on the Dougherty Report radio show in 2016, Wuco was
asked why the United States doesn’t turn Syria and Iran “into glass
already.”
“I don’t think it’s been our policy really to just start nuking
countries,” Wuco said. “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.”
Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control
and Non-Proliferation and a former Obama administration official, said
the comments are troubling given the challenges the department faces.
“Wuco’s bureau is busy dealing with the aftermath of the collapse of the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, emerging technologies that
could upend long-standing theories on nuclear policy, the strategic
threats posed by a militarizing China and the uncertain future of the
New START accord,” she said. “It cannot afford distractions connected to
a senior adviser who once casually mused about nuking Afghanistan.”
It is unclear when Wuco transitioned to the State Department from DHS,
where he worked last year. One State Department official, who like
others spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized
to address the issue, said Wuco has been working at State since at least
August.
Last week, a State Department social media account tweeted that Wuco
traveled to Bucharest recently for meetings at Romania’s Ministry of
National Defense.
President Trump himself raised the idea of “using nuclear” in
Afghanistan, though he dismissed the possibility because “I’m not
looking to kill 10 million people.”
Trump also promoted the false “birther” conspiracy that Obama was not
born in the United States.
Wuco gave oxygen to the idea in August 2011 when he hosted Jerome Corsi,
the author of “Where’s the Birth Certificate: The Case That Barack Obama
Is Not Eligible to Be President,” on the Frank Wuco Radio Show.
Wuco said the book “laid it out in very significant detail, not just why
it’s important that [Obama] present better credentials on his status as
a natural-born citizen but a lot of the things that surrounded it, and
where it is important as to the constitutionality of just being able to
get your name on the ballot,” according to audio of the broadcast.
In 2013, Wuco brought on a former FBI agent, John Guandolo, and elevated
the unsubstantiated claim that Brennan converted to Islam.
“According to contacts, friends of yours within the FBI, they were
stationed with John Brennan in Saudi Arabia when Brennan was there. And
at that time, Brennan converted to Islam,” Wuco said.
“If true, it sort of fits the pattern of a guy who seems to be really
almost uncontrollably attracted to political winds shifting,” Wuco added.
In a 2013 broadcast of his show, Wuco said Holder was a Black Panther
member in the 1970s despite no evidence that this is the case.
“I firmly believe that this is much of what motivates this man. As a
college student in the 1970s, you do not join the Black Panther movement
unless you are angry about things, and unless you feel that there has to
be some sort of action,” he said.
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