John Guandolo’ s Understanding the Threat (UTT) is a consultation and training group known for providing anti-Islam instruction for U.S. law enforcement officials.
Guandolo believes that America “is at war with Islam,” and that major Muslim organizations and mosques are “preparing for combat.” He claims there is inaction on the part of the U.S. government to counter this threat because people inside the Trump White House “have been co-opted by the bad guys.” Guandolo excused a terror attack on a London mosque because “people who are still sane” are “having to make very difficult decisions.”
Guandolo sees conspiracies in everything. He fantasizes that former CIA Director Brennan is a secret Muslim agent. He believes in a vast conspiracy of Muslims intentionally taking jobs as hotel managers, cabbies, TSA staff and shuttle bus drivers as part of a plot against the United States. He believes all U.S. Muslim organizations are part of a plot to overthrow America.
Guandolo physically assaulted a Minnesota sheriff, according to a statement by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and was cited for battery. The sheriff subsequently obtained a restraining order against him. Guandolo is since under criminal investigation by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.
He asserts that an “Islamic leader is lying when he is talking to you” and that all of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims ascribe to a faith that commits them to lying and endless warfare. As such, asking a Muslim to explain Islam is “unprofessional.”
Guandolo would deny Islamic places of worship First Amendment protections. He alleges that “mosques” are “organizing for armed confrontation with law enforcement” and “increasing their pre-attack surveillances of churches.” He believes mosques are places “for storing ammunition.”
Guandolo says that “Christians should be preferred to be rulers and judges” in the United States.
John Guandolo’ s Understanding the Threat (UTT) is a consultation and training group known for providing anti-Islam instruction for U.S. law enforcement officials.
In a July 2nd, 2017 blog post, Guandolo wrote “America is again at war with Islam.” He had previously stated, “We need to find the Islamic movement anywhere it is, including in the United States, and crush it and defeat it now.”
In April 2017, after asserting that major Muslim organizations and mosques in the United States are “preparing for combat,” Guandolo then asserted that “You have people inside the [Trump] White House, some of them Republicans, some of them working around the President, who have been co-opted by the bad guys.” According to Guandolo “the bad guys” are “all of the prominent Islamic leaders in the United States.”
After a terror attack on a London mosque in 2017, Guandolo excused lawless behavior, saying “people who are still sane there are having to make very difficult decisions.” He has also stated support for civilians and police “aggressively taking care of the enemy in their communities.”
[heading style=”8″ heading=”h5″ color=”#30415d”]Guandolo sees Conspiracies in Everything [/heading]
According to Guandolo, “[Former CIA Director John] Brennan did convert to Islam when he served in an official capacity on behalf of the United States in Saudi Arabia.” Guandolo adds, “His conversion was the culmination of a counter-intelligence operation against him to convert him.”
Guandolo has observed, “The vast majority of taxi cab drivers in major cities, especially in and around airports are Muslims.” He added, “I take pictures frequently of the increasing numbers of TSA officers that are sharia-adherent Muslims.” He completes the idea by saying, “The things [the interviewer is] asking specifically about hotel managers and Quickmart, 7-11 type, stores and venues like that. We are seeing that in cities, especially in the largest cities, the top hotels have a manager or assistant manager that is a Muslim. And I know the statistical chance, the statistical probability for instance that the top ten hotels or the top eight hotels in Denver, Colorado and the surrounding area would have a Muslims that’s a manager or an assistant manager, based on the Muslim population the statistical probability of that is zero, unless it’s intentional.”
A video produced by Understanding the Threat oddly claims that when a Muslim religious leader in Delaware touched his nose during the national anthem it was an “intentional act” of “civilization jihad.”
At his presentation at the National Sheriffs’ Association’s (NSA) June 2017 Annual Educational & Technology Expo in Reno, Nevada, Guandolo physically assaulted Sheriff Rich Stanek, according to a statement by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and was cited for battery. Stanek subsequently obtained a harassment restraining order against him. Guandolo is since under criminal investigation by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.
Prior to the June event, Guandolo had accused the sheriff of working “with jihadis in the community” and falsely claimed that “under the watch of Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, the jihadi threat has increased exponentially.” When the sheriff questioned the accuracy of these accusations at the Expo, Guandolo “reacted by accusing [Stanek] of supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” according to court records.
Shortly after the altercation, NSA Executive Director Jonathan Thompson sent a message to Association members regarding Guandolo’s UTT, saying, “The NSA does not endorse this organization, its principle, its messages or its materials.”
Regarding the altercation, the national board chairman of UTT, John Andrews, stated, “The whole thing appears to have been a setup instigated by Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers to impede UTT’s growing national influence as a truth-teller against jihad and sharia in the US homeland.” He continued, “But I guarantee you, UTT will not be silenced by lawless intimidation of this kind.”
One criminal justice academy director, who canceled a UTT training in his organization, testified that “Mr. Guandolo appears absolute in his message that all Muslims ascribe to a violent ideology against westerners.”
Guandolo believes “The way to understand when an Islamic leader is lying is when he is talking to you. When his mouth is moving.” UTT vice president Chris Gaubatz claimed that “Under Islamic law, Muslims are obliged to lie to advance the jihad.”
Guandolo has falsely claimed that “100% of all published authoritative Islamic Law obliges Jihad until the entire world is subordinated to Islamic Law… [and] ONLY defines Jihad as “warfare against non-Muslims.” He has also said that “100 percent of Sharia law mandates jihad… there’s no version of Islam that doesn’t require that, and [Muslim U.S. Congressmen] Andre Carson and Keith Ellison know it.”
Guandolo has been reported as saying, “every major Muslim organization is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.”
As a result of this belief, Guandolo asserts, “For a pastor or a government official or law enforcement official to ask a Muslim to explain Islam to them is actually unprofessional.”
Guandolo has said that mosques “do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.”
In “Threat Assessment in the Domestic War,” published online on April 24, 2017, Guandolo wrote, “Mosques/Islamic Centers are organizing for armed confrontation with law enforcement, shoring up physical defenses where they see likely confrontation and increasing their pre-attack surveillances of churches and other targets.”
He has also stated that “A mosque is not a Muslim church. A mosque is what Mohammed used the mosque for, and Mohammed used the mosque for storing ammunition, for storing food, for planning jihad, it’s where jihadis stayed, and it’s the place from whence the jihad was fought.”
Guandolo has stated that “Christians should be preferred to be rulers and judges… because how can you make a judgement legally, if the foundation for law and government is the law of nature and Holy Scripture, if you don’t believe it?”
Guandolo left the FBI shortly after reports surfaced that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a key witness in a corruption trial targeting a Member of Congress. On multiple occasions, he made “inappropriate sexual advances” towards the witness, and in one instance became “overly aggressive” before she fended him off. Guandolo also urged this witness to make a donation of $75,000 to an unnamed “anti-terrorism organization,” a request she refused to fulfill.
Guandolo’s biography, altered since this information was revealed, previously asserted that he “served as an adjunct instructor at the Joint Forces Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.” However, according to Major General Tony Cucolo, “Mr. Guandolo’s claim (in print) that he teaches at the Army War College and any other references (e.g., online) identifying him as an adjunct instructor here are simply untrue.” Cucolo adds, “Mr. Guandolo was invited to speak as a guest lecturer during one lesson of an elective… [he] came here, participated in an academic small group discussion that lasted no more than three hours, and then departed. That is all.”
