24 Facts About Frank Gaffney

Frank Gaffney founded the CSP in 1988, serving as its president until 2023, and thereafter as executive chairman.

Frank Gaffney was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1987.

From August 1983 until November 1987, Frank Gaffney held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the Reagan administration, again serving under Perle.

Frank Gaffney served as the acting Assistant Secretary for seven months.

In 1988, Frank Gaffney established the Center for Security Policy, a Washington, DC-based national security think tank that has been widely described as engaging in conspiracy theorizing by a range of individuals, media outlets and organizations.

In 2010 Frank Gaffney became a trustee of the Center for Security Policy.

On March 16,2016, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz announced he would name Frank Gaffney to be one of his National Security Advisors.

Cruz said that Frank Gaffney "is a serious thinker who has been focused on fighting jidahists [sic], fighting jihadism across the globe".

Frank Gaffney was himself hosted on Steve Bannon's radio show at least thirty-four times during Bannon's time in Breitbart News, and Michael Flynn, Mike Pompeo and Jeff Sessions have all been described as "devotees" of Frank Gaffney's ideas.

Frank Gaffney stepped down as president of the CSP in January 2023 in favor of Tommy Waller, but remains its executive chairman.

In 1995, Gaffney charged that US Secretary of Energy Hazel R O'Leary was intentionally undermining US nuclear readiness; an analysis of Gaffney's charges against O'Leary published by William Arkin observed that Gaffney "specializes in intensely personal attacks" and his Center for Security Policy's liberal use of faxes to attack its opponents had made it the "Domino's Pizza of the policy business".

Later, in a 1997 column for The Washington Times, Frank Gaffney alleged a seismic incident in Russia was a nuclear detonation at that nation's Novaya Zemlya test site, indicating Russia was violating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Frank Gaffney wrote a column for The Washington Times from 2012 to 2016, and for Jewish World Review from 2000 to 2013.

Frank Gaffney was the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program and podcast which has featured guests such as Newt Gingrich, John R Bolton, and white nationalist Jared Taylor.

Frank Gaffney is the vice-chair of the Committee on the Present Danger and has been described as part of a "new red scare" of anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States.

The Anti-Defamation League has said that Frank Gaffney "has promulgated a number of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories over the years" and that he has "undue influence" relative to other like-minded figures.

The ADL quotes Frank Gaffney as "mentioning that in 1991, a Muslim Brotherhood operative produced the "explanatory memorandum on the general strategic goal of the group in North America.

In 2011, Frank Gaffney was banned by the American Conservative Union from the Conservative Political Action Conference.

ACU chairman David Keene released a statement contending that Frank Gaffney "has become personally and tiresomely obsessed with his weird belief that anyone who doesn't agree with him on everything all the time or treat him with the respect and deference he believes is his due, must be either ignorant of the dangers we face or, in extreme case, dupes of the nation's enemies".

Frank Gaffney has since returned to CPAC to host panels at the conference in 2015 and 2016.

The column came two months after Frank Gaffney unexpectedly left The Washington Times for Breitbart News, where he was a staff columnist and Keene was the opinion editor.

Keene noted that Frank Gaffney had left without giving him any notice, saying, "I guess he's notifying us through you".

Frank Gaffney has been called a conspiracy theorist by Dave Weigel writing in Reason magazine; Steve Benen of MSNBC; Slate; and The Intercept, among others.

Frank Gaffney was an executive producer of the documentary Islam vs Islamists: Voices From the Muslim Center.