Jump to content

Sebastian Gorka: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Anon3579 (talk | contribs)
35 edits
Undid revision 765394967 by Kendrick7 (talk) - added article from Times of Israel as primary reference, second leading newspaper in Israel
Anon3579 (talk | contribs)
35 edits
Inserted reference to Times of Israel to substantiate that Gorka has claimed membership in the Vitezi Rend and that the Vitezi Rend are a far-right group with a Nazi collaborationist past prohibited from obtaining a US visa.
Line 14: Line 14:
|alma_mater = [[University of London]]<br> [[Corvinus University of Budapest|Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration]]
|alma_mater = [[University of London]]<br> [[Corvinus University of Budapest|Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration]]
|occupation = Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States, Professor, Author
|occupation = Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States, Professor, Author
}}'''Sebastian Lukacs vitez Gorka''' ({{lang-hu|Gorka Sebestyén}}; born 1970)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/02/02/sebastian-l-von-gorkas-encounter-with-the-hungarian-national-security-office/|title=Sebastian L. von Gorka’s encounter with the Hungarian National Security Office|first=Eva S.|last=Balogh|date=February 2, 2017|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|url= http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/01/31/sebastian-gorkas-road-from-budapest-to-the-white-house/|title=Sebastian Gorka's road from Budapest to the White House}}</ref><ref>[http://www.hunsor.se/csapotudositasai/gorkajelenseg070307.htm ''A Gorka-jelenség''], HUNSOR, February 15, 2007</ref> is a national security professional specializing in [[irregular warfare]], including [[counterinsurgency]] and [[counterterrorism]] who is currently serving as Deputy Assistant to The President of the United States of America [[Donald Trump]]. He was a full-time Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare and Vice President for National Security Support of the [[The Institute of World Politics|Institute of World Politics]]<ref name=":6">{{cite web|url=http://www.iwp.edu/news_publications/detail/sebastian-gorka-to-join-iwp-faculty-full-time-this-august|title=Sebastian Gorka to join IWP faculty full-time this August|last=Phillips|first=Quinn|website=www.iwp.edu|access-date=August 2, 2016}}</ref> in Washington, DC and the Chairman of Threat Knowledge Group. Previously he served as the Major General Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the [[Marine Corps University]] Foundation. He is a founding member of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs<ref name=":2" /> and has served as the Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at the [[National Defense University]]. Gorka claims to have been affiliated with [[United States Special Operations Command|USSOCOM]]’s [[Joint Special Operations University]], and <ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/detail/sebastian-gorka|title=Sebastian Gorka|website=www.iwp.edu|access-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2017}} to have been a regular instructor for the [[John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School]] in [[Fort Bragg]], as well as the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]’s Counterterrorism Division. Gorka is a member of the [[Order of Vitéz]] (Vitézi Rend), an ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic Hungarian hereditary order of merit which was founded by [[Miklós Horthy]] in 1920 and which participated in the expropriation, deportation, and murder of nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sebastian-gorka-inauguration-medal-order-vitez-horthy|title=Did Gorka Really Wear A Medal Linked To Nazi Ally To Trump Inaugural Ball?|newspaper=Talking Points Memo|access-date=2017-02-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/02/13/donald-trumps-influential-advisers-sebastian-and-katharine-gorka/|title=Donald Trump’s influential advisers: Sebastian and Katharine Gorka|last=Balogh|first=Eva S.|date=2017-02-13|website=Hungarian Spectrum|access-date=2017-02-14}}</ref> Although required to list and renounce his membership in the Vitézi Rend, an order prohibited along with other Nazi-linked organizations, on his N-400 Application for Naturalization in 2012 when he sought U.S. citizenship, Gorka appeared on FOX News on Inauguration evening dressed in the uniform and wearing the badge, tunic, and ring of the Vitezi Rend.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://lobelog.com/why-is-trump-adviser-wearing-medal-of-nazi-collaborators/#comment-660296|title=Why Is Trump Adviser Wearing Medal of Nazi Collaborators?|date=2017-02-12|newspaper=LobeLog|access-date=2017-02-13|language=en}}</ref>
}}'''Sebastian Lukacs vitez Gorka''' ({{lang-hu|Gorka Sebestyén}}; born 1970)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/02/02/sebastian-l-von-gorkas-encounter-with-the-hungarian-national-security-office/|title=Sebastian L. von Gorka’s encounter with the Hungarian National Security Office|first=Eva S.|last=Balogh|date=February 2, 2017|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{citeweb|url= http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/01/31/sebastian-gorkas-road-from-budapest-to-the-white-house/|title=Sebastian Gorka's road from Budapest to the White House}}</ref><ref>[http://www.hunsor.se/csapotudositasai/gorkajelenseg070307.htm ''A Gorka-jelenség''], HUNSOR, February 15, 2007</ref> is a national security professional specializing in [[irregular warfare]], including [[counterinsurgency]] and [[counterterrorism]] who is currently serving as Deputy Assistant to The President of the United States of America [[Donald Trump]]. He was a full-time Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare and Vice President for National Security Support of the [[The Institute of World Politics|Institute of World Politics]]<ref name=":6">{{cite web|url=http://www.iwp.edu/news_publications/detail/sebastian-gorka-to-join-iwp-faculty-full-time-this-august|title=Sebastian Gorka to join IWP faculty full-time this August|last=Phillips|first=Quinn|website=www.iwp.edu|access-date=August 2, 2016}}</ref> in Washington, DC and the Chairman of Threat Knowledge Group. Previously he served as the Major General Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the [[Marine Corps University]] Foundation. He is a founding member of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs<ref name=":2" /> and has served as the Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at the [[National Defense University]]. Gorka claims to have been affiliated with [[United States Special Operations Command|USSOCOM]]’s [[Joint Special Operations University]], and <ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/detail/sebastian-gorka|title=Sebastian Gorka|website=www.iwp.edu|access-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2017}} to have been a regular instructor for the [[John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School]] in [[Fort Bragg]], as well as the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]’s Counterterrorism Division. Gorka is a member of the [[Order of Vitéz]] (Vitézi Rend), an ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic Hungarian hereditary order of merit which was founded by [[Miklós Horthy]] in 1920 and which participated in the expropriation, deportation, and murder of nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-trump-aide-wears-medal-of-hungarian-nazi-collaborators/|title=Top Trump aide wears medal of Hungarian Nazi collaborators|newspaper=The Times of Israel|access-date=2017-02-14|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sebastian-gorka-inauguration-medal-order-vitez-horthy|title=Did Gorka Really Wear A Medal Linked To Nazi Ally To Trump Inaugural Ball?|newspaper=Talking Points Memo|access-date=2017-02-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/02/13/donald-trumps-influential-advisers-sebastian-and-katharine-gorka/|title=Donald Trump’s influential advisers: Sebastian and Katharine Gorka|last=Balogh|first=Eva S.|date=2017-02-13|website=Hungarian Spectrum|access-date=2017-02-14}}</ref> Although required to list and renounce his membership in the Vitézi Rend, an order prohibited along with other Nazi-linked organizations, on his N-400 Application for Naturalization in 2012 when he sought U.S. citizenship, Gorka appeared on FOX News on Inauguration evening dressed in the uniform and wearing the badge, tunic, and ring of the Vitezi Rend.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-trump-aide-wears-medal-of-hungarian-nazi-collaborators/|title=Top Trump aide wears medal of Hungarian Nazi collaborators|newspaper=The Times of Israel|access-date=2017-02-14|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://lobelog.com/why-is-trump-adviser-wearing-medal-of-nazi-collaborators/#comment-660296|title=Why Is Trump Adviser Wearing Medal of Nazi Collaborators?|date=2017-02-12|newspaper=LobeLog|access-date=2017-02-13|language=en}}</ref>


==Personal life and education==
==Personal life and education==

Revision as of 05:02, 14 February 2017

Sebastian Gorka
Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 20, 2017
Personal details
Born
Gorka Sebestyén Lukács[1]

1970 (age 53–54)
London, England
EducationPh.D. in Political Science
Alma materUniversity of London
Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration
OccupationDeputy Assistant to the President of the United States, Professor, Author

Sebastian Lukacs vitez Gorka (Hungarian: Gorka Sebestyén; born 1970)[2][3][4] is a national security professional specializing in irregular warfare, including counterinsurgency and counterterrorism who is currently serving as Deputy Assistant to The President of the United States of America Donald Trump. He was a full-time Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare and Vice President for National Security Support of the Institute of World Politics[5] in Washington, DC and the Chairman of Threat Knowledge Group. Previously he served as the Major General Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University Foundation. He is a founding member of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs[6] and has served as the Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at the National Defense University. Gorka claims to have been affiliated with USSOCOM’s Joint Special Operations University, and [7][non-primary source needed] to have been a regular instructor for the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in Fort Bragg, as well as the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. Gorka is a member of the Order of Vitéz (Vitézi Rend), an ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic Hungarian hereditary order of merit which was founded by Miklós Horthy in 1920 and which participated in the expropriation, deportation, and murder of nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews.[8][9][10] Although required to list and renounce his membership in the Vitézi Rend, an order prohibited along with other Nazi-linked organizations, on his N-400 Application for Naturalization in 2012 when he sought U.S. citizenship, Gorka appeared on FOX News on Inauguration evening dressed in the uniform and wearing the badge, tunic, and ring of the Vitezi Rend.[11][12]

Personal life and education

Sebastian Gorka was born and raised in the UK, where he attended St Benedict's School, Ealing and received his first degree from the University of London.[13][14][15][16]

Gorka is a graduate of the University of London where he achieved a lower second-class honours (2:2) Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Theology. At university, he claims to have joined the British Territorial Army reserves, serving in the Intelligence Corps.[citation needed]

He holds a master's degree in international relations and diplomacy from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration. After that institution was renamed the Corvinus University of Budapest, he went on to study for, and receive a Ph.D. in Political Science, writing a dissertation on the strategic differences between the politically motivated terrorism of the Cold War and religiously motivated terrorists such as Al Qaeda.[17][non-primary source needed] Parts of his dissertation have recently been reported to have been plagiarized; either his wife, Katharine Gorka, used them without attribution, or Gorka himself "borrowed" the passages from her previously.[18]

Gorka was a Kokkalis Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University but abandoned his studies after only one year without earning a degree.[citation needed]

2016 airport gun incident

Gorka was detained January 31, 2016 at the Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington D.C. for attempting to board a plane with 9mm handgun in his luggage. The gun was confiscated by Transportation Security Administration officers and Gorka, after being detained and issued a criminal summons, was permitted to board his plane.[19] He was later charged with a weapons offense, arraigned, and booked in June 2016. Gorka entered an Alford plea in August 2016. Although Gorka was convicted in absentia of criminal reckless driving in the interim while on pre-trial probation, the charges were dismissed on February 3, 2017 by Judge William T. Newman Jr., husband of Sheila Johnson and a close personal friend of President Donald J. Trump who was obligated to recuse himself in the Gorka case under Virginia law. [20][21][22][23]

Career

Sebastian Gorka briefing at SOCOM Wargame Center
Gorka briefing at SOCOM Wargame Center

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, Gorka left the UK to work in the first freely elected government of the newly democratic Republic of Hungary. In Budapest he claims to have served in the Ministry of Defense for 5 years working on international security issues and Hungary’s future accession into NATO.[citation needed]

In 1997 Gorka was awarded the second Partnership for Peace International Research Fellowship at the NATO Defense College in Rome.[24]

In 1998 Gorka was awarded the Kokkalis Fellowship at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. At Harvard he became one of the founding members of the Council on Emerging National Security Affairs, CENSA.[6] Before starting the second year of his public policy fellowship, he quit his degree program and was hired by the RAND Corporation in the fields of transatlantic security and counterterrorism, but after less than a year at RAND Corporation Gorka returned to Budapest in 2000 to establish and head the now-defunct Center for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy.[citation needed]

After the September 11 attacks of 2001, Gorka became a public figure in Hungary when he was asked by Magyar Televízió, the Hungarian National Television Corporation, to provide live commentary on the events occurring in the United States, and then later in Afghanistan and around the world as part of the Global War on Terror.[citation needed] One year later he attempted to serve as an official expert on the parliamentary investigatory committee created to uncover the Communist background of the new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy. It had been revealed, soon after the 2002 general election, that Medgyessy, who had served in the Communist government prior to 1989, had been an undercover officer in the Secret Police, the organization which had maintained the previous dictatorship and helped crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[25] Gorka rejected Medgyessy's claims of having not spied on people when he was a secret policeman.[26] However, Gorka was prevented from serving on the investigative committee when he was denied a security clearance due to fabrications of his personal background.[27]

Gorka and his wife Katharine Gorka then established The Institute for Transitional Democracy and International Security, an independent think-tank. The group focused on issues of international security and democratic transition in post-dictatorial regions but has been defunct since 2005. Katharine Gorka had been the director of the USAID-funded Democracy Network program for Central and Eastern Europe. All through the 1990s and early 2000s, Gorka was a contributor to the Jane's Defence Weekly group of publications out of the UK, writing for Jane's Intelligence Review[citation needed]

In 2004, Gorka became an adjunct to the faculty of the new US initiative for the Program for Terrorism and Security Studies (PTSS), a Defense Department-funded program based in the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmsich-Partenkirchen, Germany. At the same time Gorka claims to have become an adjunct to USSOCOM's Joint Special Operations University, MacDill Air Force Base, although other sources cast doubt on this claim, alleging that he was resident in Hungary from 1992 through 2008.[27] He and his family relocated to the United States in 2008. In America Gorka was hired as administrative dean at the National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington D.C. Two years later, he began to lecture part-time for the ASD(SOLIC)-funded Masters Program in Irregular Warfare and Counterterrorism as part of the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program but remained in a largely administrative role.[28] In 2014 Gorka assumed the privately endowed Major General Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University Foundation, and not the Marine Corps University as he has reported in other biographies. In August 2016, following his arrests for attempting to board a plane with a firearm and reckless driving, he joined The Institute of World Politics, a private institution, on a full-time basis as Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare and Vice President for National Security Support.[5]

With his wife, Katharine Gorka, he ran the private Virginia-based company Threat Knowledge Group. Although that institution is defunct and no longer has an online presence, Gorka claimed that TKG provided training and strategic support to the armed services, the FBI, elements of the US Intelligence Community, and state and local law enforcement.[citation needed]

Between 2011 and 2013 Gorka was an adjunct at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.[7]

From 2014 to 2016, Gorka was an editor for National Security Affairs for the Breitbart News Network.[29][30]

On February 7, 2017, Gorka asserted that the White House would continue to call all media criticism of Trump "fake news" until the media let go of its "monumental desire" to destroy the President.[31]

Controversy over "expert witness" claim

Gorka has claimed repeatedly to have been an "expert witness" at the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, including during televised news-appearances and in opinion articles. But in February 2017, reports emerged that Gorka had fabricated these claims. According to the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts, Gorka never testified at the trial and prosecutors didn’t use his expertise in preparing or presenting any part of the case. Gorka's name also does not appear in the trial record as a witness.[32] Instead, contrary to his claim, Gorka only had submitted an "expert report" to the court that ultimately was not used at the trial in any way. Gorka also made the "expert witness" claim on his personal website, which has since been taken offline.[33]

Publications

References

  1. ^ "Egy Orbán ellen szervezkedő magyar lehet Trump tanácsadója". HVG.hu (in Hungarian). January 24, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  2. ^ Balogh, Eva S. (February 2, 2017). "Sebastian L. von Gorka's encounter with the Hungarian National Security Office".
  3. ^ "Sebastian Gorka's road from Budapest to the White House".
  4. ^ A Gorka-jelenség, HUNSOR, February 15, 2007
  5. ^ a b Phillips, Quinn. "Sebastian Gorka to join IWP faculty full-time this August". www.iwp.edu. Retrieved August 2, 2016.
  6. ^ a b "The Council for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA) - Board of Advisors". www.censa.net. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  7. ^ a b "Sebastian Gorka". www.iwp.edu. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  8. ^ "Top Trump aide wears medal of Hungarian Nazi collaborators". The Times of Israel. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  9. ^ "Did Gorka Really Wear A Medal Linked To Nazi Ally To Trump Inaugural Ball?". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  10. ^ Balogh, Eva S. (February 13, 2017). "Donald Trump's influential advisers: Sebastian and Katharine Gorka". Hungarian Spectrum. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  11. ^ "Top Trump aide wears medal of Hungarian Nazi collaborators". The Times of Israel. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  12. ^ "Why Is Trump Adviser Wearing Medal of Nazi Collaborators?". LobeLog. February 12, 2017. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  13. ^ "Sebastian Gorka". www.iwp.edu. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  14. ^ "Sebastian Gorka Ph.D." LinkedIn. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  15. ^ "Aiken Republic Club | Sebastian L Gorka – May 24th". aikenrepublicanclub.com. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  16. ^ "Gorka, Sebastian (Dr.)". www.ict.org.il. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  17. ^ Gorka, Sebestyén L. v. (2007). "Content and End-State-based Alteration in the Practice of Political Violence since the End of the Cold War: the difference between the terrorism of the Cold War and the terrorism of al Qaeda: the rise of the "transcendental terrorist" (PDF). Corvinus University of Budapest. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  18. ^ "The husband-and-wife team driving Trump's national security policy". POLITICO. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  19. ^ Bill Gertz (January 31, 2015). "White House National Security Official Cleared of Gun Charge". Freebeacon.com. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  20. ^ "Donald Trump Sheila Johnson Pictures, Photos & Images - Zimbio".
  21. ^ "Donald Trump's equestrian event raises more than $300,000 - Boca Magazine". January 6, 2014.
  22. ^ "Capitol File 58th Presidential Inauguration".
  23. ^ "Judge dismisses weapons charge against White House aide".
  24. ^ Gorka, Sebestyén (1997). "Invocation of Article Five: Five Years On". NATO Review. NATO. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  25. ^ Matild, Torkos. "Titkos ügynök a kormány élén". mno.hu. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  26. ^ "Secret service past returns to haunt Hungary's leaders". The Independent. London. August 26, 2002. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  27. ^ a b Balogh, Eva S. (February 2, 2017). "Sebastian L. von Gorka's encounter with the Hungarian National Security Office". Hungarian Spectrum. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  28. ^ "Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) | The Official Home of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency". www.dsca.mil. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  29. ^ "Breitbart Staffer Turned Trump Aide Is Posterboy For New Admin's Nationalism". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  30. ^ "Breitbart national security editor and Fox News contributor expected to join Trump White House". Business Insider France (in French). Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  31. ^ On-line article by CNN's Chris Massie at http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/kfile-gorka-on-fake-news/index.html
  32. ^ "Trump staffer has lied for years about his role as 'expert witness' in Boston Marathon bombing trial".
  33. ^ "Trump advisor who claimed to be an expert witness in Boston bombing trial never actually testified".
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sebastian_Gorka&oldid=765399528"