Simmons claimed to have enlisted in the Navy in 1973, received a medical discharge, and then trained in Alaska and worked for the CIA for 27 years, specializing in organizational sabotage, and retired in 2000. After being recruited to Fox in 2001 and making his first appearance on the "Geraldo Rivera Show", he was a guest on Fox News in 2002, and by 2004 had become a regular guest commentator and was recruited into the Pentagon military analyst program in support of American intervention in Iraq; he was present when President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act in 2006. After the program was exposed as propaganda by the "New York Times" in 2009 and ended, he continued to refer to his participation in it, and in 2012 co-wrote "The Natanz Directive", a novel he claimed to be partially autobiographical, about a retired CIA operative recalled to duty. In 2012, although the government was already aware of his false claims, he became a member of the Citizens' Commission on Benghazi. He referred to President Obama as a "boy king" and Nancy Pelosi as a "pathological liar", and in February 2015 claimed there were "at least 19 paramilitary Muslim training facilities in the United States". He was not paid by Fox; during his years as a news commentator, he started Simmons Air, a commuter airline, and after its failure worked in 2008 for military contractor BAE Systems but performed unsatisfactorily during training as a Human Terrain System Team leader, was rejected for a position with Triple Canopy in 2009 after a background check by the State Department revealed that he did not have the CIA experience he claimed, and had to return in 2010 from a contractor post in Afghanistan after revocation of his temporary security clearance.