Swedish 'national security advisor' interviewed by Fox News not known to Swedish officials

Fox News's “The O'Reilly Factor” this week featured a guest with inaccurate credentials, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

During the show on Thursday, the network invited Swedish journalist Anne-Sofie Naslund and “Swedish defense and national security advisor” Nils Bildt to talk about the country's immigration policy.

According to the Post, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Friday reported that Bildt is unknown to the Swedish Foreign Ministry and the armed forces.


The newspaper reported that Bildt came to the U.S. from Sweden in 1994. He is listed as one of the founders of Modus World LLC, a company that provides consulting "and management of possible kidnap and ransom situations.”
“I made clear that I am an independent analyst,” Bildt told the Post, noting he did not choose the credentials under which he was introduced.

Fox News defended their decision to book Bildt, stating that the guest was pre-interviewed and was recommended by numerous sources.

“Our booker made numerous inquiries and spoke to people who recommended Nils Bildt and after pre-interviewing him and reviewing his bio, we agreed that he would make a good guest for the topic that evening,” the executive producer of show, David Tabacoff, told the Post.

O'Reilly is expected to address the issue during his show Monday night, a network spokesperson told The Hill.