On New Year’s Eve, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Muslim-American man born in Texas, committed a brutal terrorist attack, running down revelers in New Orleans with a truck and using an assault rifle to attack civilians and police officers. Jabbad killed at least 15. Bombs were discovered in Jabbar’s truck and several locations in New Orleans. Fortunately, the bombs were disarmed without incident. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police.
There is strong evidence that this massacre was a terrorist attack committed on behalf of ISIS. Jabbar flew an ISIS flag from his truck. There have been conflicting reports from the FBI and the Louisiana State Police on whether others were involved in the New Orleans terrorist attack. Some press reports suggested that an explosion on New Year’s Day of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Tower in Las Vegas was linked to the New Orleans terrorist attack.
Several government failures allowed the New Orleans terrorist attack to occur. One concerns bollards, barriers in the street to prevent vehicles from being used to run down people that were under repair and not activated. This was a major security failure by New Orleans officials.
I agree with President Trump, who said in a Truth Social post that the New Orleans terrorist attack resulted from “open borders and weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership.” Trump also said the Justice Department, the FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their jobs. According to the President-elect, “strength and powerful leadership” are needed to stop the erosion of safety, national security, and democracy in our nation.
Because Biden refused to secure America’s southern border, an estimated 11 million illegal migrants have crossed into the U.S. since 2021. At least 2 million of these migrants were “gotaways” who evaded the Border Patrol and border authorities when they illegally crossed into our country.
According to an August 2024 report by the House Judiciary Committee, 250 illegal aliens on the U.S. terrorist watchlist were encountered by the Border Patrol at the southern border between 2021 and 2023. Of these 250 potential terrorists, the committee said at least 99 were released into the United States. Three of these 99 had potential ISIS ties, according to the House report.
One has to assume that the estimated 2 million illegal “gotaway” migrants also included a significant number of potential terrorists on the U.S. terrorist watch list who slipped into our country undetected.
As a result, given the large number of criminals and terrorists that the Biden administration allowed to illegally enter our country since 2021—and the significant number of terrorist suspects who Biden officials released into American communities—I believe a major terrorist attack in the United States was inevitable.
Although there currently is no publicly available information indicating that illegal migrants were involved in the New Year’s terrorist attacks, there are serious reasons for concern. Jabbar’s truck was spotted in Eagle Pass, Texas, near a notorious border crossing with Mexico that the Biden administration has refused to secure. The truck also was tracked crossing into Mexico in November.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) agrees with President Trump that the New Orleans terrorist attack indicates the FBI and other national security agencies have neglected their mission to protect the homeland because they wasted valuable resources on political correctness and politicized investigations. Senator Blackburn wrote in a January 1st tweet:
The FBI should be focused on fighting criminals and terrorists. Instead, the agency has wasted valuable resources hosting DEI seminars, investigating churchgoers, and raiding President Trump’s home.
An important indication that U.S. national security agencies are neglecting their primary mission to protect the American people is the Biden administration’s effort to politicize their work by lumping together as violent extremists peaceful protesters and activists such as members of pro-life groups, parent protesters at PTA meetings, the January 6 demonstrators, and doctors who exposed transgender surgeries on children, along with people associated with domestic terrorist groups like ISIS and Antifa.
Furthermore, according to a December 2023 House Judiciary Committee report, the FBI weaponized law enforcement against traditional Catholics. And last month, an FBI whistleblower alleged that a “politically motivated FBI had treated conservatives like domestic terrorists.”
Add to this the repeated irrational statements by President Biden that white supremacy is the most dangerous terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland.
It is worth mentioning here reports on how the FBI mishandled the New Orleans terrorist attack. An FBI spokeswoman initially assured the public this was not an act of terrorism. This statement was quickly retracted. On January 1, the FBI said four other individuals were involved in the New Orleans terrorist attack. That statement was retracted the next day. In addition, according to the New York Post, the FBI did not show up at the home of New Orleans terrorist suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar until 1 PM on January 1. New York Post reporter Jennie Taer and her colleagues beat the FBI to Jabbar’s home and were there hours before.
Our national security agencies’ appalling politicization and incompetence raise urgent questions about their priorities and focus. How can these agencies be doing their jobs to track terrorists and other threats to the U.S. homeland when they are wasting valuable time and money on DEI programs, failing to secure our southern border, and releasing illegal migrants into the U.S. who are terrorist suspects? Why wasn’t Shamsud-Din Jabbar on the FBI’s radar? How can our national security agencies protect the American people when they are refusing to prosecute and incarcerate criminals and abusing their authority to investigate conservatives and political enemies of President Biden, including by raiding President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home?
We are now learning that the damage done to U.S. homeland security by the Biden administration is extensive and gravely serious. It will be a massive undertaking for President Trump’s extraordinary national security nominees to clean out and overhaul their agencies. That is why the U.S. Senate must confirm all of Donald Trump’s national security nominees immediately after he is sworn in as president on January 20. There is no time to waste to protect our country from future mass casualty events like the New Orleans terrorist attack caused by President Biden’s profound national security malpractice and incompetence.
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Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member.
The Biden Administration is the result of an illegitimate 2020 election. The radicals and crazies that secured the levers of power belong in very secure lockdown facilities within mental institutions designed for the criminally insane. Biden was not running the country.
The first step is to insure that those running the country are removed and prosecuted. The second step is to replace them, along with much of whom remains, with constitutional patriots.
“Profound national security malpractice and incompetence “ doesn’t even begin to explain “the regime’s behavior” and lack of interest in protecting the nation and it’s citizens. What they are doing and not doing is intentional and pure evil.