Al Qaeda first attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 with a car bomb in the underground garage. Americans heard about the attack on the evening news and then went out to McDonald’s for a burger and fries. 

It was like the 911 operator called us and we put them on hold. Less than ten years later, the 9/11 attacks left 3,000 Americans dead.

We can’t make the same mistake. Even with the limited evidence we have so far, we know we have experienced a deadly, major synchronized Islamist terror attack on U.S. soil designed to send a message and inflict as many bloody casualties as possible. There is no reason why they can’t try that or worse again. 

For a lot of reasons, there is cause to believe we have set ourselves up for the next Islamist campaign against America. Here are four.

NEW ORLEANS TERROR SUSPECT’S BROTHER SAYS ATTACK IS SIGN OF ‘RADICALIZATION’: REPORT

First, ISIS and others are back. Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan reignited the hope that America really was the paper tiger that Usama Bin Laden claimed we were. He followed that with feckless policies in the Middle East and North Africa that gave both opportunities to rebuild and recruit and fed a global narrative that it was time to rise up and strike again. 

Next, open borders are a death sentence. It doesn’t matter if the Vegas or New Orleans threats crossed over from Mexico or not. Biden has created an unprecedented vulnerability with porous borders and unlimited illegal migration that leaves us more vulnerable today than we were on 9/11. An unprecedented number of individuals on the terrorist watch list have entered the U.S. under the Biden presidency. This administration’s policies have handed the terrorists too many options.  

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Third, we have demobilized our counterterrorism efforts. Pretty much every instrument we established since 9/11 has been diverted, distracted, disabled or dismissed under Biden. We all know Biden’s top priorities for intelligence and law enforcement. They include persecuting his political enemies; protecting his family; investigating misdemeanors committed on January 6; surveilling school board meetings; meeting diversity, equity and climate goals; suppressing free speech; and demonizing conservatives at every opportunity. 

We didn’t just take our eyes off the ball. We walked off the court. 

Finally, Russia, China, and Iran are not our friends. Every round of global terrorism has had some measure of state sponsorship or support. Today, we can expect no different. 

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Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow know that Trump is going to take his heavy hand off the Bible in a few weeks and lay a meaty fist on them. They will be scrambling for underhanded ways to push back. Terrorism will be one of them. In fact, they are already doing this. Russia contracted for terrorist attacks in Germany. China dumped Israel on October 7. Iran has put out hit contracts on Americans. 

We didn’t just take our eyes off the ball. We walked off the court. 

Because of this administration’s weakness, today’s terrorists don’t try to think “outside the box.” They already have more deadly toys than could fit in Santa’s sleigh. The attack in New Orleans demonstrated the use of common and proven terrorist tactics that we have seen plenty of in recent years from Europe to the Middle East to North Africa. The handbook of terrorist tools is tried and proven. We can expect more of the same. 

Today’s terrorists, however, can and are already starting to draw on proven modern battlefield tactics, often using dual-use technology with civilian and military applications that are being innovated in places like Ukraine, the Middle East and North Africa. We have already seen, for example, attempted attacks on energy infrastructure and the use of drones. Just like the way car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) made their way from combat situations to terror attacks, other means to create murder and mayhem could soon be coming to a community near you.

How do we stop them? By using our counterterrorism capabilities the way they were intended—not the knee-jerk response of the Bush years or the measured indifference under Obama, but the sensible, practical, and responsible actions taken during Trump’s first term that took us from lights blinking red to giving ISIS lights out.

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HOUSTON — New photos taken by Fox News Digital provide a look inside Bourbon Street killer Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston. 

Photos of the inside of Jabbar’s mobile home in a majority-Muslim neighborhood in north Houston revealed multiple copies of the Quran, a book on Christianity and a book about teaching children about Islam. 

Jabbar, 42, rammed a white truck into a crowd full of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday around 3:15 a.m. He then began shooting at law enforcement officers, who returned fire, killing Jabbar on the scene. The rampage, which is being investigated as a terrorist attack, left 15 dead, including Jabbar, and more than 30 people injured. 

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Jabbar, who served in the U.S. Army for 13 years, including one tour in Afghanistan, was flying an ISIS flag on his truck during the attack and was inspired by the Islamic state. 

The FBI and a Houston SWAT team raided Jabbar’s home early Thursday morning. The team left the front door off its hinges and cracked open, revealing much of the house’s living room, kitchen and a glimpse of a bedroom. 

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An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

From outside the front porch, Jabbar’s living room could be seen left in a state of disarray by law enforcement officers who searched the home. A black suitcase lay strewn on the floor and a dart board and fake fireplace could be seen on the far side of the wall. 

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

Next-door neighbors described Jabbar to Fox News Digital as a quiet, respectful neighbor who was devoted to his Islamic religion. A bookshelf sitting near the front door seems to back his religious devotion, containing several copies of the Quran and books about Islam as well as one about Christianity. 

On the opposite side of the house, Jabbar had an elevated desk with a computer set up and a can of pepper spray, as well as several other items. A green, military-style backpack also lay near the kitchen. 

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An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

Jabbar was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and was living in a rented mobile home in Houston. The house is in a neighborhood among several other mobile homes and RVs, just about a seven-minute walk from the Masjid Bilal Mosque and Darul Arqam Islamic school. 

Masjid Bilal Mosque and Darul Arqam Islamic school in north Houston. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

Much of the neighborhood is in an extreme state of disrepair with dilapidated houses, parts of the road ripped up and trash and stray animals present throughout the street. Jabbar’s yard had several ducks and chickens wandering about and several goats were in another yard nearby. 

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Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home is seen in Houston after law enforcement searched the property. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

A next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told Fox News Digital he had seen Jabbar loading up a white pickup truck on Tuesday outside his Houston home, the morning before the attack in New Orleans, where he rammed the truck into New Year’s revelers. The neighbor said he spoke with Jabbar, who told him he had gotten a job and was moving to Louisiana. The neighbor said he was under the impression Jabbar had gotten another job in information technology.

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“He said he got the job that day in Louisiana,” the neighbor said, describing how Jabbar was loading “very light stuff, handheld stuff, not heavy stuff” into the truck.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar lived in this Houston home before carrying out a New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

“The morning he was moving, I asked him if he needed help moving out, as a neighbor, ‘Do you need any help for moving?’ He said, ‘I’m OK,’” the neighbor told Fox News Digital.

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

The neighbor expressed disbelief upon learning Jabbar was accused of the Bourbon Street bloodshed.

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“Blow my mind, I was shocked, somebody seized the carpet under my feet, I was just like too shocked, unbelievable. ‘This really happened?’” the neighbor said. “Like I said, we still don’t believe, we still don’t believe that that’s the person, just there’s no way, it can’t be like that.”

Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s New Year’s massacre in New Orleans, carried out with a pickup truck flying an ISIS flag, could embolden the terrorist organization to radicalize more Americans, experts told Fox News Digital.

Jabbar’s younger half-brother, Abdur Rahim-Jabbar, told Fox News Digital that he, his Army veteran half-brother and their three siblings were raised in a Muslim household in Beaumont, Texas; Jabbar stepped away from the religion, but embraced it again after his latest divorce, his brother said. 

Rahim-Jabbar said this “was not a direct reflection of his brother and the Muslim community,” blaming Wednesday’s attack on his half-brother’s radicalization rather than religion.  

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He added that Jabbar did not know what he wanted to do in life and began his military career “to get some sort of discipline.”

While he was traveling from his home in Texas to Louisiana on Tuesday, Jabbar posted videos to his Facebook account pledging his allegiance to ISIS, law enforcement sources said.

Retired FBI agents Scott Duffey and Chris Swecker told Fox News Digital Wednesday’s attack could embolden ISIS, other terrorist groups or individuals who have been radicalized.

NEW ORLEANS TERROR SUSPECT’S BROTHER SAYS ATTACK IS SIGN OF ‘RADICALIZATION’: REPORT

ATF agents investigate a rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

“This is a time where ISIS is under extreme stress, and their existence is being threatened in Syria and elsewhere. It would make sense for them to double down on their message to radicalize Americans to put them into action and activate any cells that they have in place,” Swecker said.

Before his rampage in New Orleans, Jabbar posted several videos on Facebook declaring his support for ISIS, the FBI said at a news conference Thursday.

“In the first video, Jabbar explains he only planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said. 

ISIS and other terrorist organizations often use social media to recruit new members, experts said.

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“ISIS and other foreign adversaries use all sorts of social media platforms to spread anti-American ideologies, rhetoric and propaganda,” Duffey said. “It’s free speech and designed to slowly convert young people to start questioning their American and religious ideals.

“It starts off (with) soft messaging to attract people into their thought process,” he added. “Links are often provided that lead people to additional messages… sowing division and distrust of government in young impressionable minds.

“I think there is often an underlying mental issue in the reader that attracts them to the message, which over time leads to… more encrypted messages of violence.

“It’s a win for them if someone does something like what he did yesterday.”

Investigators search a rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

Most people are radicalized by online materials, said John Ryan, who served as chief of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

“Him being an IT person, it would mean he probably knows how to access the dark web where a lot more material is available,” Ryan said of Jabbar’s background in information technology.

“In regards to whether it could trigger other people, sadly there are a lot of keyboard warriors who are being exposed to this and searching for something to connect to. Given the high level of mental health issues in the aftermath of COVID and the number of protests in support of Hamas and pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, the answer is yes. Mostly lone wolf type of people.”

Although law enforcement officers were initially searching for accomplices in the attack, the FBI said Thursday it appears Jabbar acted alone. However, Swecker said, that does not discount the possibility of an active terror cell within the country. 

“If his radicalization was as a result of the propaganda and calls to action from ISIS on the internet, this is [still] international terrorism. We’re calling him homegrown, but it’s directed from a terrorist organization,” Swecker said. 

“Even if he doesn’t carry a card, even if he isn’t on the phone with the ISIS director but he’s being called to action by propaganda on their websites, it’s still international terrorism,” he said. “That’s very much a part of the playbook for al Qaeda and these international groups.”

Jabbar was stationed at Fort Bragg, now called Fort Liberty, in North Carolina, as was active-duty U.S. Army soldier Matthew Livelsberger, who police said intentionally set and died in an explosion that injured seven outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Investigators have uncovered no evidence of a connection between the Bourbon Street terror attack in New Orleans and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas despite the suspects’ shared military history.

The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas New Year’s Day has been identified as active-duty U.S. Army soldier Matthew Livelsberger, pictured right. Livelsberger’s attack took place within hours of Jabbar’s in New Orleans. (Fox News)

“If they served at the same base, I think I’m still very open and there’s a distinct possibility that they linked up on the internet or with their prior military associations,” Swecker said. “If [Livelsberger] was a convert, he would have been going to the same [religious] services as [Jabbar].

“What [Jabbar] did and what happened in Las Vegas does give credibility to the movement and creates that excitement in others who may be thinking about it [carrying] on their plan in a short time frame,” Duffey said.