Southeast
New Orleans attack could embolden ISIS to radicalize other Americans, experts say
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.
NEW ORLEANS TRUCK ATTACK SUSPECT INSPIRED BY ISLAMIC STATE TERRORIST GROUP
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a suspect in the New Orleans attack, is seen in this picture obtained from social media released in November 2013 at Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana. (1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division via Facebook via Reuters)
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.
NEW ORLEANS ATTACK: INVESTIGATION CONTINUES, AS FBI SAYS NO OTHER SUSPECTS INVOLVED
“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.
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College football fans flocked to the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Thursday afternoon to get into the stadium ahead of the Sugar Bowl after it was postponed over a terror attack.
More than a dozen people were killed, and several more were injured, when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the wee hours of New Year’s Day, officials said. The terror attack forced the postponement of the game between Georgia and Notre Dame.
Fans pass through security check points as they enter the Superdome fan zone ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Fans pass through security check points as they enter the Superdome fan zone ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Fans pass through security check points as they enter the Caesars Superdome fan zone ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
While some fans decided to go back home instead of attending the game, others were seen getting into the grounds around the Superdome and going through security.
Authorities opened Bourbon Street hours before the game.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he was going to attend the game.
“Security is going to be tight,” he said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “We have all confidence that we’re gonna put this game on. The Superdome is completely secure. Again, the FBI continues to pour resources into the state.”
NOTRE DAME’S MARCUS FREEMAN TALKS TEAM MEETING AFTER SUGAR BOWL POSTPONED FOLLOWING TERROR ATTACK
Security and bomb-sniffing dogs check vehicles as they enter the Superdome parking garage ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Sugar Bowl officials said that pregame pageantry will begin at 2:15 p.m. CT with kickoff set for 3 p.m. CT. The pageantry starts with the national anthem, a Sugar Bowl light show and then performances by each school’s marching band.
“We remain stunned and saddened by the New Year’s Day tragedy in New Orleans,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a post on X.
Local SWAT teams patrol outside the Caesars Superdome ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Security and bomb-sniffing dogs check vehicles as they enter the Superdome parking garage ahead of the Sugar Bowl NCAA College Football Playoff game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
“We are also grateful for the work of so many to adjust and adapt to make a football game possible today for @GeorgiaFootball and @NDFootball.”
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- Federal agents found one of the largest stockpiles of homemade explosives they have ever seized when they arrested Brad Spafford in Virginia on a firearms charge last month, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors.
- Defense attorneys for argued in a motion Tuesday that authorities haven’t produced evidence that he was planning violence, also noting that he has no criminal record.
- Investigators seized more than 150 pipe bombs and other homemade devices when they searched the home Spafford shares with his wife and two young children.
Federal agents found one of the largest stockpiles of homemade explosives they have ever seized when they arrested a Virginia man on a firearms charge last month, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors.
Investigators seized more than 150 pipe bombs and other homemade devices when they searched the home of Brad Spafford northwest of Norfolk in December, the prosecutors said in a motion filed Monday. The prosecutors wrote that this is believed to be “the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history.”
1 DEAD AFTER CYBERTRUCK EXPLODES OUTSIDE LAS VEGAS TRUMP HOTEL
Most of the bombs were found in a detached garage at the home in Isle of Wight County, along with tools and bomb-making materials including fuses and pieces of plastic pipe, according to court documents. The prosecutors also wrote: “Several additional apparent pipe bombs were found in a backpack in the home’s bedroom, completely unsecured,” in the home he shares with his wife and two young children.
A stockpile of homemade explosives federal agents seized when they arrested Brad Spafford in Dec. 2024 is laid out on a table. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia via AP)
Spafford, 36, was charged with possession of a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act. Law enforcement officers allege he owned an unregistered short barrel rifle. Prosecutors said that he faces “numerous additional potential charges” related to the explosives.
Defense attorneys argued in a motion Tuesday that authorities haven’t produced evidence that he was planning violence, also noting that he has no criminal record. Further, they question whether the explosive devices were usable because “professionally trained explosive technicians had to rig the devices to explode them.”
Federal agents seized a stockpilem of explosives and other weapons when they arrested Brad Spafford, a Virginia man on a firearms charge in Dec. 2024. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia via AP)
“There is not a shred of evidence in the record that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anyone and the contention that someone might be in danger because of their political views and comments is nonsensical,” the defense lawyers wrote.
Messages were left Wednesday seeking further comment from the defense lawyers who signed the motion, Lawrence Woodward and Jerry Swartz.
A rifle federal agents seized when they arrested Brad Spafford in Dec. 2024 is measured. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia via AP)
The investigation began in 2023 when an informant told authorities that Spafford was stockpiling weapons and ammunition, according to court documents. The informant, a friend, told authorities Spafford had disfigured his hand in 2021 while working on homemade explosives. Prosecutors said he only has two fingers on his right hand. The informant told authorities that Spafford was using pictures of the president, an apparent reference to President Joe Biden, for target practice and that “he believed political assassinations should be brought back,” prosecutors wrote.
Numerous law enforcement officers and bomb technicians searched the property on Dec. 17. The agents located the rifle and the explosive devices, some of which had been hand-labeled as “lethal” and some of which were loaded into a wearable vest, court documents state. Technicians detonated most of the devices on site because they were deemed unsafe to transport, though several were kept for analysis.
At a hearing Tuesday, federal Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard determined that Spafford could be released into house arrest at his mother’s home but agreed to keep him detained while the government files further arguments.
In response, prosecutors reiterated why they believe Spafford is dangerous, writing that “while he is not known to have engaged in any apparent violence, he has certainly expressed interest in the same, through his manufacture of pipe bombs marked ‘lethal,’ his possession of riot gear and a vest loaded with pipe bombs, his support for political assassinations and use of the pictures of the President for target practice.”
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President Biden sent a message to Americans before the Sugar Bowl between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish kicked off Thursday evening.
Biden’s message was broadcast on ESPN before the College Football Playoff quarterfinal.
He offered his prayers for the victims in the New Orleans terror attack that left several people dead and dozens more injured.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Dylan Devezin (25) warms up before the game at Caesars Superdome. (Amber Searls/Imagn Images)
“Today all of America stands with the people of New Orleans,” Biden said. “We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday’s attack, and we’re grateful to the brave first responders who raced to save lives.”
Biden said he was happy the game was back on after it was moved from Wednesday night to Thursday evening as officials swept the city for explosives after the attack.
“I’m glad the game is back on for today, but I’m not surprised because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America,” he said.
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart before a game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Caesars Superdome. (Amber Searls/Imagn Images)
LIVVY DUNNE, PAUL SKENES CELEBRATE NEW YEAR’S IN NEW ORLEANS HOURS BEFORE DEADLY TERROR ATTACK
“There’s nothing beyond our capacity when we’re doing it together. God bless New Orleans, and God protect our troops.”
Fans flocked to the Superdome earlier in the day in preparation for the game. Authorities opened Bourbon Street hours before the game.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he was going to attend the game.
President Biden exits the stage after formally apologizing for abuses committed against native boarding school students over the past century during a visit to the Gila Crossing Community School Oct. 25, 2024, in Gila River Indian Community. (Imagn)
“Security is going to be tight,” he said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “We have all confidence that we’re gonna put this game on. The Superdome is completely secure. Again, the FBI continues to pour resources into the state.”
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