America's Talking - FBI Identifies Texas Man as Bourbon Street Attacker; At Least 15 Dead

Starting point is 00:00:02 Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Friday, January 3rd. New Year's revelers on the famed Bourbon Street, New Orleans, or early Wednesday, were greeted by an Islamic State sympathizer who barreled his vehicle into large crowds, killing 14 and injuring dozens of others. The attacker himself was shot and killed after 4,000. firing on New Orleans police officers. Federal, state, and local authorities continue their investigation into the massacre, but the FBI says there's no doubt this was an unprovoked act of

Starting point is 00:00:42 terrorism. Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of the Center Square. Casey, law enforcement initially said that the attacker, Shamas de Jabbar, likely had help, but the FBI came out Thursday and said they now believe he acted alone. What more can you tell us? Well, I can tell you that there's a very deadly attack about 15 killed, many more injured or wounded as the driver plowed into a busy street in New Orleans. I know that the president, Joe Biden, has made this a party, convened an emergency national security meeting yesterday, of course, because of the terror elements. It's also interesting that it was linked to how linked it was as a question, I guess. but the timing is very interesting that there was this Las Vegas attack. A cyber truck was filled with explosives at a Las Vegas Trump Hotel.

Starting point is 00:01:42 And so the coordination of these was assumed, I think, by many at first. But now the FBI is saying he worked, you know, he acted alone. And that, you know, why are they saying ISIS is because there was an ISIS flag on the back of, of the vehicle. So this isn't picking through Facebook posts, as we've done in the past with these kind of people or looking through text messages. He wanted to make his intentions clear. He put the ISIS flag on the back of the truck. It's interesting, too, Dan, that he is an army veteran.

Starting point is 00:02:20 Let's be clear. He's a U.S. citizen. There was initial reporting that he might have been an illegal border crosser, but this was an American citizen from Texas. He also did the ISIS connection, the Islamic State, of course, a terrorist organization, operates out of the Middle East but has cells all over the world. He did post some videos where he expressed his sympathy for the Islamic state and that and the flag in his truck. At least the FBI is saying this make it clear that this was an Islamic terrorist attack, but it was an American citizen.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Right. And so inspired by ISIS, what that means is, is at least as far as authorities know, this man was not directly communicating with some kind of ISIS headquarters overseas and getting supplies and munitions as has happened with other people in the past. This guy apparently, as you said, as he posted in these videos, whether it was just kind of radicalized probably through the internet. And we've seen this happen before. You know, the DOJ and others really trashed. this kind of thing, especially with young men, getting radicalized through the internet, through other videos like the one this guy posted, through discussion forums. There is this kind of dark place in the internet that radicalizes, particularly young man, we've seen this pattern play out. This guy's not the first, and I fear he won't be the last. And so I think that's the kind of the question. And we have to be asking is, you know, what narrative combats the narrative that these radicalists are indoctrinating people with? How do we get to them first? And how do we create

Starting point is 00:04:07 maybe a vision of America that addresses some of the criticisms and makes it less appealing to come after us? But not to blame America at all. Of course, in a country, over 300 million people. So diverse, so many different viewpoints. And the internet these days, it's hard to see how you don't have lone wolves rise up and do these kinds of violence. And I think we're just trying to control it and prevent it is all we can focus on. Yeah, and that seems like a near, I hate to use the word impossible, but it seems like a very difficult task just because of the way we communicate, the many different ways we can communicate now with social media, with the internet, etc.

Starting point is 00:04:56 While as bad as the attack was, Casey, it could have been much worse. We also know, and this is one of the reasons why they initially said that they thought he might have had help. They found IEDs, improvised explosive devices planted around the French Corps near Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Thankfully, they did not detonate, but it could have been far worse. Yeah, very grateful for that. I mean, you know, Bourbon Street, of course, is a famously crowded, busy street at this time of year. You know, Marty Grail with New Year's. The crowd, there's no lack of crowd density there, right? And so it was a prime spot. I mean, and so in that sense, I think it is, you know, grateful that there were more people who are because the streets can be, I mean, actually packed full where you can just, just, you know, just, jostling past each other. And so, yeah, I mean, even without the IED, you know, thankfully that didn't go off. There, there could have been, this could have been a lot worse. And thankfully, you know, he was, well, he was, he was killed by police in a shootout after the attack. So,

Starting point is 00:06:09 no, you know, interrogating, no getting to the bottom of his motives or who may have talked to him. All we can piece through is these other pieces of evidence now that he, now that he is dead. I just think it's really interesting, the timing of the Vegas attack, Dan. I don't know if you put any thought into that, but I guess it was just a big hour. A few hours later, right? Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:29 So. Yeah. And in the Vegas attack, you're a similar scenario to the Vegas one. The, the, the, the, the, the, the man, also an army veteran, rented, uh, a, uh, a truck, a Tesla, um, so the, uh, electric vehicle. packed it with explosives. And thankfully, in this case, too, only the driver was killed when the car exploded. Several people nearby were injured, but no life-threatening injuries there. But yeah, it was a scary day, New Year's Day, just with these two separate attacks on American citizens.

Starting point is 00:07:15 Yeah, and so, I mean, you mentioned Trump. We can make it political if we want. Of course, you know, the new armed attacker was a U.S. citizen, and it is important to point that out because of some bad reporting early on and, you know, the like. But it actually seems that Trump has kind of latched on to some of that. But regardless of even if it was a border, I think that Trump has made national security a priority. And so, of course, the border is a big part of that. Prevading war is part of that. crack you down on crime as part of that. And so I wonder if there's anything he can do as part of this national security focus to address these tons of issues. Certainly hope so, Casey, but as I said, it does seem like a difficult task. But thank you for joining us. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.

America's Talking - FBI Identifies Texas Man as Bourbon Street Attacker; At Least 15 Dead

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