New Orleans latest: Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s brother says sibling was radicalized as Biden sets date to visit Louisiana
FBI believes ‘ISIS-inspired’ New Orleans attacker acted alone and has ‘no definitive link’ to the Las Vegas Cybertruck blast driver Matthew Livelsberger
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Your support makes all the difference.The brother of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man behind the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, blamed radicalization for his sibling’s actions.
Abdur Rahim-Jabbar, 24, who along with his brother was raised Muslim, told Fox News that he did not previously spot any signs of someone who was hatching a deadly plot. He added that the attack was “no direct reflection on his brother and the Muslim community”.
The 42-year-old attacker – a U.S. citizen from Houston, Texas, and Army veteran – killed 14 people and injured 35 others after ramming a truck into a crowd of revellers on Bourbon Street before being shot dead by police on Wednesday morning.
During a news conference on Thursday, the FBI said that it was informed of several videos that Jabbar posted online proclaiming his support for ISIS. In one video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to hurt friends and family, but was concerned the media would not focus on the “war between believers and the disbelievers,” FBI agent Christopher Raia said.
It comes as President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are expected to visit New Orleans on Monday, a White House official told CNN Friday.
Shamsud Din Jabbar: Everything we know about suspected terrorist involved in New Orleans mass attack
FBI reveal timeline of New Orleans terror suspect’s movements leading up to deadly attack
US Army veteran who killed 15 in New Orleans attack was inspired by Islamic State
Family and investigators search for signs Texas man had planned deadly New Orleans attack
Jabbar told neighbor he was moving to Louisiana – then his true intentions became clear
Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s Houston, Texas, neighbor said the New Orleans attacker told him he was moving to Louisiana on New Year’s Eve morning.
The neighbor, who remains anonymous, told NBC News that he offered to help Jabbar after he saw him loading a white truck outside his property.
According to the Greenspoint resident, Jabbar said he was moving to Louisiana because “he got a job over there”.
The neighbor learned of Jabbar’s true intentions some time on New Year’s Day.
How much of a threat does ISIS pose to U.S.?
The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed at least 14 people and injured 30 more has reignited fears about the terror threat posed by ISIS in the U.S. following years of relative quiet.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran, has been named by authorities as the suspect. He carried an ISIS flag on the vehicle used to mow down pedestrians.
Addressing the nation following the attack, President Joe Biden said Jabbar posted videos to social media “indicating he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”
But how much of a threat does the extremist Islamist militant group pose to Americans today?
Richard Hall reports.
The New Orleans attacker was inspired by ISIS. Is the group a threat in the US?
Despite the New Orleans attack, experts don’t see an elevated threat from ISIS — instead, it’s a steady threat that never left, Richard Hall writes.
Bomb-making materials recovered from Shamsud Din Jabbar’s home: report
Bomb-making materials linked to the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans were recovered by the FBI at Shamsud Din Jabbar’s Houston, Texas, home.
Jabbar, a US citizen and Army veteran who claimed he joined ISIS in the summer, placed explosive devices in the area before the attack, sources told ABC News.
After executing a search warrant at his Greenspoint home, federal agents uncovered bomb-making materials including “precursor chemicals”.
‘Fake news’ immigrant lie spreads about New Orleans attack
Frustrated CNN news host Jim Acosta accused Donald Trump himself Thursday of peddling “fake news” with his repeated lie that the deadly New Orleans truck attacker was an immigrant.
Shamsud Din Jabbar, who was fatally shot by police, was a born-in-the-U.S.A. American citizen and a military veteran.
Yet after Jabbar drove a truck through a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people in what the FBI has called an act of terrorism, Trump crowed: “When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true” - which in fact didn’t turn out to be true.
“Here he goes again,” Acosta said of the president-elect amid a heated interview with Neil Chatterjee, who was Trump’s commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in his last administration. “He talks about everybody else being fake news, and he’s the one peddling fake news.”
Mary Papenfuss has the story.
CNN’s Acosta rips Trump’s ‘fake news’ immigrant lie in New Orleans attack
‘When there’s an act of terrorism in this country, the incoming president should tell the truth to the American people. Isn’t that what the president should do at all times?’ news host asks Trump supporters
Feds warned cities about potential ‘lone wolf’ ramming attacks during the holidays
Law enforcement agencies were warned ahead of the holidays about potential lone offenders using vehicle ramming to attack people, weeks before a terrorist drove into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.
The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center sent a joint bulletin on December 6 to federal, state and local law enforcement informing them of the potential threat, according to the bulletin obtained by CNN.
The Independent has reached out to the department for comment.
A follow-up “critical incident note” was sent after a ramming attack at a German Christmas market on December 20 left five people dead and hundreds of others injured.
Ariana Baio has the story.
Feds warned law enforcement about potential lone offender ramming attacks
Federal agencies warned law enforcement departments of potential vehicle ramming incidents ahead of the holidays
Did New Orleans fail to secure area of truck attack?
New Orleans officials are promising the city is safe as they prepare for today’s Sugar Bowl and the Super Bowl next month. But planning for those events might have allowed a suspected terrorist to rampage through the city’s most popular area.
A series of barricades designed to prevent cars from driving down parts of Bourbon Street had been removed and were not in place when an attacker sped into the French Quarter and killed at least 14 people in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.
Those “bollards” — installed as part of a years-long security plan for the tourist-heavy neighborhood — were intended to block that exact type of attack from happening.
But they were in the middle of being replaced in time for the city to host February’s Super Bowl LIX, which falls in the middle of a busy Carnival season calendar leading up to Mardi Gras day on March 4.
Alex Woodward reports.
New Orleans readies for Sugar and Super bowls. Its prep work might have cost lives
Officials acknowledged major defense gap and suggested beefed-up security could not have stopped massacre
‘My anxiety is at an all-time high’: Workers return to Bourbon Street
Less than 36 hours after a massacre at the gateway to the French Quarter, New Orleans officials reopened Bourbon Street, now heavily guarded with military police, fresh barricades and 14 roses to mark the 14 people who were killed in what law enforcement officials have labeled an act of terror.
Authorities removed the remaining bodies and swept blood from the sidewalks and streets beginning at 2 a.m. Thursday. Deliveries to the street’s bars and restaurants resumed a few hours later.
Several blocks of Bourbon and surrounding streets had been blocked off, businesses were closed and residents living in the footprint of an active crime scene were navigating police tape and barricades after a driver plowed a pickup truck into a crowd shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Thousands of workers — still checking on the safety of friends and colleagues — are now returning to the bars, restaurants, music venues, hotels, gift shops and other businesses that keep the city’s tourism economy running.
Bourbon reopens hours after blood cleaned from the streets. Workers are conflicted
EXCLUSIVE: Service industry workers tell Alex Woodward that New Orleans is failing to protect the people fueling the city’s critical tourist economy
Feds unveil timeline of New Orleans terror suspect’s movements leading up to deadly attack
The FBI has shared the movements of suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the final days and hours leading up to his deadly New Orleans attack early New Year’s Day.
New details have emerged about how Jabbar, 42, traveled from his home in Houston, Texas, to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve in a rented pickup truck.
He later rammed it into a crowd on bustling Bourbon Street, filled with revelers enjoying the celebrations at approximately 3:15 a.m. on January 1.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Christopher Raia, the FBI’s deputy assistant director of its counter-terrorism division, said investigators are reviewing video footage of Jabbar recorded in the hours before the attack where he “proclaimed his support for ISIS.”
Rhian Lubin reports.
Timeline of the New Orleans terror suspect’s movements leading up to deadly attack
Jabbar, 42, traveled from his home in Houston, Texas, to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve in a rented pickup truck
Famed New Orleans tavern raising money for victims of truck attack
Jewel of the South, a James Beard Award-winning tavern in the French Quarter, is raising money on Thursday for the New Orleans New Year’s Day Tragedy Fund, the restaurant announced.
The fund, established by the Greater New Orleans Foundation, will go to support the families of those killed and injured in the Wednesday attack.
Notre Dame wins Sugar Bowl postponed by New Orleans attack
The University of Notre Dame has won the 2025 Sugar Bowl, the college football quarterfinal that was delayed a day after Wednesday’s truck attack in New Orleans.
Security preparations were increased ahead of Thursday’s matchup in the city’s Caesars Superdome, which went off without incident.
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