House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that the “national security mistakes of the last four years” were “encouraging.” foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) and domestic violent extremism.
On Wednesday morning, the committee released an updated version of its threat assessment of terrorist attacks, highlighting the threats they pose domestic extremists inspired by foreign jihadist networks like ISIS in America and around the world.
“Encouraged by the national security lapses of the past four years, foreign terrorist organizations and jihadist networks abroad remain committed to recruiting and radicalizing individuals on U.S. soil.”
The updated report comes less than a month after Texas native and U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 14 civilians on Jan. 1 when he drove his truck through a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street around 3 a.m. in what federal authorities described as a terrorist attack. an ISIS-inspired attack.
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“The terrorist attack in New Orleans was a stark reminder that the terrorist threat to America is alive and well,” Green said. “The House Homeland Security Committee highlighted this fact back in October and, unfortunately, Americans have witnessed major escalations in these threats in just the past three months.”
The report details more than 50 jihadist cases in 30 countries between April 2021 and January 2025, including “dozens of attempts to provide material support to ISIS,” “providing material support to Hezbollah and al Qaeda,” “receiving military training from ISIS and Hezbollah” and “vehicle attacks”.
ISIS RADICALIZED NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST ONLINE WITHIN WEEKS, FBI DIRECTOR SAYS
Officers on Bourbon Street after a vehicle plowed into a crowd at New Orleans Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
From the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 to the New Orleans attack, the report includes a detailed list of every alarming terrorist attack and arrest since former President Biden took office four years ago.
“There is no doubt that our national security is in poor shape after the past four years of failed leadership.”
Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger said Wednesday that “Americans have been targeted by terror in public celebrations, and ISIS and Al Qaeda have been encouraged in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.
The FBI has released surveillance photos showing Shamsud-Din Jabbar an hour before he drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans early on January 1, 2025. (FBI via AP)
“There is tremendous work to be done to correct course and strengthen our homeland security. That work begins now.”
The commission also noted that drive-by attacks like the one in New Orleans are emerging as a significant and growing threat.
Multiple victims of the New Orleans attack have sued the city for negligence, citing multiple instances when the threat of a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street was mentioned in official city planning documents.
BOURBON STREET TERROR VICTIMS SUING NEW ORLEANS AS LOUISIANA AG INVESTIGATES SECURITY BREAKS
Investigators agreed after a person drove a vehicle into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
One lawsuit, filed on behalf of seven victims by Morris Bart, LLC, says the defendants “have had years of opportunity to fix this known problem,” and “[c]The contractors did not fulfill their contractual obligations and did the work in the prescribed order and manner.
“One scenario he presented [contractor] Eight months prior to this tragedy, Mott MacDonald even included a Ford F-150 truck turning right onto Bourbon Street from Canal Street, a shockingly similar threat that was seemingly foreseeable before December 31st.”
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK IN NEW ORLEANS
Police investigate a crime on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. A driver plowed into a crowd of New Year’s revelers and began firing a gun in the early hours of the morning. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Official recommendations for New Orleans safety measures in the French Quarter as part of a $2.3 billion infrastructure project that began in 2017 included installing new bollards on Bourbon Street to prevent mass casualty events that the FBI has identified as a potential threat to the popular tourist area .
Around that time, the city began planning updated safety measures, including bollards meant to prevent vehicles from entering the French Quarter’s busy streets.
BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT SAYS NEW ORLEANS ATTACKER RAISED ‘RED FLAGS’ BEFORE ATTACK
“The French Quarter is often densely packed with pedestrians and represents an area where a mass accident could occur,” a It is stated in the 2017 report. “This area is also a high risk and target area for terrorism that the FBI has identified as a concern that the City must address.
“Following the attacks in Nice, France; London, England; and the recent incident in New York’s Times Square in which bollards saved lives, it has become clear just how much vehicular and armed attackers can threaten popular tourist areas.”
A masked Islamic State terrorist poses holding an ISIS flag in 2015. (Images from History/Universal Images via Getty Images)
A separate, confidential 2019 report obtained by Fox News from security consulting firm Interfor International warned that Bourbon Street was the “most prominent target” in New Orleans for a terrorist attack. A 60-page safety assessment commissioned by the French Quarter Management District bluntly states, “The current bollard system on Bourbon Street does not appear to be working.”
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The FBI continues to investigate the attack and said Jabbar was motivated by ISIS extremism.
Federal authorities announced last week that Jabbar had previously visited New Orleans on two occasions — once on Oct. 30, 2024, and the second time on Nov. 10, 2024. The gunman also visited Cairo, Egypt, and Toronto, Canada, before the attack, the FBI said. .
Although Jabbar apparently acted alone, authorities are still investigating whether he had accomplices.
