Federal law enforcement and U.S. intelligence officials are combing through material found on three cellphones and two laptop computers linked to the Army veteran turned terrorist who carried out the New Orleans massacre, trying to determine whether he had tangible connections to the Islamic State or was radicalized by online propaganda from the international terrorist group, also known as ISIS.
The FBI said Thursday that Shamsud-Din Bahar, 42, acted alone on New Year’s Eve in planting improvised explosive devices in the city’s French Quarter and plowing a rented pickup truck into pedestrians along Bourbon Street. A top counterterrorism official at the bureau said Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS.”
“We’re digging through more of the social media, more interviews, working with some of our other partners to ascertain … a little bit more about that connection,” Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, told reporters in New Orleans.
Whether Jabbar had any direct communications with known ISIS figures internationally, particularly in its power bases in Syria and Afghanistan, remained an open question.
Digital forensics on the cellphones and laptops linked to Jabbar “will help home in on those two questions about other participants in the plot, as well as any possible ties to ISIS HQ,” said Nathan Sales, who was U.S. counterterrorism coordinator and State Department special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in the first Trump administration.
“Was this guy inspired by ISIS, or was he directed by ISIS, or maybe something in between?” Mr. Sales told The Washington Times. “For both of those questions — any local accomplices and any ties to ISIS headquarters — they’re going to be looking at his digital fingerprints. Who was he sending money to, receiving money from, who was he in communication with, if anyone? What kind of online content was he accessing? Was he looking at recorded sermons from radical preachers? Was he looking at bomb-making instructions?”
The Islamic State did not claim responsibility as of Thursday night, but the New Orleans attack bore hallmarks of some of the group’s terrorism. In 2016, an ISIS-inspired terrorist plowed a 19-ton cargo truck into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France. The attack killed 86.
Mr. Sales, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council, underscored the fluidity of the widening investigation into the New Orleans attack, the deadliest ISIS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years.
The horrific rampage in the hours before dawn on New Year’s Day in New Orleans killed 14 pedestrians and wounded more than 30. It also laid bare what federal officials warned was a resurgent international terrorism threat.
On Thursday, the FBI reversed its position that Jabbar likely worked with others on the attack. The earlier assessment was likely based on a misinterpretation of initial surveillance footage.
Mr. Raia said officials had concluded that none of the people seen in surveillance video standing near an improvised explosive device that Jabbar placed in a cooler along Bourbon Street was involved “in any way,” although investigators want to speak with them as witnesses.
The device in the cooler and another explosive device were rendered safe at the scene. Another unexploded device was found in Jabbar’s truck after it crashed on Bourbon Street. Jabbar exited the truck before dying in the shootout with police at about 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Two officers were wounded in the exchange, but they were expected to survive.
Mr. Raia said investigators were scrambling for clues about Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas. He posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack. He proclaimed his support for ISIS and previewed the violence he would unleash in the New Orleans’ French Quarter.
The FBI recovered a black Islamic State flag from the rented pickup. “This was an act of terrorism,” said Mr. Raia. “It was premeditated and an evil act.”
The terrorist’s home north of Houston had a Quran opened to a passage reading “they fight in Allah’s cause, and slay and are slain; a promise binding…” according to the New York Post, who gained access to the trailer where Jabbar was living.
The newspaper said Jabbar had a workbench with common bomb-making compounds around it as well.
Speculation surged about a connection between the New Orleans attack and the detonation of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.
Mr. Raia and other FBI officials stressed that federal investigators found “no definitive link” between the attacks.
Local authorities identified the person inside that Cybertruck as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret and active-duty soldier. Officials said he shot himself in the head before the explosion, and a handgun was found at his feet inside the charred vehicle.
Livelsberger and Jabbar were stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, during their careers but not simultaneously. Jabbar joined the Army in 2007. He served on active duty in human resources and information technology and was deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
U.S. and international media attention has been more intensely focused on the New Orleans massacre than the Las Vegas incident.
FBI officials said they are scrambling to understand more about Jabbar’s path to radicalization. They said evidence shows he became a follower of ISIS propaganda during the summer.
Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, Jabbar’s younger brother, told The Associated Press that it “doesn’t feel real” that his brother could have carried out the attack.
“I never would have thought it would be him,” he said. “It’s completely unlike him.”
He said his brother was isolated in the past few years but he didn’t see any signs of radicalization.
“It’s completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him,” he said.
New Orleans inched back toward normal operations on Thursday. Authorities finished processing the scene early in the morning and removed the last of the bodies. Bourbon Street, famous worldwide for its music, open-air drinking, and festive vibes, was reopened for business by the early afternoon.
Mr. Sales told The Times that “the New Orleans attack is a vivid reminder of the fact that ISIS is still a threat.”
“We destroyed the so-called physical caliphate in Syria and Iraq during the Trump administration, but the group has been rebuilding and reconstituting itself over the past couple of years,” he said. “We’ve seen a dramatic spike in ISIS activity in and around Afghanistan. We’ve seen a spike in Syria and Iraq. ISIS is very active through its affiliates in West Africa. So we can’t afford to take our eyes off the ball because whether or not ISIS is a priority for Washington. Washington’s a priority for ISIS.”
The former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator also cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“This is very much a fog of war situation where we don’t know a lot in the early hours, and even the early days of a complex investigation like this,” he said. “It’s best to be patient. It’s best to take a breath, allow investigators to do their job and see what comes out.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.