FBI agents say the bureau’s first response to the New Year’s Day terrorist massacre in New Orleans’ French Quarter was disastrous and another reason why the Senate can’t move fast enough to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the agency.
According to several agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the FBI failed to execute a comprehensive counter-terrorism plan when Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar of Texas, an Army veteran, rammed a pickup truck with an ISIS flag into New Year’s Eve revelers, killing 14 and wounding dozens.
They said the top FBI official on the scene broke with bureau decorum and inexplicably declared the attack not to be terrorism and that the bureau failed to follow basic procedures during the investigation.
Agents wondered why Lyonel Myrthil, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI office, did not appear to be on duty when the attack happened, despite what should have been a heightened alert for a major New Year’s Eve celebrations and the college football championship, the Sugar Bowl, scheduled at the city’s Superdome on New Year’s Day.
The agents blamed poor leadership by outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Director Paul Abbate.
Mr. Abbate is poised to become acting director after Mr. Wray resigns, which he said he will do before Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“They need to go right now, not only Wray, but Abbate needs to go. This is awful. This is embarrassing. Kash Patel is the person to have in there,” an agent said, referring to Mr. Trump’s nominee for FBI director. “He needs to come right now, right away, because these people have to leave.”
The New Orleans FBI Office sent Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan, who wore khakis, a blue polo shirt and a nose ring, to the first press conference after the attack.
She immediately contradicted New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, who said at the press conference that her city was “impacted by a terrorist attack.”
Ms. Duncan stepped forward after the city’s police chief spoke and said, “This is not a terrorist event. What it is right now is there were improvised explosive devices that were found, and we are working on confirming if it is viable or not.”
Hours later, the FBI declared the attack was being investigated as a terrorist incident.
Rank-and-file FBI agents were taken aback by Ms. Duncan’s presentation and her comments.
“The new FBI management has to put in basic decorum rules because the bureau should look like the ’Men in Black,’ that they’re all uniform — that they’re transparent,” an FBI agent said.
He said the public should “see the bureau, not somebody with a ring in their nose. Who the hell would go on TV with a ring in their nose,” another agent said. “Who the hell would ever say it’s not a terrorist event when there’s an ISIS flag flying on the back of a truck? They call that a clue.”
“You have two major events going on — the Sugar Bowl and New Year’s Eve, and the SAC is out of town. That’s why she is out there,” said yet another FBI agent. “You have two major [events] going on here, and they left nobody in charge.”
Another agent said it is not surprising that Ms. Duncan did not initially call the New Orleans incident terrorism because it didn’t fit the FBI leadership’s current definition of terrorism.
“It ain’t terrorism unless they have a MAGA hat on. For the last three years, all of the new agents, that’s all they know. It’s going after the right-wing or Trump supporters,” the agent said. “This is endemic with the headquarters. That’s all they know.”
The agent added, “This is what happens when all you do are January 6 cases.”
Other agents were perplexed about why Jabbar’s residence was left open for the public to gain access, including reporters from the New York Post and ABC News 13, after the FBI had already searched his residence.
The FBI and Harris County Sheriff’s Office searched his home on Wednesday. Officers arrived at about 3 p.m., and the FBI said they left at 7:50 a.m. on Thursday.
Law enforcement reportedly found precursor chemicals that could be used in explosives.
ABC News 13 reported on Thursday that the front door to his mobile home was left open, and the frame was barely connected to the structure.
“You can’t search a house and then just leave it open. You have to have to secure it to protect the things from third parties. They didn’t do that,” one of the FBI agents said.
“They went and did a search warrant, they left inventory, and then it looks like they let the reporter in, but what it appears to be is that the FBI didn’t secure the residence after the search warrant as they’re supposed to,” he said. “They failed basic parts of a search warrant.”
The Washington Times reached out to the FBI headquarters for comment.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.