FBI: On Second Thought, New Orleans Terrorist Acted Alone

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FBI: On Second Thought, New Orleans Terrorist Acted Alone 1

Second thought? Third thought? No thinking at all?

Yesterday morning, FBI spokesperson Alethea Duncan directly contradicted both the mayor of New Orleans and the chief of police in declaring that the mass-murder attack by truck wasn’t a terrorist act. By the afternoon, the same agent declared that not only was it a terror attack, but that Shamsud-din Jabbar had several accomplices who helped place two explosives in the area.

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Now, the FBI has decided that Jabbar acted on his own, after paying closer attention to the videos that prompted the earlier conclusion:

Authorities no longer believe there are any other suspects involved in the New Year’s truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured 35 others, the FBI said Thursday.

After investigators reviewed all of the surveillance videos more closely, it appears that the suspect — 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who also died in the attack — placed explosive devices in the area himself and then changed clothes, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The FBI is still investigating whether there were individuals Jabbar spoke to or messaged with prior to the early Wednesday attack, but no one was in the vicinity to help him do anything, the sources said.

What in the world is going on? FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia addressed the media today to explain the contradictions away as a result of … transparency. Raia also insinuated that the confusion resulted from media reports of false information:

Did the media get things wrong in the Boston Marathon bombing? Absolutely, especially when some outlets identified the wrong two men as suspects. In this case, though, the source of the misinformation has been entirely the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and transparency isn’t an excuse. 

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It’s one thing to say that no determination on terrorism has yet been made, but that wasn’t what Duncan said yesterday. She declared at first that terrorism had been ruled out despite the fact that the truck had an ISIS flag attached to its rear bumper. Duncan then announced that the FBI had determined that Jabbar had accomplices on the basis of surveillance video from the placement of the bombs and asked the public to contact the FBI for information leading to their arrest. That didn’t come from the media, or even from leaks within the investigation — those came directly and publicly in official statements from the FBI.

As Senator John Kennedy said yesterday, we don’t need each and every detail from the investigation as soon as each emerges, but we do need the information shared to be accurate and verified, and for the FBI and Department of Justice to stop gaslighting the public. 

By the way, it’s not as though it took a lot of investigative effort to determine the motive. Jabbar posted more than one video on Facebook explaining his purpose to advance “the war between believers and unbelievers,” as well as previously posting his allegiance to ISIS:

Indeed. The FBI seems lost already in this investigation, let alone in their mission for domestic counter-terrorism. Jabbar had not appeared on their radar screen before now despite several months of pro-ISIS social-media content, although it might not have made much difference if he had been on their radar in terms of prevention. 

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In other news, the death toll in New Orleans has now officially gone up to 14 rather than 10. The FBI has also found no “definitive” connection to the terror attack in Las Vegas, but Raia says the FBI is still exploring both cases for any evidence of cooperation or coordination. That’s a fair position to take at this moment, and had Duncan used that approach yesterday, public confidence in the FBI might be much higher than it is at the moment. As it is, though, blaming the public for taking the FBI at their word does not instill any confidence at all in their “transparency,” let alone their competence. 

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