House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that the “national security blunders of the past four years” are “encouraging” foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and homegrown violent extremism.
The commission released an updated version of its Terror Threat Snapshot assessment on Wednesday morning, highlighting the threats posed by the terror threat homegrown extremists inspired by foreign jihadist networks such as ISIS in America and around the world.
“Emboldened by the national security blunders 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. military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 14 civilians on Jan. 1 when he drove a truck through a crowd of New Year’s celebrants on Bourbon Street around 3 a.m. in what was the federal authorities describe as an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack.
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“The terrorist attack in New Orleans was a stark reminder that the terrorist threat to America is alive and persistent,” Green said. “The House Homeland Security Committee highlighted this fact back in October, and unfortunately, it is only in the past three months that Americans have witnessed major escalations of these threats.”
The report details more than 50 jihadist cases in 30 states 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 ramming attacks’.
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Officials on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd at Canal and Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Wednesday, January 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
From the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 to the New Orleans attack, the report provides a detailed list of all the alarming terrorist-inspired attacks and arrests since former President Biden took office four years ago.
“There is no doubt that our national security is in a state of disrepair after the past four years of failed leadership.”
Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger said Wednesday that “Americans have been targeted with terror during public celebrations, and ISIS and Al Qaeda are being emboldened 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 an enormous amount of work to do to correct course and strengthen our homeland security. That work starts now.”
The committee also noted that vehicle attacks, such as those in New Orleans, pose a significant and growing threat.
Multiple victims of the New Orleans attack have sued the city for negligence, citing multiple instances where the threat of a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street was mentioned in official city planning documents.
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Investigators are gathering 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 had “years of opportunity to resolve this known problem” and that “(c)ity contractors failed to meet their contractual obligations and perform work in the order and manner specified.
“In fact, one scenario presented by (contractor) Mott MacDonald eight months before this tragedy involved a Ford F-150 truck specifically turning right onto Bourbon Street from Canal Street, a shockingly similar threat that was seemingly predictable prior to December 31.”
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Police investigate a crime on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. A driver drove into the crowd of New Year’s revelers and began firing a gun in the early morning hours. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Official recommendations for safety measures in New Orleans’ French Quarter as part of a $2.3 billion infrastructure project that began in 2017 include the installation of new bollards on Bourbon Street to prevent mass casualties that the FBI identified as a potential threat in the popular tourist area.
The city began planning updated safety measures around that time, including bollards intended to prevent vehicles from entering the busy streets of the French Quarter.
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“The French Quarter is often densely populated with pedestrians and represents an area where a large-scale incident could occur,” a spokesperson said 2017 report states. “This area also represents a risk and target area for terrorism that the FBI has identified as a concern the city must address.
“After the attacks in Nice, France; in London, England; and the recent incident in NYC Times Square where bollards were cited as having saved lives, it has become clear how popular tourist areas can be threatened by assailants with vehicles and weapons.”
A masked Islamic State terrorist poses with the ISIS flag in 2015. (Photos from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
A separate, confidential 2019 report obtained by Fox News from security consultancy Interfor International warned that Bourbon Street was the “highest-profile target” in New Orleans for a terrorist attack. The 60-page safety assessment commissioned by the French Quarter Management District states bluntly: “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 says Jabbar was motivated by ISIS extremism.
Federal authorities announced last week that Jabbar had previously visited New Orleans twice: once on October 30, 2024, and again on November 10, 2024. The attacker also visited Cairo, Egypt and Toronto, Canada prior to the attack. , the FBI said.
Although Jabbar apparently acted alone, authorities are still investigating whether he had accomplices.
