House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that the “national security blunders of the past four years” have “been emboldened.” Foreign terrorist organizations (foreign terrorist organizations) and domestic violent extremism.
On Wednesday morning, the committee issued an updated version of its rapid assessment of terrorist threats, highlighting the threats posed by Internal extremists Inspired by foreign jihadist networks such as ISIS in America and around the world.
“Thanks to the national security blunders of the past four years, foreign terrorist organizations and jihadist networks abroad remain committed to recruiting and radicalizing individuals on American soil.”
The updated report comes less than a month after Shams al-Din Jabbar, a Texas native and US military veteran, killed 14 civilians on January 1, when he drove a truck into crowds of New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street around 3 a.m. Federal authorities called it an attack. A terrorist attack inspired by ISIS.
Read the updated snapshot:
“The terrorist attack in New Orleans was a stark reminder that the terrorist threat facing America remains alive and persistent,” Green said. “The House Homeland Security Committee highlighted this fact last October, and unfortunately, Americans have seen a significant escalation in these threats in just the past three months.”
The report details more than 50 cases of jihadism in 30 countries between April 2021 and January 2025, including “dozens of attempts to provide material support to ISIS,” and “providing material support to Hezbollah and Hezbollah.” “Al Qaeda.” “Receiving military training from ISIS and Hezbollah” and “car ramming attacks.”
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Officials on Bourbon Street after a car entered a crowd of people at the New Orleans Canal and Bourbon Streets, Wednesday, January 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 all troubling terrorist-inspired attacks and arrests since former President Biden took office four years ago.
He added: “There is no doubt that our national security is in tatters after the past four years of failed leadership.”
The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, August Pfluger, said on Wednesday, “Americans have been the target of terrorism in public celebrations, and that ISIS and Al-Qaeda are strengthening in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.”
The FBI has released images from surveillance footage showing Shamseddine Jabbar an hour before he drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans in early January 2025. (FBI via AP)
“There is tremendous work to be done to correct course and strengthen our homeland security. And that work begins now.”
The committee also noted that car ramming attacks such as the one that occurred in New Orleans are becoming a significant and growing threat.
Several 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.
Investigators gather after a person drove a car 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 opportunities to fix this known problem,” and “(c) the city’s contractors failed to fulfill contractual obligations and perform the work in the specified order and manner.” .
“One scenario presented by (contractor) Mott MacDonald eight months prior to this tragedy involved a Ford F-150 truck specifically turning right onto Bourbon Street from Canal Street, a shockingly similar threat that seemed predictable prior to December 31.”
What we know about the victims of the terrorist attack in New Orleans
Police are investigating a crime that occurred on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. A driver plowed into crowds of New Year's revelers and began firing a weapon in the early hours of the morning. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Official recommendations for security measures in New Orleans 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 in the popular tourist area.
The city began planning updated security measures, including barricades intended to prevent vehicles from entering the busy streets of the French Quarter, around that time.
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“The French Quarter is often densely populated with pedestrians and represents an area where a mass casualty incident could occur.” says the 2017 report. “This area also represents a dangerous area and target for terrorism which the FBI has identified as a concern the city must address.
“Following the attacks in Nice, France, in London, England, and the recent Times Square incident in New York City that suggested bollards saved lives, it has become clear how attackers can threaten popular tourist areas with vehicles and weapons.”
A masked Islamic State terrorist holding an ISIS flag in 2015. (Photos from the History/Universal Images collection via Getty Images)
A separate, confidential 2019 report obtained by Fox News from the security consulting firm Interfor International warned that Bourbon Street was the “most notorious target” in New Orleans for a terrorist attack. The 60-page security assessment commissioned by the French Quarter Management District bluntly states, “The current barrier system on Bourbon Street appears not 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 October 30, 2024, and again on November 10, 2024. The attacker also visited Cairo, Egypt, and Toronto, Canada, before the attack. The FBI said.
While Jabbar appears to have acted alone, authorities are still investigating whether he had any accomplices.
