The New Orleans Attack

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And believe you me, we care about each one of the lives that were lost in the city of that. We will never forget them. But it would be a tragedy if we let their losses be snuffed out because of fear. This city will be back. We will be open to family and friends and loved ones who want some time to relax from the pressures of life.

That was Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry speaking about the tragic events of New Year's Day morning in the American city of New Orleans, Louisiana that claimed the lives of 15 people, including the attacker who drove a vehicle into a crowd of early morning New Year's celebrants.

The FBI has said the attacker acted alone that there were no apparent accomplices. The FBI is still asking for anyone to come forward with information. They're still developing the case and trying to determine the motivations behind this attack.

And now earlier today, we on America sat down and discussed this. This is obviously a story that has been moving and changing over time. We were originally going to be talking about a time capsule and looking ahead to predictions for the new year. But at least at the moment, we are very focused on what is happening and what has happened in America over the past 24 hours. Welcome to America.

America. America. From BBC News. God spared my life for a reason. Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars? The star is born, Elon. I'm not just America. I'm dog, gothic America. This is what happens when the machine comes after you. I'm terrified for this country and I'm so hurt that America let this happen. I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America.

It's Justin in the worldwide headquarters of America's in London, England. And it is Marianna, aka misinformation, also in the worldwide headquarters with Justin. And it's Anthony here in Washington, DC. And Anthony, you've actually been in New Orleans during New Year's celebrations. Give us a kind of sense, first of all, of what it's like of how the crowds are. And I suppose also the space that we're talking about.

Yeah, New Orleans is always a party scene. There's so many conventions and events throughout the year in that city, but New Year's Eve is special. It is a festive attitude. Bourbon Street where this attack took place is crowded with people. I remember when I was there on New Year's Eve after the countdown and the celebration New Year, me and a group of friends went out onto Bourbon Street and it was like we were scattered to the wind. We all got

pushed in different directions by the crowd. No one saw anyone else for hours after that before we could locate each other. By the time this attack took place three in the morning, reportedly it's it calms down a little bit, but it is never entirely empty. One of the big draws

on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and that time of year in New Orleans is a football game, the Sugar Bowl, it's a college football game. This year it's a playoff college football game so there's even more interest and

around the stadium, which is within walking distance of Bourbon Street, the stadium, the Superdome holds about 63,000 people, and you have folks from the two fan bases from those two participating schools. They tend to dominate Bourbon Street this year. It's Notre Dame in Indiana and Georgia, which is a university

near Atlanta. So you can imagine that there would have been sports fans from those two universities, from those two regions all over Bourbon Street that night. Again, this took place later in the night, so it may have been somewhat calmer, but New Orleans is never calm around Bourbon Street on any night, and in particular on New Year's Eve, there were still, obviously, many, many people around there and many casualties when this attack took place.

And we're talking about, at the moment, 15 dead, but also a lot of injuries as well. Do we know any more about who those who were killed were? And indeed, the condition of the many people, one assumes now, are in hospital.

So we do know actually quite a lot about, or at least some of the people who've been identified, because as Anthony was saying there really, there are a lot of young people around and a lot of the people who seem to have been killed were young. That means people are, as is often the case, when these sorts of attacks happen, looking at their social media profiles, posts from their families and friends or colleges and high schools.

So we know a little bit about some of the people who've been killed. One was a former football player at Princeton University called Martin Tiger Beck and his death was confirmed by his university who praised what he was like as a football player again to what you're saying Anthony, lots of sports fans, people around who are probably looking forward to watching that game.

Another of the victims who's been identified was an 18-year-old. She was planning to be a nurse. Her family said, her name's Nikira Cheyenne DeDo, and her family posted about her and social media remembering her and the various other people whose names are now also being reported. Again, sort of lots of people in their 20s or teenagers. And there's lots of tributes pouring in. And you can imagine how difficult that is for their family and friends at this time. It's new year. It's such a sort of

happy time people out there celebrating presumably staying out late because they were having a really good time, who never really got to go home, which is obviously very sad. And the killer, Shamsuddin Jabbar, who was shot by the police there, two things, it seems to me Anthony, that are really crucial, that are known about him. The first is that he wasn't in any kind of particular trouble, he hadn't been on a terrorist watch list or anything like that.

He had a few minor run-ins with the law when he was young, I think, but the other really crucial thing about him.

is that he was an American and was a full American citizen. He didn't come from somewhere else and attacked in the sense that actually the Trump administration, the incoming Trump administration suggests is the big threat to America. He is actually, was actually an American citizen and as someone who seems to have been radicalized, doesn't he? While an American citizen and having lived a pretty kind of all American life,

american citizen born in bowmont texas which is uh... a town uh... kind of between houston and uh... and the lusiana border uh... he served in the u.s military served overseas uh... fought in afghanistan uh... was involved in real estate dealings uh... had a family uh... and like you said didn't have any anything in his in his background to suggest that that he would be

the type of person who would commit something like this, although it appears that at some point he was radicalized. There was reports of him having an ISIS flag in the truck that he drove into the crowd. There have been reports about social media, and Marianne, I'm sure you can talk more about this, about some of the things he was saying recently that seemed to suggest the motivation here.

Yeah, as is the case with the victims, you see the same thing happening with the attacker or alleged attacker, and this has certainly been no exception really. You've not only had really quite graphic videos, actually, ones that we won't play to America, but that show what happened that night. Obviously, it was new year. You've got people filming, you've also got other cameras, dashboard cameras from cars and CCTV and stuff like that. So you've had people kind of analyzing

the footage. And then you've also had people trying to figure out more about the man involved here. And I think what's been particularly well explored online has been his links with the US military and his time in the US military. There's been images, a picture, for example, of him kind of sitting at a computer which was posted on the Facebook page of related to the US military, kind of showing him

at working away. There was another video where he was talking about introducing himself. And so you really watch how people pour over the clues and then use them to, just as Anthony said, try and substantiate this link between IS. Yeah, and Joe Biden, quite clear, quite an early stage that this was in his view that the New Orleans attack in his view was inspired by, as you say, the Islamic State Group. Here's what we know so far.

The FBI has reported to me the killer was an American citizen, born in Texas. He served in the United States Army in active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve until a few years ago. The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that it is inspired by ISIS, especially the desire to kill, desire to kill,

The ice's flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack. Possible explosives were found in the vehicle as well, and more explosives were found nearby.

So one of the other things that Joe Biden said when he was questioned by reporters was that the FBI and the government is looking into possible links between that New Orleans attack and what happened that Justin referenced in Las Vegas, where this rented a cyber truck, Tesla's cyber truck exploded

outside Donald Trump's hotel, the Trump Hotel, which I've stayed at in Las Vegas. It's close to the Las Vegas Strip. It's very near all of the big casinos in central Las Vegas. It exploded killing the driver who the Las Vegas Sheriff Department has named.

and Matthew Allen, Livalsperger, and injuring dozens of other people around the scene. Maybe now we should listen to what the Sheriff, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin Vacayhill said about the explosion. The 2024 cyber truck pulled up to the front of the hotel.

And in fact, I can tell you it pulled right up to the glass entrance doors of the hotel. We saw that smoke start showing from the vehicle and then a large explosion from the truck occurs. And just to pick up of that, we're recording this, what, roughly a quarter past two.

on Thursday, it could have passed two UK time in the afternoon. And I say that because what has been happening in the last hour or so is a further suggestion that there may be a connection between these two men.

both the guy who was blown up in the Tesla truck and the killer in New Orleans. And that is that they seem to have served at the same army base. There's no question they're both army veterans, but they do actually seem potentially to have a link, at least a past link to each other.

at the same army training center. Yeah, it does not necessarily mean that they were there at the same time. They're still looking into this, but it is one possible link between these two people. Another one is that they both rented cars, both rented trucks,

And they rented them from Turro, which is not a traditional car rental agency. It's almost like an Airbnb for car renting. I've rented cars through them before. You actually rent from a person. They loan you their car. The service kind of connects you. And then you return the car back to the person again.

There's been some speculation that this could have been a way to avoid law enforcement because it's not done the way people normally rent cars and it is rather a unique way for these two alleged suspects to have gotten the vehicles they used in these attacks.

Now, one of the things Joe Biden said at the end of his news conference was that people shouldn't jump to conclusions about anything that has happened. Well, that just seems in the modern world to be a kind of rather lame thing to say, frankly, because people do jump to conclusions, don't they? So let's talk about some of the conclusions that some have jumped to, and more seriously, as well, what the ramifications are of this attack and of

the threat that seems to be posed to America that I think a lot of Americans knew was posed behind the scenes and how that might be dealt with not only in the dying days of this administration but of course in the next one too.

And as ever, when you want to figure out what conclusions Donald Trump has jumped to, you need only log on to treat social. And Donald Trump has written or he wrote this in the aftermath of the attack in New Orleans, essentially saying, our country is a disaster, a laughing stock around the world. This is what happens when you have open borders. So he was blaming it on open borders, although we know that the suspected attacker, certainly that first attack was someone who is a US citizen.

And in particular he took aim at the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Democrat state to quote him and local prosecutors who he feels haven't done their job and spoke about non-existent leadership, people being incompetent and corrupt, unlawfully attacking their political opponents, me in capitals.

in their own clause rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violence scum that has infiltrated all aspects of our government and our nation itself. So I think it became quite clear, quite quickly what Donald Trump thought and who he really sees as being at fault here, which perhaps gives us some indication of what he might do when he's president about these sorts of things.

And just to break it down, what he's suggesting. Number one, the suggestion that this is, as you say, Marianna, something that has come from outside, it hasn't come from outside, it's homegrown. And actually, terrorism officials, people in charge of American counter-terrorism, have been saying for some years, and I remember a speech maybe a couple of years ago from the head of counter-terrorism, suggesting that the big problem now is homegrown people, is people radicalized who are perfectly ordinary American,

Citizens so don't least because it's so easy to ask yeah, this kind of well exactly whether it's an ideology imported from elsewhere or not That's the that's the point isn't it? So the idea that this is something to do with some sort of threat of people coming in and Donald Trump might like that to be the case but Anthony it is plainly not is it and I wonder actually whether that line of attack from him and

is actually going to get anywhere in the days ahead because it is so simply obviously not the case that this man in New Orleans had come from outside America.

Yeah, the post that the Marianna just read that came at about midnight last night. And it did already reflect a kind of a modulation of what Donald Trump was saying. I'm here, he's pointing the finger at the scum, the violent scum that has infiltrated all aspects of our government outside and inside. And that's something that Donald Trump had talked about on the campaign trail for years now, saying that the establishment was riddled with people who hate America.

So he's more blaming the Biden administration, blaming the FBI, blaming the intelligence agency, blaming whoever, the people who are here and in power for being responsible for that. That is different than what he posted on New Year's Day morning. It was about 11 o'clock, 1048. So it wasn't too long after the report. So what was happening in New Orleans came out and that's

when he said when i said that criminals coming in are far worse than criminals we have in this country that statement was constantly refuted but it turns out to be true so he was his initial reaction was saying that that the people coming from outside are more dangerous than the people here obviously that line is is not going to be one that he's going to be pushing of you know going forward

But I think we will hear more and more from him saying that the reason why we're not safe is because government is corrupt. Government is full of people who are scum. Government is not taking care of you. And of course, all that is going to change again on January 20 when he's inaugurated.

It's interesting, actually, and this is a slightly different sort of tragic event that happened over Christmas while you were listening to all of our predictions or wrong predictions and various other things. But it's the same attack line that was repeated when there was this really shocking instant of a woman being set on fire on the Metro in New York, on the subway, and

the alleged attack of the person who's been charged for doing that is someone who is a Guatemalan immigrant, someone who'd previously been deported and come back. So in that situation, this kind of attack line, which Donald Trump repeated worked effectively because people saw it as, right, OK, that is clearly part of the problem here. Whereas as you say, Anthony, it feels like this conversation about immigration is perhaps not headed in the direction that that initial post would have suggested, not least because we now know that the suspected attacker seems to be a US citizen.

And also it's worth saying, and I was looking at the undercover voters who've been having a bit of a Christmas break, but they're back on and fired up. Who are they? Who are they? The fictional characters with all their social media profiles whose feeds are analysed and looking particularly at the Trump supporting undercover voters. So that's populist right, Brittany and faith and flag Larry.

Their feeds were initially had, they had quite a lot of posts about immigration and then quite quickly that has pivoted to this new, like it's interesting how Donald Trump's own pivot is then reflected in all of the other kinds of fans and people posting who were talking about immigration and now actually are talking about corruption within the government and perceived security failings and stuff like that.

And on that, Anthony, the FBI, it's a really interesting one now, isn't it, when you're looking at the kind of political ramifications of this attack, the FBI initially, a field officer in New Orleans, I think, giving a news conference within hours of the attack,

said that she thought it wasn't terrorism, or they didn't think at that moment that it was terrorism. And that was immediately seized on by Donald Trump Jr and various other people who use this phrase mainly peaceful, which comes back to the, you remember the Black Lives Matter protests and riots back in 2020 and people on broadcast news

Occasionally said these rights were mainly peaceful, these protests were mainly peaceful, etc, etc. A lot of people on the right in America use that as a kind of meme to suggest that you're being fooled by the mainstream media about what's actually going on. So Donald Trump Jr. Immediately on the FBI and on that particular FBI woman who will now really regret saying those words. And she quickly corrected herself. It's also worth saying.

I mean, within hours of saying that it wasn't terrorism, they said it absolutely, we think that it is. But that sort of suggestion that the FBI is part of this group of organizations and authorities in the United States who don't tell the people the truth

And there's that kind of suggestion that they are in the spotlight in a way that they haven't been for many years, and that Donald Trump via Cash Patel, this guy who he wants to be the head of the FBI, is going to sort them out. And I just wonder, Anthony, from your perspective, does this, I mean, A, do you go ahead and put Cash Patel in and really kind of attack the agency from the top and possibly have a lot of resignations at a time when America is in

real danger of further attacks, presumably, or, B, do you think, well, actually, this is a moment to hold back, and we actually need to bolster the organisation, and there are plenty of things that they're doing that are still right. It's not clear to me, really, which side they'll go down on.

Yeah, obviously, as you point out, the FBI is going to be under incredible pressure in the days ahead. This is an investigation that is right in the FBI's wheelhouse, right? It's law enforcement, it's a terrorist act, it's something that might have

connections between different states, you need the FBI at its best investigating this and finding these connections. And if there is talk, if the talk about accomplices turns out to be true, finding what those connections are and unfolding all of it before there's another attack. And so for all of this to happen in the context of

the partisan distrust of the FBI that you point out, and it's not new. It's been going on now for a year, more than a year, obviously the FBI investigation and entry into Mar-a-Lago to claim the documents that Donald Trump had there, has made Donald Trump and people on the right very suspicious

of the FBI going even before then to James Comey and the investigation of ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. All of that has created an atmosphere where half the country doesn't trust the FBI. And there was actually I was listening to John Kennedy, a Republican senator from Louisiana

who in a press conference said he was going to chase the FBI to the ends of the earth and it was very outspoken saying if they hide everything anything that they lied to us if they don't talk about everything that they have he is going to investigate them fully and that shows that there is this

distrust that the FBI is holding something back where they're not telling the truth or they're framing their investigations based on politics. And that's not something that I think is going to change no matter which avenue the Trump administration goes forward on when they take power, whether they just clean house at the FBI, possibly disrupting investigations, or if they try to

modify the FBI around the edges and leave the institution somewhat with the way it is now, but just replace the leadership and don't do one of these full house cleanings that you mentioned.

I think it's interesting that, like you say, Anthony, the narrative that there is something very sinister happening or corrupt or deliberate is one that is particularly pervasive on social media and that I encounter a lot in the world, I investigate, not least because it then sort of gives rise to beyond legitimate questions in concerns people have quite extreme conspiracy theories. But often it kind of boils down to this question of how much is it to do with a deliberate

No decision to get something wrong and how much is it actually to do with negligence or incompetence or people getting stuff wrong. And that is something that people are also talking about here because there are quite serious questions for the city itself of New Orleans and how they protected people that night. I mean, anyone who's been to any kind of fireworks display, not just over New Year, but kind of all the time now.

Unfortunately, there are now often concrete barriers everywhere or you'll see that people have parked cars or trucks in certain ways. I can't remember the last time I went to an event like that where there wasn't quite obvious barriers to stop something like this happening. There were questions when a similar attack to this happened in Germany over Christmas.

And again, these are being asked of the authorities there, and Kirkpatrick, who's the police chief there in New Orleans, said, you know, we've been aware of this ballad situation and essentially admitted that they were dealing with repairing these ballads on the bit of the sidewalk where the car managed to run the people over, and that he got around, he managed to get around the barriers that were there.

Now I want to share with y'all if you did not know that this particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target where he did have a car there. We had barriers there. We had officers there and they still got around. So we did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it.

I wonder whether there's too much of a stretch, but I think in a way it isn't actually to say that this is a further depressing evidence to Americans that it's not so much the institutions, there's a kind of practical infrastructure parts of the United States that should be functioning or not, because these bollards in New Orleans, which were meant to be there, have been being mended since November.

Okay, so you can say, well that's not too long a time, but on the other hand with New Year's Eve arriving and the sugar bowl, the football game that Anthony was talking about as well, you know, there probably should have been in place and in a functioning place where the money to do it and the resources and all the rest of it and the political will,

you'd have thought that replacing bollards shouldn't be beyond the United States really to do in a week or so and to have something else in place perhaps that was functioning. And I think there is this kind of just this sense among Americans, quite away from the politics of Donald Trump and all the rest of it, that there are things in the United States that ought to work that don't necessarily work. Is that fair to say, Anthony?

I think particularly in a city like New Orleans that it's kind of dinginess is one of its appeals. It's a little decayed and the government there does not always function. I will say we had the mayor of New Orleans on America talking about the crime epidemic in that city. You're going to find criticism of New Orleans for not

hardening that target, particularly in a high profile situation. And whenever there's an attack, you see those sorts of criticisms. And the reality, of course, is that terrorist attacks strike where there's a weak link. And it's very hard to harden the entire country. It's very difficult to make all of us safe. And what this drives home is that

We aren't safe and there can be attacks and if someone is motivated to give their lives to kill Americans in a crowded situation to commit mass murder, you will find a way to do that. Maybe you can foil some of the attempts, but there are going to be others.

that are ultimately successful. I also want to point out that that football game, that football game was supposed to happen on New Year's Day that evening and it has been postponed this mass celebration, this event that is going to draw 63,000 people to the football stadium that will raise concerns because again, you're going to have a big crowd and you can do things to make things safer but you can never be entirely safe and and the Americans forget that a lot.

And then you get reminders like this that this is a dangerous world we live in and that there are potentials for violence, even if, even with this, it doesn't happen very often. It is rare, but when it does, it is heartbreaking.

It's worth talking a little bit more about the ramifications of this Cybertruck explosion as well, not least because the Cybertruck is a Tesla invention and Tesla and the Cybertruck are obviously very closely related to Elon Musk.

who has become such a vocal character. In fact, this is beginning our trend of never not mentioning Elon Musk in any episode for Tony 25. But it comes as little surprise that Elon Musk has obviously come out to defend the Cybertruck and to say, hang on a second, originally there were reports that it could have been some kind of malfunction or a problem. And he's come out very strongly to say, absolutely not. There was nothing wrong with the Cybertruck. And in fact, he posted this on X.

to quote him, the evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards, not even the glass doors of the lobby were breaking. So suggesting that it was a bet. But you, I mean, you wonder again, and there's, there are lots of unanswered questions about what's happened with this cybertruck.

Right, that is the end of this episode. But as ever, we love to hear from you. So please do keep getting in touch. You can send us questions or comments on our Discord server. The link is in the description to the podcast. You can send us a WhatsApp or a message on plus 44-330-123-9480. You can send us an email, americast, at bbc.co.uk. And you can send us a message on social media using the hashtag, americast as well. But that's all for now. Bye. Bye. Bye, y'all.

American American from BBC news. Thanks for listening to America from BBC news. You can subscribe to this podcast on the free BBC sounds app.

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