America Must Acknowledge the Threats on Its Doorstep

While the New Year is typically a time of celebration and tranquility, residents of New Orleans experienced a horrifying nightmare. On this occasion, Islamist terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowed his vehicle into a crowd, resulting in 14 deaths and injuring at least 35 others.

The specter of terrorism has invaded America, prompting critical questions about the reasons behind these incidents. For instance, why was law enforcement unable to detect the threat signals in New Orleans? And why is there a lack of public awareness surrounding the identification of potential terrorists? Most importantly, what further measures can police implement to proactively identify and prevent explosive devices from being planted in our communities?

Decades of lax legislation have made it easier for terrorists to operate within the United States while using the internet as a recruiting platform. The 1996 Communications Decency Act aimed to motivate tech giants to eliminate content harmful to children. However, Section 230 of this legislation protects tech companies from being liable for harmful content posted by users, including extremist views and terrorist propaganda. As a result, dangerous content continues to spread unchecked, leading to real-world violence.

Despite the expanded surveillance capabilities offered by the controversial 2001 USA Patriot Act, federal law enforcement failed to act effectively in Bourbon Street. Authorities had issued warnings prior to the holidays, emphasizing the threat of low-tech vehicle ramming. However, the street barriers, known as “bollards,” that could have blocked access to Bourbon Street were removed for repairs and not reinstated in time.

This oversight is particularly egregious, especially considering the proximity to last week’s Sugar Bowl. Police discovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and an ISIS flag in Jabbar’s vehicle, underscoring both his intentions and the serious nature of the threat.

What differentiates the New Orleans incident from similar past occurrences is that law enforcement publicly recognized it as an act of terror in just four hours. However, they hesitated to connect this incident with the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas that same morning, which resulted in one death and seven injuries. The ongoing investigation into the Tesla case raises questions, especially since the explosion occurred outside a property owned by President Trump and strongly implies the involvement of terrorism.

There has been a marked uptick in home-grown terrorism over the last ten years, with a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report citing 231 domestic terrorism incidents between 2010 and 2021. Many of these incidents are racially motivated, such as the Buffalo supermarket mass shooting that claimed the lives of 10 African Americans in 2021.

However, many “lone wolf” attacks are traced back to foreign influences, like ISIS. V.S. Subrahmanian, a computer science professor at Northwestern University, points out that ISIS has targeted Somali immigrants for recruitment, viewing them as valuable assets in “enemy” nations.

New Orleans serves as yet another illustration of radicalization among US citizens that authorities have overlooked. Consider John Georgelas, who was born in Plano, Texas, and grew up in a Christian household. He converted to Islam shortly after the September 11 attacks and adopted the name Yahya al-Bahrumi.

Georgelas eventually moved to Syria, where he wrote about jihadist topics in ISIS publications, gaining a significant following that led The Atlantic to identify him as “the most significant and prominent American” in ISIS by 2013. He trained for combat, disseminated propaganda to recruit fighters, and even urged ISIS to declare a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq.

A critical misstep in his case: Georgelas was arrested and imprisoned in Texas in 2006 for hacking AIPAC’s website, but after serving his sentence, he returned to the Middle East without any restrictions and died there in 2017 during the Syrian Civil War. Despite the glaring signs of his radicalization, an individual of Georgelas’ dangerous caliber was still allowed to roam freely. Such intelligence failures explain why incidents like the New Orleans attack remain a threat today.

On the very first day of the new year, hundreds of protestors marched in Midtown Manhattan, chanting, “There is one solution: Intifada revolution.” Such jihadist rhetoric has become alarmingly commonplace in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. This normalization has had tangible repercussions, including the December arrest of a George Mason University student who was fixated on martyrdom and ISIS, caught plotting a mass casualty event targeting the Israeli Consulate in New York City.

Terrorism is no longer a distant menace; it is present here among us. Law enforcement agencies must enhance their efforts to bolster public trust, ensure safety, and intelligently work to avert future tragedies.

In many parts of the world, proactive steps are already being undertaken. Following a series of terrorist events — from Mumbai and Paris to Brussels, Nice, London, and Barcelona — Indian and EU officials ramped up joint counterterrorism efforts in 2016. These actions included heightened surveillance of ISIS recruitment, alongside forensic analysis of real estate and banking activities, as well as biographic and biometric vetting at airports. Thanks to these initiatives, the US State Department acknowledged India for making “significant strides in detecting, disrupting, and dismantling terrorist organizations” last year. Why can’t the same strategies be applied domestically?

Americans need to be vigilant and engaged. They should receive regular updates from law enforcement regarding the strategies employed by Islamist terrorism, which seeks to reshape our society based on regressive ideologies. The outdated “If you see something, say something” mentality of the early 2000s must be replaced with proactive awareness campaigns that foresee potential threats. The public can, and indeed must, serve as a crucial resource, providing countless observant eyes where lifeless cameras cannot always detect danger.

This marks a critical turning point in our battle against terrorism.

Felice Friedson is president and CEO of The Media Line news agency.