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Terror has struck New Orleans and Las Vegas, with at least one deadly attacks linked to ISIS, raising urgent questions about national security, Islam and America’s leadership.

With 15 dead in New Orleans and 35 wounded, and now an explosion at a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, terrorism is again underway in America. The first attack was carried out by Shamsud Din Jabbar, an American-born man from Texas, who had an ISIS flag in his pickup truck, according to the FBI.

The man was shot dead by police, and the truck contained weapons and improvised explosive devices. The FBI also is saying that it did not believe the terrorist was acting alone. The attack had happened 3:15 AM on a packed Bourbon Street in the French Quarter where large crowds were still celebrating the New Year.

A major college football game, the Sugar Bowl, has been cancelled and delayed until tomorrow.

A report on this attack by ABC offers these details:

An Army veteran who was “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible drove a rented pickup truck around a parked police car serving as a barricade and plowed through a crowd of New Year’s revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, leaving at least 15 dead and injuring dozens of others early Wednesday, city and federal officials said.

After mowing down numerous people over a three-block stretch on the famed thoroughfare while firing shots into the crowd, the suspect — identified by sources as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 — allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two police officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other was hurt when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said.

Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans field office, said investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Duncan said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associated. That’s why we need the public’s help. We are asking if anybody had any interaction with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.”

New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle attack, which led them to believe he was not “solely responsible,” sources said. Investigators are urgently working to identify the individuals who were seen on camera and take them into custody.

The Explosion in Las Vegas

As to the explosion in Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded just outside of the Trump International Hotel, killing one person and injuring seven others. This explosion is still being investigated, and whether this too was a terror attack is not yet certain.

Elon Musk said this about the explosion: “We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”

Both situations are still breaking stories of course, and it may be days before real clarity begins to emerge on both situations. If you were watching live media coverage about the New Orleans attack as I was, you noted real confusion when the first press conference was held about it.

Three authorities briefly spoke. The mayor said it was an act of terror, a police official said it clearly was intentional, but then an FBI agent said it was not terrorism. Talk about leaving us in a state of uncertainty. Later on, the FBI did say it was terrorism. Given that a 21-year-old kid attempted to kill Trump last year, and we still do not know much about that, we hope we get real answers this time.

Vehicular Terrorism

With the mainstream media so often being hesitant to tell us all that is really happening, we have to rely on others to get a fuller picture. Islam expert Robert Spencer has stated that police have found two explosive devices near the cathedral in the French Quarter.

Another close follower of political Islam, Pamela Geller, said this: “Clearly, a much bigger attack was planned. Islamic terrorists love to destroy non-Muslim houses of worship.” She also noted how this former military man was similar to the Fort Hood jihadi, Major Nidal Hasan, and his 2009 attack.

Vehicular jihad is increasingly the way of terrorism in the West. Ten days ago, Spencer said this about the Christmas terror attack in Germany:

1. Vehicular jihad is a well-established practice going back years. ISIS has called for it. It is not a common practice among any other criminal or terrorist sector.
2. Saudi Arabia, where the Magdeburg perpetrator is from, is a hotbed of jihad activity.
3. Islam has doctrines calling for warfare against unbelievers. See Qur’an 8:39, 9:5, 9:29, etc. etc.
4. Islam has doctrines calling for deception under certain circumstances. See here.
5. Jihad groups have been calling for attacks on German Christmas Markets.
6. Several jihad plots against Christmas Markets have already been foiled.
7. Muslims recently marched through a German Christmas market screaming “Allahu akbar” and “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.”
8. It seems that the perp has been claiming to be an ex-Muslim — and a Zionist! — and has contacted several anti-jihad media figures, asking them to interview him. This leads to several possibilities:

– He was a sincere ex-Muslim and Zionist, and decided to attack a target of jihadis in a manner in which jihadis often attack, for no clear reason.

– He was lying, in preparation for his jihad attack.

– He was a genuine ex-Muslim, but in a moment of personal crisis returned to Islam, and realized that he had to do a great deed to outweigh his apostasy on Allah’s big judgment scales (Qur’an 21:47). Muhammad teaches that no deed is greater than jihad, so he went for a jihad attack. Of those three possibilities, the first one is the least likely. Why? Because if he was an ex-Muslim who went mad, he would be much more likely to have targeted Muslims, rather than choosing a favored target of the very jihadis he despised. The establishment media will be insisting that he is an ex-Muslim and never consider the possibility of deception or a return to Islam. That’s because they don’t know about those possibilities and because they always do whatever they can to distance Islam from the violence done in its name and in accord with its teachings. But their claims in this case are quite flimsy.

Non-Stop Terrorism

One important website tracking such attacks is The Religion of Peace. It has been closely monitoring and chronicling every known Islamist terror attack since September 11, 2001. In those 23 and a half years, there have been 46,517 deadly terror attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists.

From December 21-27, 2024, alone there were 21 attacks in 10 countries killing 115 people and wounding 58 others. That included one suicide blast. This site makes it perfectly clear that political Islam is a threat to the entire world, and the life, teachings and example of the Prophet has paved the way for this murderous way of life. See more here.

One thing that can be said with some certainty is that it is a good thing Trump will be taking office in some 19 days. Given how weak Biden was on just about everything, including national security and the threat of Islamist jihad, it is reassuring to know that our next Commander in Chief will take a much tougher and more decisive stand on these matters.

Simply knowing that the appalling open borders allowed by Biden letting so many illegals in, including those bent on terrorism, will be quickly and forcefully dealt with under the Trump administration, that will be a welcome change indeed. It will not stop all domestic terror attacks, but it will greatly help.

Again, more new developments keep coming out on these two situations, and more articles will be needed in the days ahead to keep abreast of all this, so stay tuned.

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Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image courtesy of Unsplash.