Yesterday, it was all but certain that the horrific and murderous act on Bourbon Street in New Orleans was an act of terrorism committed by an ISIS cell or ISIS inspired cell. The MAGA social media was also declaring the killer was an illegal alien. Trump correctly called it a “pure act of evil,” but implied the killer was an immigrant. MTG claimed he recently drove the F-150 across the border from Mexico. Now we know the killer was a born and raised American, an Army veteran, but someone who lived in an Arab-American neighborhood of Houston and was inspired by ISIS. He converted to Islam (or reconverted?) in 2024. Did he self-radicalize or was he groomed and recruited? We’ll probably know soon enough.
The Las Vegas bomber is even more a conundrum. Again, MAGA social media assumed both events were connected. Turned out the Las Vegas bomber was an active duty 10th SFG(A) senior NCO on leave from 1/10 in Germany. When Kilo 4/11 asked me about this earlier today, I noted that “he’s reportedly a strong Trump supporter. He was also reportedly on his way to a Grand Canyon camping trip. Was he planning on hosting his own fireworks show? My thought right now is that this was some kind of dumb-assed accident by someone who should have known better. An operator of that caliber should have been able to create a much more effective bomb.”
Turns out he shot himself seconds before the Cybertruck fire/explosion. The FBI labeled it a suicide followed by a bombing. Was the suicide the preplanned conclusion of this whole trip? Was the Cybertruck and the Trump Hotel integral parts of that suicide plan? Or did he plan for a grand self-send off at the Grand Canyon with a truckload of firearms, Tannerite, white gas and fireworks, all legally obtained according to the FBI. Would have been one hell of a show. Maybe he wrote a suicide note somewhere. Hopefully we’ll know that soon enough.
When I was in 10th Group, some of us were monitored under a Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). Maybe something like that should be expanded. The problem is that no one wanting to continue service wants to be marked with the “taint” of anything like PTSD. We tend to keep our counsel to ourselves and guard against such programs. Damn near all Green Berets are capable of doing some serious damage and some crazy-assed things. The plan is that we all have the maturity and self-discipline not to cause that damage or do those crazy-assed things without reason to do so. It doesn’t always work out that way though, does it?
TTG
Sounds like the FBI should have been investigating the Army instead of persecuting actual patriots these past four years.
Yeah, those actual patriots who shit (literally) all over OUR Capitol Building and beat down Capitol police officers. Those patriots? And, don’t forget, some of them were also active duty and retired military. So, yes, let’s make sure that soldiers understand their Constitution and its responsibilities and let’s make sure the “patriots” do the same.
Laura,
Will that be after the FBI is done investigating parents at school board meetings who are complaining to elected officials about their daughters being raped? Will they remind the school board of the need to have teachers teach the Constitution? Which apparently you think our unionized teachers didn’t do for whichever generation was treating capital hill like Chaz.
Red herrings, straw men, irrelevant argument….what else have you got?
Honestly, it is best to address issues directly and not get sidetracked. Much more effective way to discuss issues and I’m pretty sure Pat Lang would agree. His best work was direct and fact-based.
Laura,
“let’s make sure … understand their Constitution and its responsibilities and let’s make sure the “patriots” do the same.”
” Much more effective way to discuss issues and I’m pretty sure Pat Lang would agree.”
Precisely what I am doing. Hopefully you have not forgotten the original comment you responded too was about FBI investigations. A “patriot” – guess who! – decided to show FBI conduct to you which violated their responsibilities under the constitution. There were some of “those people” at the Capitol building. I doubt they were defecating on the streets though; but perhaps a perusal of capital hill police records for J6 who show who got cited for that infraction on the grounds controlled by the legislative branch. I also doubt there were many, though perhaps there were, FBI agents present instigated anything that day, including public defecation.
The man from Arkansas who beat a DC cop with a flagpole received a 52-month jail term for his criminal conduct. It is unclear what he was a veteran of, other than stupidity. The conduct of people at CHAZ, or BLM rioters and Antifa members across the nation is hardly irrelevant.
Laura,
Get over it and try to follow critical current events.
you turn the pages pretty fast, stopping on those you like.
Ked,
Let’s talk about BLM riots and ANTIFA riots.
By your logic, all black people are looters and burners of cities?
Unlike you, apparently, I am able to separate the behavior a small subset from the majority. I don’t make mass generalizations about my fellow citizens.
Jan 6th goofballs were harmless trespassers and vandals, especially compared to your BLM and ANTIFA buddies. A couple of cops who ate too many donuts had heart attacks later. Heart attacks waiting to happen. The Capitol is standing, which is more than can be said for a certain police HQ and private businesses – and a few people who were directly executed by BLM and ANTIFA protesters.
Who would have guessed that you worship the federal government so much that you see the Capitol as holy ground. Or maybe you’re just trying to make cheap political points?
especially compared to your BLM and ANTIFA buddies.
You know his buddies, Eric? I am envious, I don’t.
Eric, I admit – responding to you is a waste of quips, even the obvious ones.
Yes, those wannabe insurrectionists were just thugs. “patriots” my ass.
TonyL,
You’re gonna love the election fraud trials that are coming with the Trump admin. The evidence is all set. The Jan 6th people are going to be vindicated. You will laugh and mock now, but I will remind you later when it hits.
His ISIS flag was strung upside down. This is significant. The circle thingy on the ISIS flag is a seal. It’s called the muqwaki seal. Mohammad used it to seal his letters sent to the Al-Muqawqis. Inside the seal says, “Mohammad is the messenger of god.” What should be above the seal is a message saying, “There is no god but allah.” Combine those two and you have the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. It can be considered disrespectful among Muslims to have this posted upside down. The attacker didn’t know enough dirka dirka jihad to fly the black standard upright and without disrespecting his prophet. He might have been flashing the ISIS brand (upside down) but he is not real ISIS. He wanted boogeyman notoriety.
Some reporting on MSG Livelsberger:
https://nypost.com/2025/01/02/us-news/cybertruck-bomber-matthew-livelsbergers-wife-broke-up-with-him-days-before-explosion-outside-trump-hotel-in-las-vegas-sources
https://nypost.com/2025/01/03/us-news/vegas-cybertruck-bomber-matthew-livelsberger-bragged-to-ex-girlfriend-about-renting-vehicle-days-before-blowing-it-up-feel-like-batman
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/02/us/matthew-alan-livelsberger-vegas-cybertruck-explosion/index.html
IMO, SF team guy in Vegas not a terrorist and not connected to New Orleans self-styled jihadist.
SF guy wanted to make a very public show of his suicide; wanted to draw attention. Either has a message he wants to be heard by the right people (like a Snowden type scenario), or he was really pissed off at his lefty wife and wanted her to live with a wrecked life. Off chance of a brain tumor, or something similar that radically impaired his thinking.
New Orleans guy was radicalized at the mosque he attended. Not directly connected to any terrorists located OCONUS. “Inspired”, as they say.
Yep. He’s right at the onset age range for schizophrenia.
Today on the Shawn Ryan (Palmisano) Show
They allegedly have his email manifesto
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xglaXVtQcis
Condottiere,
Negative. Schizophrenia onset is late teens to early 20s. Very rare for a break in late 30s, especially in men. So rare it’s almost safe to say that it doesn’t happen. Did you watch the Shawn Ryan show? If so, are you saying you know better than what was revealed? How do you know better? You just don’t like it, therefore it can’t be true?
Do you think that SF permits psychotic Master Sargeants?
“You just don’t like it, therefore it can’t be true?”
you just isolated a fundamental rule of ideologue commentary.
Bourbon St. attacker wasn’t radicalized. He was at the end of his rope. Divorced three or four times, up to his neck in child support and credit card debt, lost money on his real estate compan,. and house was foreclosing. The Islamic neighborhood you mentioned is not any neighborhood, but a cult. It was apart of the Ahmadiyya movement, sort of like Islamic Mormans. Bourbon St was supposedly his ex wife’s favorite spot. So he destroyed it, flying an upside down ISIS flag. In his business introduction video SSG Jabbar talks about “attention to detail” but failed to pay attention to right side up on a sacred Islamic seal before killing in the name of jihad.
https://www.ahmadiyya-islam.org/questions/what-is-the-ahmadiyya-muslim-community/
https://www.amchouston.info/
Condottiere,
People merely at the end of their rope don’t fly religious colors and murder a bunch of people. The Islamic ideology shaped how a desperate man expressed himself in his final act. You can’t remove the ideology from the equation.
A non- radical muslim in the same situation would have just killed the bitch and then himself.
According to this, authorities are still working to determine if Livelsberger’s gunshot wound was self-inflicted or not. As well, relatives cast doubt on his alleged suicidal mindset, and, as TTG noted, on the incongruity of such a relatively weak explosive device, given Livelsberger’s capabilities. https://apnews.com/
A friend of mine sent me a link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tUd29spWZc
Apparently the Shawn Ryan show was the SF guy’s choice of venue to present his message, which was emailed to a former intelligence guy he knew.
So, as I was saying on the OT thread on the Syria eyes strategic ties with Ukraine post, the SF guy deliberately blew himself up in front of Trump Tower LV to get everyone’s attention because he had something to say. We will now learn what that was. Snowden type release? Rambling narcissistic kooky stuff? Political statement?
I’m guessing he will explain that he didn’t want to kill US citizens and designed his fireworks show with that in mind.
The Shawn Ryan vid is up. We can now hear what the GB, Livelsberger, had to say in his own words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xglaXVtQcis
In Ukraine, 1,700 soldiers deserted from the 155 mech/infantry/jaeger brigade between April and December.
I hadn’t heard the Grand Canyon angle. Interesting as my daughter and I were at the Canyon on the 31st and 1st then on to Monument Valley the day after.
The GB issue really boggles my mind. Maybe more information will fix that. As for the NO attack. I wasn’t aware he was a convert. Name and looks seems consistent with a Desi background as does the Texas location and that community. There is a belief with some that dying as a “Shaheed” or martyr allows someone to go straight to heaven, skipping the judgement day that others will have to go through and atone for the sins. This is why many of the ISIS type suicide attackers are western born and raised types who lived a very unIslamic secular lifestyle before joining ISIS. They drank, womaniser, did and dealt drugs and were looking for a way to avoid paying for those sins. Many/most of these types know little about Islam and are easy for the extremist leaders to recruit for ready cannon fodder. I have seen videos of them. They Canyon speak Arabic, despite coming from Arabic speaking backgrounds. They don’t know how to pray, can’t recite Qur’an. They speak French, English, German, ect and couldn’t find the Qiblah to save their lives.
The NO attacker seems to be along that line. Any Muslim would be able to read the text on the ISIS flag and display it right side up. The fact that he could not means he didn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground. Another secular Muslim who was looking for an easy way to atone for his western lifestyle and his deployment abroad in Muslim countries keeping down his “brothers and sisters in Islam.”
The “Grand Canyon angle” is weak obfuscatory BS. There is no angle there.
A view from England. I hadn’t heard the term “Diversity Barrier” before. Only a few years ago I’d have thought Dr North was writing fantasy fiction. But it’s now down to earth reality.
https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/front-page/politics-another-random-slaughter/
Blowback. I recollect writing into the Colonel’s site on the Manchester bombing in England, a suicide bomb attack at a pop concert. We’d harboured some extremists for use in Libya and one of them attacked us instead.
Brzezinski, way back, reckoned that using such extremists to draw the Russians into the Afghan morass was worth it. Big prize, low risk. I reckon Brzezinski got it wrong. We’re still getting it wrong, using Al Qaeda/IS as ancillary forces when we’re looking to destabilise various countries or overthrow unwanted regimes. Then the ancillaries go for us and everyone acts surprised. Not a game we should be playing.