FBI investigates New Orleans terrorism suspect’s visits to Egypt and Canada

An FBI official told reporters Sunday that the bureau will investigate terrorist suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s past visits to Egypt and Canada in 2023 in New Orleans for clues about his radicalization and possible contacts with the Islamic State.

The attacker drove his truck into a crowd of revelers on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more, as Breitbart News reported.

Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with police after carrying out his attack, was a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in videos he posted on Facebook. Police found an ISIS flag in his truck, along with weapons and explosives.

“I wanted to record this message for my family. I wanted you to know that I joined ISIS earlier this year”, Jabbar said at the start of a video. He then informed his family that his original plan was to murder them all and broadcast their deaths, forcing the world to “witness the murder of the apostates.”

FBI Special Agent in Charge, Lyonel Myrthil, New Orleans Field Office said Jabbar visited Cairo, Egypt from June 22 to July 3, 2023. Shortly after returning from Egypt, he flew to Ontario, Canada and stayed there from June 10 to 13. July 2023.

“Our agents are getting answers about where he went, who he met and how those trips may or may not be related to his actions in our city of New Orleans,” Myrthil said.

Canadian Public Safety Minister David McGuinty released a statement on Sunday confirming that Jabbar traveled from Houston to Canada in July 2023.

“Canadian authorities will continue to work with their American counterparts, including the FBI, throughout their investigation,” McGuinty said.

The FBI said Jabbar, who lived in a Muslim community north of Houston, Texas, also visited New Orleans in October and November 2024. During his October visit, he used a set of “smart glasses” to make recordings of Bourbon Street, which would become the scene of his New Year’s Eve attack.

According to Myrthil, Jabbar had the smart glasses in his possession when he launched his terrorist attack.

“We think he was wearing them all evening. We have no indication that he was actually recording, but he was wearing these glasses,” he said.

Those close to Jabbar said they were surprised by his radicalization. He converted to Islam as an adult, as did his father and some of his brothers, while other members of his extended family were Christians. His family reported few signs of religious extremism, although some of his friends told media that he had become more interested in his religion over the past year, when he moved to a neighborhood in majority Muslim near Houston and had isolated himself from many of his previous social contacts. .

Jabbar has been married and divorced three times, and his third divorce in 2022 appears to have been particularly bitter, including a court order ordering him to stop making threatening phone calls to his ex-wife. Another of his ex-wives “decided to limit his contact with their children as his behavior became increasingly unpredictable, apparently influenced by his religious views,” according to a New York Times (NYT) profile published SATURDAY.

One of Jabbar’s half-brothers said he became “worried” and agitated after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, making comments that the Gaza war was “genocide on both sides » and “inhumane”.

Jabbar apparently became stricter and more authoritarian about his conservative Muslim views during this period. He has uploaded some of his thoughts on Islamic teachings to SoundCloud, including criticizing alcohol, drugs, crime and rap as “things that Allah has forbidden us”.

Jabbar’s listening history on SoundCloud suggests he may have confronted some extremist views over the past year, although little suggests immersion in Islamic State ideology until the final recording where he made his Bayat, the ritual declaration of allegiance to ISIS. Terrorism experts said he followed the correct procedure in his Bayat, a potentially important detail as ISIS is particular about the correct performance of such rituals.

Members of the two mosques in Houston’s small Jabbar neighborhood said they did not know him and had not seen him at religious services. The Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH) said as of last week, Jabbar was not an official member of any of its 21 mosques.

“ISGH has long had an absolute zero tolerance policy against extremism and suspicious activities. The attack on civilians, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or religion, is an atrocity that no ideology or cause can justify,” the company said.