The horrible New Year’s attack in New Orleans serves as a stark reminder. Not only of the problems facing America when a radicalized lunatic is intent on driving a car into a crowd of onlookers, opening fire afterward and killing 15 people — but also of an inept federal law enforcement bureaucracy seemingly incapable of little more than political witch-hunts.
It is urgent that we get Kash Patel at the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as quickly as possible. Before we explore the investigatory inconsistencies of the FBI, it must be said that the rot always starts at the top. And the politicization of federal law enforcement started long before President Joe Biden decided to lie about Charlottesville and declare “white supremacy” to be “the most dangerous terrorist threat” facing America.
In fact, it is hard to know when the Department of Justice decided to start targeting what it called domestic “threats to democracy.” But we do know for sure the Obama-Biden administration diverted crucial resources away from an anti-terror agenda and toward its political opponents.
Russian collusion, January 6, DEI programs, “white supremacy” — anything but doing what crime fighting bureaucracies are supposed to be doing in prioritizing the most dangerous threats. When local law enforcement tries to do the job it is quickly hollowed out by federal counterparts at the Department of Justice under the guise of “police reform.”
The obvious result of such government malfeasance has been an explosion in crime and rising terrorism.
We are in the midst of what former budget director David Stockman calls the “great deformation.” He correctly laments the fraud of crony capitalism, yet that’s just one institution. All of them — medicine, military, education, tech, charity, church and state — have been corrupted by a conformist woke agenda.
Their failures serve as stark validation of last November’s election results. So, is it any wonder that no one believes the FBI when its assistant special agent in charge initially says the NOLA attack was not an act of terrorism, despite multiple IEDs, an ISIS flag and the perpetrator’s social media trail.
Or when the bureau declares there is no link connecting the “lone wolf” in the French Quarter massacre to a cyber (Tesla) truck suicide bomber at the Trump Tower in Las Vegas. To be fair, as a very competent Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sheriff’s briefing outlined, none exists at the moment.
But why don’t we believe the feds?
Perhaps because we still don’t have answers on two presidential assassinations attempts? Or on large mystery drones flying over the northeastern United States? Perhaps it’s due to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ insistence that the border is secure?
Right, and “white supremacy” is still the number one terror threat.
The one confirmed link between the perpetrators in NOLA and Vegas is that both were Army veterans who served in Afghanistan. It’s hard to say why a Colorado Springs Special Ops soldier would go so far off the deep end, but there is little question his targets were symbolic — a Tesla vehicle exploding at the Trump Tower.
Maybe Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) can remind the nation one more time how the “threat to democracy” from an incoming Trump administration will destroy democracy.
More serious individuals are wondering how an Army veteran from Texas could become so radicalized that he’s willing to kill so many Americans celebrating the New Year in the Big Easy. We do know that a military stretched so thin around the world has resulted in multiple tours of duty that have taken a major toll on service members’ mental health.
But here again, policymaker’s ineptitude (or worse) is the primary culprit, though few in establishment circles are willing to acknowledge it.
From 9-11 to the Bataclan theater in Paris to the October “Halloween” vehicular attack in New York City to the carnage in New Orleans, these attacks were inspired by ISIS or the Islamic State. These are Sunni extremists who have been responsible for exporting terror around the globe.
Politicians of both parties pretend they want to eradicate ISIS but insist on decapitating or going to war against its enemies, such as the Alawites and Kurds in Syria. Indeed, a not so funny thing happened on the way to overthrowing Bashar al-Assad and his Ba’athists, the road to Damascus was immediately filled with an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
Call it part of the “blowback” from unwise involvement in foreign conflicts, not to mention the outright advocacy of “regime change” from Tehran to Moscow. Yet our leaders still insist on partnerships with Middle East countries most responsible for funding strikes against those not inclined to their brand of Sunni Islam.
The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel was the largest terrorist strike since 9-11, but it is the Islamic State that remains “the deadliest terrorist group globally for the ninth consecutive year, recording both the highest number of attacks and deaths from terrorism,” according to the 2024 Global Terrorism Index.
Regardless, the Super Bowl is next up for New Orleans and the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump for Washington D.C. Let’s hope the conspiracies the FBI decides to monitor before then have a lot more to do with ISIS than J6 “insurrectionists.” But don’t count on it. Biden found it appropriate to award the Presidential Citizens Medal to armchair warrior Cheney for leading the illicit congressional committee that investigated Jan. 6.
Former Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minn.) writes at jasonlewis.substack.com and is the author of Party Animal, The Truth About President Trump, Power Politics & the Partisan Press now out in paperback.
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