Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

"Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head."

– Euripides

"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."

– John F. Kennedy

"The less you talk, the more you're listened to."

– Pauline Phillips

1. In Two Attacks, a Pair of Unraveling Lives and Remaining Mysteries

2. Green Beret in Tesla Explosion Suffered From PTSD, Authorities Say

3. 7 Soldiers From Korean, Vietnam Wars Receive Medals of Honor

4. Elon Musk Under Pressure: China Prepares Technology to Hijack Starlink Satellites and Track Stealth AircraftElon Musk Under Pressure: China Prepares Technology to Hijack Starlink Satellites and Track Stealth Aircraft

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6. The warning five years ago that could have stopped New Orleans attack

7. Greenland’s leader wants independence from Denmark after Trump suggested buying island

8. OPINION: The Kremlin De Facto Challenges the US to Surrender

9. Could FBI Have Prevented New Orleans Terror Attack?

10. Shamsud-Din Jabbar: Is the Islamic State Terror Threat Growing Again?

11. Vehicle Ramming Terror Attacks: Can Mass Gatherings Ever Be Safe?

12. Trump has a once-in a-century opportunity for change

13. Army chooses BAE Systems for prototype base defense artillery cannon

14. Jan. 1 violence prompts new warnings, extra security for special events

15. Chinese war games system sees surprise US attack on PLA carrier group in South China Sea

16. Soldier in Tesla Blast Had PTSD and Feared U.S.‘Collapse,’ Officials Say

17. Soldier who died by suicide in Las Vegas told ex-girlfriend of pain and exhaustion after Afghanistan

18. SAS Rogue Heroes sparks complaints minutes in to new series

1. In Two Attacks, a Pair of Unraveling Lives and Remaining Mysteries

Still so many questions.

Excerpts:

In Friday’s press conference, Las Vegas police and the FBI took pains to try to debunk rumors circulating online about Livelsberger, including that it wasn’t really him in the truck. Authorities detailed how they have positively identified him, including with DNA from the family, and dental records provided by the Department of Defense. They had also examined surveillance data from charging stations and financial records to corroborate that the same person who drove the car to Vegas was the one in it—and said Tesla sent engineers to Las Vegas to help extract data from the vehicle.

Authorities said they were gaining insight into his motive and plans from notes found so far on one of his phones, in which he wrote about a variety of issues, including domestic problems, personal challenges and some political grievances, including about conflicts elsewhere in the world.

In one note, for instance, he wrote, “Fellow Servicemembers, Veterans and All Americans. TIME TO WAKE UP! We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves.” But Evans, the special agent in charge, said investigators had found no evidence that Livelsberger held any animosity toward President-elect Trump, which Evans noted has been speculated given the location of the explosion.

In Two Attacks, a Pair of Unraveling Lives and Remaining Mysteries

New Orleans and Las Vegas grapple with aftermath of deadly incidents; suicide note is recovered from exploded Tesla

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/two-attacks-unraveling-lives-new-orleans-las-vegas-2dee28c3?st=xeLTXj&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

By Joshua Chaffin

Follow and Scott Calvert

Jan. 3, 2025 9:00 pm ET

It was New Year’s Eve and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Houston military veteran whose life was coming apart, climbed into a rented pickup truck and drove east toward New Orleans.

As he made his way across the Gulf Coast swampland, the native-born Jabbar simultaneously recorded a series of videos he would soon post to social media in which he swore his allegiance to Islamic State and declared his intention to commit mass murder.

The city he found at the end of his journey was heaving. Fireworks illuminated the sky over the Mississippi at midnight. On Bourbon Street, where locals joke there is no such thing as “last call,” revelers were packed shoulder-to-shoulder, throwing back hurricanes and daiquiris. The New Year’s Eve party had been supersized by the Sugar Bowl New Orleans was hosting the next day between two of America’s most storied college football teams, Notre Dame and the University of Georgia.

At 2:03 a.m., with the party in full swing, surveillance footage showed a serious-looking Jabbar, 42, salt-and-pepper in his hair, walking along Dauphine Street. He was wearing a long brown overcoat and glasses, and appeared to be holding a phone or a wallet.

Soon, he was back in the truck, a Ford F-150 Lightning with a black-and-white ISIS flag flying from the back. At around 3:15 a.m., he would turn the 6,000-plus-pound vehicle off Canal Street, slipping through a gap in security, and then roar down Bourbon Street into the heart of the party, mangling bodies as he went. The rampage ended only when police killed him in a firefight a few blocks away where his truck had barreled into a crane.

“It was hard to tell what was fireworks and what might have been gunshots,” said Noah Preston, a 25-year-old student who was visiting from Raleigh, N.C. He fled to his nearby hotel, where people were frantically yelling at everyone to stay inside and that there were dead people on the street. “We had no idea what was going on until this morning,” he said.

Others described a kind of war zone. “What we saw was insanity…something out of a movie,” local resident Jimmy Cothran told ABC News. Cothran had been in a bar when four women ran in and hid under the tables. He and a friend dashed up to a balcony to look out onto Bourbon Street where, he said, “we instantly counted 10 bodies, six clearly graphically deceased and…others yelling with no one around.”

Among the 14 dead were students and recent graduates just starting their professional lives. Dozens more suffered grave injuries, including two girls who played high school soccer together in Fort Myers, Fla. Now freshmen at different universities, they had reunited in New Orleans for the big party.

Thousands of miles away, another attacker was in motion. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, had rented his own pickup, a Tesla Cybertruck, in Denver on Dec. 28. He had traced a nearly thousand-mile, indirect route from his home in Colorado across the desert Southwest. He reached Las Vegas at around 7:30 a.m., local time, on New Year’s Day. He drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard for about an hour and then parked in front of the Trump International Hotel, within view of its oversize brass nameplate.

Seventeen seconds later, the truck, packed with homemade explosives, erupted in flames. Police believe Livelsberger, a Green Beret who was on leave for the holidays, had already shot himself in the head with a handgun, one of two firearms he had purchased two days earlier. His body was so charred that police identified it, in part, through a distinctive sleeve of patriotic tattoos on his right arm.

It would soon become evident that the events, which raised alarms of a coordinated attack, weren’t what they initially seemed. Early reports were riddled with misinformation and errors, compounding the panic. Most strikingly, FBI agents in Louisiana initially announced that they didn’t believe Jabbar had acted alone, raising fears of Islamic State involvement on U.S. soil.

Authorities would later reverse the statement, saying Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that no evidence currently indicated the active involvement of the terrorist group. Law enforcement also said they have no evidence the New Orleans and Las Vegas events were related, and that the Las Vegas explosion appeared to be a suicide, and not a terror bombing.

On Friday, law-enforcement officials released notes Livelsberger wrote on a phone found in the Cybertruck in which he aired political and personal grievances. “This was not a terrorist attack, this was a wake up call,” he wrote. “Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?” He also referenced his military service, writing, “Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”

Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division, said the incident appeared to involve “a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues.”

The events, coming in quick succession amid crowded, holiday-focused cities, jolted a nation fearful of domestic terrorism and fueled a frenzied search for explanations, just days before a new president is due to be sworn in.

Disappointments, divorce

Jabbar, the New Orleans attacker, was a native of Beaumont, Texas, and had played Little League Baseball growing up. He found his way to the military after brushes with trouble. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to theft. Three years later he was given probation for driving with a suspended license. He joined the Army the next year.

It is unclear what led to his radicalization and how and when it unfolded. Life after he left active duty in 2015 was filled with disappointment. Since 2021, Jabbar had worked at Deloitte as a “senior solutions specialist” while also trying to get a real-estate business off the ground.

In a promotional video for that venture, the neatly groomed former soldier talked about his discipline and the lessons he learned in the military. Yet his second marriage was falling apart. An email he sent to his wife’s divorce lawyer in 2022 shed light on his financial pressures.

“Time is of the essence,” he wrote. “I can not afford the house payment. It is past due in excess of $27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce.”

Jabbar had taken up residence in a ramshackle mobile home on the outskirts of Houston in an area largely populated by recent south Asian immigrants. Visitors are greeted by a goat and chickens penned outside.

A video posted by Shamsud-Din Jabbar online promoting his real-estate work.

“He did have financial problems. The divorce was weighing heavy on him. He was stressed. But he didn’t change the way he behaved or the way he interacted with others,” said Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, his youngest brother.

He said his brother had become more religious in recent years, after stepping away from his faith in his 20s. But he was baffled by the ISIS affiliation.

“That is completely throwing me for a loop. The rest of the family, too,” Abdur-Rahim said. “That’s never been anything—he never talked about openly that he was inspired by them.”

Yet ISIS was explicitly mentioned in the videos that Jabbar recorded and then posted just before the attack. There were five in all, time stamped beginning at 1:29 a.m. and ending at 3:02 a.m. In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines wouldn’t focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers.”

He also stated he had joined ISIS before this summer and provided a will and testament.

There were signs of Jabbar’s presence elsewhere in New Orleans that evening. In the St. Roch neighborhood, Jeff Gonzalez came home from a New Year’s Eve party with his boyfriend and smelled smoke, which they attributed to fireworks. By morning, the odor had grown stronger and they noticed a fire in a neighboring house.

Gonzalez supplied law enforcement with Ring camera footage that appeared to show Jabbar visiting the rental house on Mandeville Street the previous night in a pickup truck and unloading boxes.

Law-enforcement officials said Friday they found bomb-making materials at the rental and determined Jabbar set a small fire in the hallway, placing accelerants around the house in an effort to destroy it.

“I was panicked beyond words,” Gonzalez said, recalling the firetrucks roaring down his street.

Shortly before Jabbar steered his truck down Bourbon Street, authorities recovered two blue coolers nearby that were carrying explosive devices. They were rendered safe by law enforcement and never exploded. Surveillance footage reviewed later would show that Jabbar had planted the explosive devices earlier that night. The FBI said it appeared that Jabbar planned to detonate them using a transmitter found in the truck.

A memorial on Bourbon Street on Thursday. Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Once Jabbar began driving his truck into the crowd, it was quick and violent. In interviews with local and national media, eyewitnesses described loud bangs, tires squealing, people trying to jump out of the way, and then screams and bodies in the street.

An Iraq veteran, visiting from Iowa with his wife, removed his belt to try to apply a tourniquet to the injured, but everyone he approached was dead, he recounted to the Des Moines Register.

One woman choked up as she told a local television station how, “The guy in the pickup truck just punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit pedicab passengers…and there were just bodies, the screams, I mean, you can’t unhear that.”

Confusion in aftermath

Misinformation flourished in the confusion. Some online posters insisted—incorrectly—that the truck had recently come from Mexico, blaming the lax border security of the outgoing Biden administration. President-elect Donald Trump suggested the driver was an immigrant. In the end, Jabbar turned out to be born in the U.S., to U.S.-born parents, and a seeming example of the homegrown radicalization that has long worried counterterrorism experts.

In New Orleans, meanwhile, a poor city sustained by tourism, civic leaders were grappling with a different dilemma: How to respectfully restart festivities after a terrorist attack?

New Orleans Superintendent of Police Anne Kirkpatrick spoke after the attack. Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP

Law enforcement on Bourbon Street on Thursday. Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

At a press conference early Wednesday, New Orleans Superintendent of Police Anne Kirkpatrick gave a grim report, saying of the perpetrator, “This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could…He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

She also awkwardly urged everyone to carry on and partake of all that New Orleans had to offer, outside of the eight blocks around Bourbon Street, which had essentially become a giant crime scene.

After a delay, the Sugar Bowl went on with a kind of stubborn determination. While it had all the pageantry of a big bowl game, there were also eerie reminders of the tragedy. At halftime, for example, the Superdome’s jumbotron flashed notifications for a blood drive to support the victims.

Suicide note

Early in the investigations, officials focused on what appeared to be tantalizing links between the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks. Both Jabbar and Livelsberger were veterans who had served in Afghanistan and been stationed at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. Both had rented pickup trucks from the same online platform. And both carried out homemade attacks against symbolic targets: one, the heart of America’s biggest party town before one of its biggest football games; the other, a hotel with the president-elect’s name, using a futuristic vehicle that is the emblem of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

Authorities now say they have found no link after conducting interviews with Livelsberger’s family and fellow soldiers and the ongoing review of computers and other electronic devices. Nor, say defense officials, have they found evidence that the two men ever came in contact during their military service. While Jabbar worked in IT and personnel, Livelsberger was a decorated Special Forces soldier with postings around the world.

The burning Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas on Jan. 1. Photo: alcides antunes/Reuters

In Friday’s press conference, Las Vegas police and the FBI took pains to try to debunk rumors circulating online about Livelsberger, including that it wasn’t really him in the truck. Authorities detailed how they have positively identified him, including with DNA from the family, and dental records provided by the Department of Defense. They had also examined surveillance data from charging stations and financial records to corroborate that the same person who drove the car to Vegas was the one in it—and said Tesla sent engineers to Las Vegas to help extract data from the vehicle.

Authorities said they were gaining insight into his motive and plans from notes found so far on one of his phones, in which he wrote about a variety of issues, including domestic problems, personal challenges and some political grievances, including about conflicts elsewhere in the world.

In one note, for instance, he wrote, “Fellow Servicemembers, Veterans and All Americans. TIME TO WAKE UP! We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves.” But Evans, the special agent in charge, said investigators had found no evidence that Livelsberger held any animosity toward President-elect Trump, which Evans noted has been speculated given the location of the explosion.

Security questions

In New Orleans, questions quickly arose about whether the city had sufficient security measures for the crowds on New Year’s Eve. Law-enforcement and intelligence officials have been warning for months that conflict in the Middle East could inspire lone-wolf terrorists or small groups of extremists to carry out attacks in the U.S. Terrorist groups have been releasing propaganda, calling for violence at celebrations and religious institutions during the winter holidays.

Federal authorities told state and local officials last month that holiday gatherings would be prime targets for low-tech attacks—such as vehicle rammings—and urged them to remain vigilant.

Law-enforcement officers run toward Bourbon Street on the night of the attack. VIDEO: EarthCam Photo: EarthCam

In New Orleans, steel bollards on Bourbon Street meant to restrict road access and provide security in the busy tourist area are in the midst of repairs ahead of the Super Bowl, set to take place in the city next month, according to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

Kirkpatrick, the police superintendent, said New Orleans had more than 300 police officers out on New Year’s Eve, and police vehicles and other barriers were blocking streets, but the suspect drove around them and onto the sidewalk. “We did indeed have a plan,” she said, “but the terrorist defeated it.”

A.J. Fiechter, a senior at the University of Georgia who was visiting to attend the Sugar Bowl, said he didn’t see steel-bollard barricades active when he was walking down Bourbon Street at roughly 2:30 a.m. “They just had those metal ones that I could pick up with one hand, like a gate,” said Fiechter. “The ones that are bolted to the ground, those are the ones that need to be there.”

Tributes to victims

Family members and friends began speaking out about their loved ones who perished, including Martin “Tiger” Bech, a 2021 Princeton graduate who featured in two Ivy League Championship football teams. “There was no more appropriate nickname of a Princeton player I coached,” said Bob Surace, the university’s head football coach.

Among the victims was 18-year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, who took a late-night road trip to New Orleans from her home in Gulfport, Miss., with a cousin and a friend, said her mother, Melissa Dedeaux. Her daughter, known as Biscuit growing up but lately preferring Cheyenne, was supposed to pick her up Wednesday morning after her overnight nursing shift.

Melissa Dedeaux had urged her not to make the drive but understood why her fun-loving child was drawn to the French Quarter. The trio left around midnight Jan. 1, she said. On Friday, awaiting details about the return of her daughter’s body for burial, she toggled between the past and present tenses as she recalled the buoyant high-school graduate and aspiring nurse.

“She likes to dance. She likes to be the center of attention. She had to look good when she went out. Literally, it takes her hours to get dressed,” Dedeaux said. “She lit up the room, her personality, her vibe. Aw, man, everybody wanted to be around her. She was an awesome girl.”

A band played near a memorial to the victims. Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Back in Beaumont, three FBI agents rolled up to the house of Jabbar’s father on Thursday afternoon in a Ford Bronco, according to Jabbar’s brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar. At the yellow-painted house with red-trimmed windows and a neatly cut yard, they spoke for 15 or 20 minutes, with the agents seeking answers to the same questions as everyone else—“insight on who he was, trying to get some type of clarity as to what his goal was or why he did the things he did or what went wrong or who got in his head.”

The brother said he couldn’t help the agents because he didn’t know. “I wish I did,” he said. “Nothing about him alluded to him being capable of something like this.”

Records show the family has longstanding ties in East Texas and other parts of the South. The father changed his own name and converted to Islam as a young man, around 1977, and the children grew up as Muslim, Abdur-Rahim said.

Abdur-Rahim said they haven’t yet made funeral plans. He said he still doesn’t have any information on where the body is or when it might be transported back to Texas. He also said the family is trying to figure out which mosque, if any, Jabbar attended in Houston.

“I’ve questioned a couple times if I really knew the person he was,” he said.

Collin Eaton, Rachel Wolfe, Laine Higgins and Sadie Gurman contributed to this article. Graphic by Andrew Mollica and Sarah Blesener.

Write to Joshua Chaffin at joshua.chaffin@wsj.com and Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com

Appeared in the January 4, 2025, print edition as 'In Two Attacks, Unraveling Lives And Mysteries'.

2. Green Beret in Tesla Explosion Suffered From PTSD, Authorities Say

I cannot believe how many twisted conspiracy theories we are seeing on social media.

Green Beret in Tesla Explosion Suffered From PTSD, Authorities Say

Investigators recovered writings on Matthew Alan Livelsberger’s phone that aired concerns about the direction of the U.S.

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/green-beret-in-tesla-explosion-wrote-this-was-a-wake-up-call-e96b1cde

By C. Ryan Barber

Updated Jan. 3, 2025 7:00 pm ET

7 Soldiers From Korean, Vietnam Wars Receive Medals of Honor

defense.gov · by C. Todd Lopez

Valor Handshake

President Joe Biden presents the Medal of Honor to former Army Pfc. Kenneth J. David during a ceremony at the White House, Jan. 3, 2025. David – the only living recipient among the seven soldiers from the Korean and Vietnam Wars to receive the Medal of Honor during the ceremony – was recognized and honored for his acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a radio operator with Company D, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during combat operations on May 7, 1970 near Fire Support Base Maureen, Thua Thien province, Vietnam.

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At a White House ceremony today, President Joe Biden presented Medals of Honor to seven soldiers who served in either the Korean War or the Vietnam War.

Among the soldiers honored were Pvt. Bruno R. Orig, Pfc. Wataru Nakamura, Cpl. Fred B. McGee, Pfc. Charles R. Johnson, and Gen. Richard E. Cavazos. All served in the Korean War and received the medal posthumously. Family members accepted the decoration on their behalf.

From the Vietnam War, both Capt. Hugh R. Nelson Jr. and Pfc. Kenneth J. David were decorated. Nelson received the medal posthumously, while David, the only living recipient, accepted the medal in person.

33:38

"I'm deeply privileged to honor seven American heroes," Biden said. "That's not hyperbole. These are genuine, to their core, heroes. Heroes of different ranks, different positions, and even different generations. But heroes who all went above and beyond the call of duty. Heroes who all deserve our nation's highest and oldest military recognition, the Medal of Honor."

Bruno Orig

During a ceremony, Jan. 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Pvt. Bruno R. Orig was given the Medal of Honor posthumously for combat actions Feb. 15, 1951, during the Korean War.

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Pvt. Bruno R. Orig

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1930, Orig enlisted in the Army in 1950. On February 15, 1951, while serving with Company G, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division in the vicinity of Chipyong-ni, Korea, Orig returned from a mission to find many of his fellow soldiers wounded in an ongoing enemy attack.

Orig administered first aid to his fellow soldiers and remained exposed to enemy fire. With the assistance of other soldiers, Orig removed the wounded to a place of safety.

When Orig noticed that all but one of a machine-gun crew had been wounded, he volunteered to man the weapon. Orig was so effective on the machine gun that a withdrawing friendly platoon was able to move back without a single casualty.

Orig continued to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy until the company positions were overrun. Later, when the lost ground was recaptured, Orig was found dead beside his weapon, though the area in front of his gun was littered with enemy dead. He was 20 years old at the time.

"Bruno saw his fellow soldiers were wounded and stranded under enemy fire," Biden said. "Without hesitation, he ran out to rescue them, giving his own life to save the lives of his brothers in arms. That's valor. That's the definition of valor.

Combat Actions

During a ceremony, Jan. 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Pfc. Wataru Nakamura was given the Medal of Honor posthumously for combat actions May 18, 1951, during the Korean War.

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Pfc. Wataru Nakamura

Nakamura was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1921.

"After an attack on Pearl Harbor, he was forced to live in an internment camp, like so many other Japanese Americans," Biden said. "But still, he signed up to serve our nation during World War II and the Korean War. During his last mission in May of 1951, single handedly he defended his unit from enemy attack, fighting until he was killed by a grenade."

While serving with Company I, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division in the vicinity of P'ungch'on-ni, Korea on May 18, 1951, Nakamura volunteered to check and repair a communications line between his platoon and the command post. During that mission, he came under fire by an enemy force which had surrounded friendly positions and were threatening to break the company defense lines.

Without waiting for help, Nakamura rushed the enemy with his bayonet engaged. He singlehandedly attacked and destroyed a hostile machine-gun nest and drove the enemy from several of the bunkers they had captured. When his ammunition was depleted, he withdrew while under enemy fire.

Nakamura then met an ammunition party ascending the hill. After briefing the officer in charge, Nakamura rearmed himself and, covered by the fire of the officer and two fellow soldiers, returned to the attack. He killed three of the enemy in one bunker and killed and seriously wounded another in the last enemy-held bunker. Continuing to press the attack, he fell mortally wounded by an enemy grenade. He was 29 years old at the time.

Fred McGee

During a ceremony, Jan. 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Cpl. Fred c. McGee was given the Medal of Honor posthumously for combat actions June 16, 1952, during the Korean War.

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Cpl. Fred B. McGee

McGee was born in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1930. He enlisted in the Army in 1951 and served in Korea from January to November 1952.

"[He was] a Midwesterner, a steel worker and a gunner in one of the first integrated army units of the Korean War," Biden said. "Fred embodied the very best of our country. In June 1952, his unit was attacked. They took casualties. They were ordered to fall back. But Fred refused to leave until he helped every wounded soldier evacuate."

While serving near Tang-Wan-Ni, Korea on June 16, 1952, as a gunner on a light machine gun in a weapons squad, McGee delivered a heavy volume of supporting fire from an exposed position despite intense enemy machine-gun and mortar fire directly on his location.

Though forced to move his gun several times, McGee continued to support the assault and give covering fire to the assault elements of his platoon. When his squad leader was wounded, together with several other members of his squad, McGee assumed command and moved the squad even farther forward to a more exposed position in order to deliver fire on an enemy machine gun. When his own machine gunner was mortally wounded, McGee again took over the gun. He directed his squad to withdraw and voluntarily remained behind to help evacuate the wounded and dead.

Though wounded in the face, McGee exposed himself to danger by standing straight up in enemy machine-gun and mortar fire while attempting to evacuate the body of the company runner. Forced to abandon the body, he aided a wounded man to be moved to the rear and safety through a huge volume of enemy mortar and artillery fire.

At the time of his combat action, McGee was 22 years old. After the Korean War, McGee worked in the steel industry for more than four decades. He died in 2020, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Charles Johnson

During a ceremony, Jan. 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Pfc. Charles R. Johnson was given the Medal of Honor posthumously for combat actions June 12, 1952, during the Korean War.

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Pfc. Charles R. Johnson

Johnson was born in Sharon, Connecticut, in 1932, and enlisted in the Army in 1952.

"Growing up, in the words of Charlie's high school classmates, he was a heck of a football player," Biden said. "Well back in 1952, Charlie signed up to serve in Korea, trading his jersey for a uniform. During one battle, he gave his life to defend a bunker full of his wounded soldiers. His valor saved 10 men, including an old high school classmate."

When Chinese forces attacked his unit at Outpost Harry in Korea, June 11-12, 1953, Johnson was serving as a rifleman with Company B, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. During the battle, an overwhelming number of Chinese troops assaulted the trenches and bunkers that were defended by Johnson and his squad.

Johnson was wounded from a direct artillery hit on his bunker and subsequently from a hand grenade thrown inside the bunker. Even though he was injured, he administered first aid to those more seriously injured than himself. Johnson dragged a wounded soldier to the safety of a secure bunker while stopping intermittently to aid injured soldiers and kill several enemy troops in hand-to-hand combat.

After departing the safety of the second bunker, he conducted a search for weapons and ammunition then returned to rearm everyone. After acknowledging the untenable situation, he and his fellow soldiers found themselves in, Johnson exited the bunker and placed himself between the enemy and his injured comrades. He told them he'd hold off the enemy forces as best as he could. He was killed by enemy forces while fighting to defend his position and to protect his wounded comrades.

At the time of his combat action, Johnson was 19 years old.

Richard Cavazos

During a ceremony, Jan. 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Gen. Richard E. Cavazos was given the Medal of Honor posthumously for combat actions June 14, 1953, during the Korean War.

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Gen. Richard E. Cavazos

Born in Kingsville, Texas, in 1929, Cavazos earned his commission in 1951, after having served in the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Texas Tech University.

"Richard led his men through a difficult and deadly mission in enemy territory," Biden said. "Eventually, he was ordered to retreat, but he stayed. He stayed rescuing wounded soldiers one by one, until every one of them was evacuated. Richard went on to serve for three decades in the army, becoming ... the country's first Hispanic four star general."

At the time of the combat action which earned him the Medal of Honor, Cavazos was a first lieutenant serving as the company commander of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 65th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in the vicinity of Sagimak, Korea.

On the night of June 14, 1953, Cavazos led his company in a raid on an entrenched enemy outpost with the mission of destroying the personnel and installation there. During the initial attack, he led his men through enemy mortar and artillery fire. Upon entering the trenches, close combat ensued during which Cavazos directed heavy fire on the enemy and their positions.

When an enemy mortar and artillery barrage hit his position, Cavazos withdrew the company and regrouped his men. Twice more he led his men through intense enemy fire in assaults on the enemy position, destroying vital enemy fortifications and personnel.

When ordered to withdraw his company, Cavazos complied but remained alone on the enemy outpost to search for missing men. Although exposed to enemy fire, he located five battle casualties and evacuated each, one by one, to a point on the reverse slope of a nearby hill where they could be safely recovered by friendly forces.

After, he returned to the battlefield where he found a small group of men who had become separated from the main assaulting force and personally led them to safety. When informed that there were still men missing, Cavazos again returned to the scene of the battle. There, he located and led another small group of men to safety. He then made two more unassisted trips to the battlefield searching for missing soldiers.

It wasn't until he was satisfied that the battlefield was cleared on the morning of June 15, that he allowed treatment of his own combat wounds.

Cavazos retired from the Army in 1984, after attaining the rank of general. At the time of his combat action, he was 24 years old. He died in 2017, in San Antonio, Texas.

Hugh Nelson

During a ceremony, Jan. 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Capt. Hugh R. Nelson Jr. was given the Medal of Honor posthumously for combat actions June 5, 1966, during the Vietnam War.

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Capt. Hugh R. Nelson, Jr.

Born in 1937, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nelson entered the Army in 1963.

"He was just 28 years old when he and his crew were shot down in Vietnam," Biden said. "Hugh freed his men who were trapped in the wreckage. Then as the enemy began to attack, he used his body as a shield to protect them. It cost him dearly. It cost him his life. Hugh's commanding officer called it the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, which it was."

While serving with the 114th Aviation Company (Airmobile Light) on June 5, 1966 near Moc Hoa, Republic of Vietnam, Nelson was the acting aircraft commander of an armed UH-1 Iroquois helicopter on a search and destroy reconnaissance mission when it was struck by enemy fire that rendered the aircraft virtually uncontrollable.

The pilot and Nelson were able to crash land the aircraft without lateral controls. At some point after the crash, Nelson exited the aircraft and went to the aid of his wounded comrades.

Proceeding to the other side of the aircraft, Nelson found his dazed and wounded crew chief still trapped inside. After removing the specialist and placing him on the ground, he climbed into the severely damaged helicopter to assist the door gunner who was still strapped inside and unable to move.

While Nelson tried to free his comrade, the insurgents engaged the aircraft with automatic rifle and small arms fire. Despite the enemy fire and being hit, he was able to free the trapped door gunner. Upon removing the wounded door gunner from the aircraft, he forced the specialist to the ground and used his own body as a shield to cover his comrade from the enemy fire.

While shielding the door gunner, Nelson was hit several times by enemy fire and was killed in action while saving the life of his comrade. His sacrifice allowed the wounded door gunner to use a smoke grenade to signal for supporting aircraft. When those aircraft responded, they were able to prevent the insurgents from advancing on the downed aircraft. They also were able to rescue the three wounded crew members.

At the time of his combat action, Nelson was 28 years old.

Kenneth David

During a ceremony, January 3, 2025, at the White House, Army Spec. 4 Kenneth J. David earned the Medal of Honor for combat actions May 7, 1970, during the Vietnam War.

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Pfc. Kenneth J. David

Born in 1950, David entered the Army in 1969.

On May 7, 1970, David was serving as a radio-telephone operator with Company D, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, near Fire Support Base Maureen, Thua Thien Province, Republic of Vietnam.

At that time, David's company came under an intense attack from a large hostile force. The enemy's initial assault mortally wounded the company's platoon leader and resulted in numerous other casualties. Upon the initial assault, David handed his radio to his platoon sergeant and moved forward to the defensive perimeter, where he unleashed a barrage of automatic weapons fire on the enemy.

From this location, David resisted all enemy efforts to overrun his position. Realizing the impact of the enemy assault on the wounded who were being brought to the center ofthe perimeter, he moved to a position outside of the perimeter while continuing to engage the enemy.

Each time the enemy attempted to concentrate its fire on the wounded inside the perimeter, David would jump from his position and yell to draw the enemy fire away from his injured comrades and back to himself.

Refusing to withdraw in the face of the concentrated enemy fire now directed toward him, David continued to engage the enemy. Although wounded by an exploding satchel charge and running low on ammunition, he tossed hand grenades toward the attackers to counter their fire.

The unit's medic, realizing that David had been injured, moved to his position to provide aid, but David assured him that he was okay and continued to fight on.

David's actions continued to draw the enemy fire away from the incoming medevac helicopters, which allowed the wounded to be safely evacuated. After allied reinforcements fought their way to his company's position, David carried a wounded comrade to a sheltered position. He then returned to the contact area and continued to engage the enemy and provide covering fire for the wounded until the enemy broke contact and fled, at which point he too was medically evacuated.

At the time of his combat actions, David was 20 years old.

"[Ken] couldn't and wouldn't give up," Biden said. "Instead, he shouted and fired his weapon to attract attention to him, away from others and away from the wounded men. Imagine that courage. 'Come get me. Come get me. Don't get those folks.' That's selflessness. Ken, I want to say to you, and I wish I could say to every man we're honoring today: you're a hero, a genuine hero, a flat out, straight-up American hero. And we owe you. The families owe you."

Medal of Honor

President Joe Biden presents Medals of Honor to Pfc. Kenneth J. David at the White House, Jan. 3, 2025.

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Medal of Honor

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Credit: Henry Villarama, Army

VIRIN: 250103-A-AR102-6556

Since concluding his service in Vietnam, David has spent 39 years working for Disabled American Veterans in Ohio, where he now serves as the adjutant treasurer.

"[At] our chapter back here, we just spent $3,000 in food for homeless veterans and veterans in need for the Christmas holidays," David said. "We get used scooters and wheelchairs .... donated to us, and we, in turn, give them out, no charge, [to] whoever needs them. We do what we have to do to help the veterans in our community ... because we have to help our brothers."

David said he frequently remembers the men he knew who didn't come home alive from Vietnam, saying he thinks of them as friends. He said he keeps biographies of those men in a book in his truck.

"That's my way of coping with my stress," he said. "They were my friends, a lot of times I call them kids, because we were all kids at that time. But we knew the way they walked, we knew the way they talked, their heartbeat, and we would do anything for each other in any situation."

David is already the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, which he received in 1971, for his service in Vietnam. But he said the Medal of Honor will help him be a better advocate for the needs of veterans like himself.

"With the cross I was able to use the award to help more veterans, because people listen to me," he said. "Now that I'm receiving the Medal of Honor, I will have more power to help more veterans, in my opinion, because I think people will listen to me more because of the award."

Serving veterans, he said, continues to be his duty.

"I will never forget my friends and my veterans in my county up here," he said. "That's my goal for the rest of my life now."

As Biden closes out his term as commander in chief, he said it's been the greatest honor of his life to lead the world's greatest military.

"They're the finest military in the history of the world," he said. "Today we award these individuals a Medal of Honor. We can't stop here. Together as a nation, it's up to us to give this medal meaning, to keep fighting, to keep fighting for one another, for each other, to keep defending everything these heroes fought for and many of them died for: the ideals of America, the freedom we cherish, the democracy that has made our progress possible."

The United States, Biden said, was built on an idea, rather than on geography, ethnicity or religion.

"We are the only nation based on an idea," he said. "The idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal [and] deserve to be treated equally throughout their entire lives. We haven't always lived up to it, but we've never, ever, ever walked away from it. Today we must say clearly, we never, ever, ever will."

defense.gov · by C. Todd Lopez

4. Elon Musk Under Pressure: China Prepares Technology to Hijack Starlink Satellites and Track Stealth Aircraft

Elon Musk Under Pressure: China Prepares Technology to Hijack Starlink Satellites and Track Stealth Aircraft

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, designed to revolutionize global internet access, may now find themselves at the center of a high-stakes geopolitical showdown. Reports suggest that China is developing technology capable of exploiting Starlink’s vast network to track stealth aircraft—potentially undermining decades of advanced military innovation.

Arezki Amiri

Published on January 3, 2025

Read : 3 min

dailygalaxy.com · . · January 3, 2025

In an unprecedented development, Chinese researchers may have found a way to detect stealth aircraft, potentially redefining the balance of aerial defense technology. The study suggests that Starlink satellites, originally deployed by SpaceX for global internet coverage, could also serve as tools to identify stealth aircraft.

This unexpected application could disrupt the military dominance of nations heavily reliant on stealth technologies, such as the United States. The findings, published by researchers from the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications Technology, outline how signal anomalies in satellite communications could expose even the most advanced stealth planes.

Stealth Technology Under Threat

Stealth aircraft, like the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II, and B-2 Spirit, are designed to avoid radar detection by minimizing their radar cross-section (RCS). These planes employ advanced materials, shapes, and technologies to scatter or absorb radar waves, rendering them nearly invisible to traditional detection systems. For years, this capability has provided a tactical edge to nations such as the United States, which leads in the production and deployment of stealth aircraft.

The Chinese study identifies a previously unexplored vulnerability in stealth technology. It suggests that when a stealth aircraft moves through the communication path between a satellite and its ground station, it causes subtle disturbances in the electromagnetic signal. These disturbances, known as fresnel zone disruptions, are detectable with precise analysis. The researchers conducted experiments using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone, simulating the RCS of a stealth aircraft. By observing signal deviations within the Starlink constellation, they successfully tracked the drone, proving the concept’s feasibility.

“This method capitalizes on the density and continuity of Starlink’s satellite network, enabling the passive detection of moving objects,” the researchers wrote in their findings.

Starlink’s Evolving Role in Global Technology

Starlink, a venture by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, currently operates over 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, with plans to expand the network to 42,000 satellites in the coming decades. While its primary purpose is to provide high-speed internet to underserved regions, its dense constellation inadvertently offers unprecedented coverage and connectivity for applications beyond civilian use.

The dense network allows near-real-time global coverage, crucial for tracking transient phenomena like aircraft movements. Unlike traditional radar systems that emit waves to detect objects, this satellite-based method passively observes disruptions in existing communications. This distinction not only makes it harder for stealth aircraft to counter but also reduces the costs associated with building dedicated radar systems.

Contextual Insight:

The method relies on existing infrastructure, presenting a cost-efficient alternative to traditional radar systems.
Its global coverage ensures detection across areas where ground-based systems are impractical, such as oceans or remote regions.

Military and Geopolitical Implications

If proven effective on a larger scale, this technology could alter military dynamics worldwide. The United States, a pioneer in stealth technology, could face challenges in maintaining its aerial dominance. Nations like Russia and China, which have invested in counter-stealth measures, may seek to further develop or acquire similar detection systems. Furthermore, the integration of civilian satellite networks into military operations raises significant questions about dual-use technologies and their regulation.

The passive detection system outlined by Chinese researchers could dramatically reduce the effectiveness of stealth aircraft in combat scenarios. These planes, integral to modern air forces, are often used for surveillance, strategic bombing, and missions requiring air superiority. By compromising their invisibility, this detection method could force military planners to rethink strategies that rely heavily on stealth capabilities.

Military ImplicationsDescriptionPotential Counter-Stealth CapabilityCould neutralize advantages of stealth aircraftDual-Use Technology ConcernsBlurs lines between civilian and military tech

Challenges and Technical Hurdles

Despite its potential, the system faces several obstacles before achieving full operational capability. Signal disturbances caused by stealth aircraft can be influenced by external factors such as weather, atmospheric conditions, and interference from other sources. This complexity requires advanced machine learning algorithms capable of distinguishing between these variables.

Another challenge lies in the real-time processing demands of such a system. Analyzing signal anomalies across thousands of satellites requires massive computational power. For example, detecting an object crossing a specific signal path amidst routine satellite operations would involve isolating the relevant data and processing it at lightning speed.

The research also highlights ethical considerations. Using civilian satellite infrastructure for military purposes could strain international relations and raise concerns about the militarization of space. As Starlink is owned by a private entity, questions about accountability, regulation, and international cooperation in such dual-use scenarios remain unresolved.

The Future of Stealth and Detection

While this discovery is still in its experimental stages, it represents a potential turning point in aerial surveillance and military strategy. The possibility of detecting stealth aircraft with satellite networks could encourage nations to reconsider their reliance on stealth technologies and accelerate innovations in counter-detection systems. At the same time, the implications of integrating commercial satellite constellations into defense strategies warrant urgent discussions on global governance and the militarization of space.

For now, the skies are no longer the same. What was once invisible may soon become visible, altering the balance of power in ways the world is only beginning to grasp.

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dailygalaxy.com · by Mark S. Hewitt, Ph.D. · January 3, 2025

5. Why Would China Undermine Global Shipping?

Excerpts:

Its recurrent game isn’t as dramatic as a direct naval assault. But it’s even more dangerous. Around 80% of global trade travels by sea and requires protection. Similarly, the vast amounts of data, energy and money that travel via undersea cables and pipelines depend on orderly oceans. By undermining maritime pillars, Beijing is causing disorder that will harm every country that depends on oceans for its prosperity—including China.

Countries from Cambodia to the United Arab Emirates dislike details in existing treaties (and the U.S. hasn’t ratified the Law of the Sea convention, although it adheres to it), but the deterioration of those treaties benefits no one. Beijing’s friends and foes should call out its behavior before the maritime order deteriorates beyond repair.

Why Would China Undermine Global Shipping?

Its vessels are suspected of involvement in the sabotage of undersea cables.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/why-would-china-undermine-global-shipping-suspect-sabotage-1c053080?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s

By Elisabeth Braw

Jan. 3, 2025 5:37 pm ET

The Chinese-flagged ship Yi Peng 3 is anchored in the waters of the Kattegat strait near Denmark, Nov. 20. Photo: Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Zuma Press

A ship allegedly linked to sabotage in the Baltic Sea resumed its voyage on Dec. 21 after spending a month in the waters of Denmark’s exclusive economic zone. In November, North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries’ vessels had followed the bulk carrier on suspicion that it deliberately severed undersea fiber-optic data cables—one linking Germany and Finland and another linking Sweden and Lithuania—by dragging its anchor along the seabed for more than 100 miles. The ship under suspicion bears China’s flag.

China has been less than cooperative with local authorities in Sweden, in whose waters the damage occurred. This is no surprise considering the country’s record of noncompliance with maritime rules in other parts of the world. China seems intent on proving that maritime rules are deficient. That may be so, but the rules are better than maritime disorder.

Officially, the Chinese-flagged Yi Peng 3 is a merchant ship that transports cargo around the world. On Nov. 17-18, when the two Baltic Sea cables in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone were cut, the vessel was in the area. After the incidents, it sailed on toward the Atlantic Ocean. When it stopped in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone, Swedish authorities thought China would help them investigate the severed cables. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which forbids sabotage of undersea infrastructure during peacetime, flag states have such responsibilities. But according to Sweden, instead of cooperating, China barred the Swedish prosecutor from boarding the Yi Peng 3, and the ship sailed away.

This was the second time in recent months that a Chinese merchant ship sailed off after suspected cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea. In October 2023, after two data cables and a pipeline between Finland and Estonia were damaged by an anchor dragged across them, the Hong Kong-flagged, Chinese-registered vessel Newnew Polar Bear was the prime suspect. But when local authorities asked China to cooperate in the investigation, they received no response.

Meantime in the Red Sea, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis are attacking Western-linked ships with powerful weapons, some provided by Iran, and with some targeting data provided by Russia. Even though the Law of the Sea convention grants every merchant ship the right of innocent passage through any waters and the People’s Liberation Army Navy has the world’s largest fleet of active warships, Beijing has done nothing to enforce order in this crucial waterway. Western-linked ships continue to sustain assaults while Chinese ships sail through the Red Sea largely spared from Houthi attacks.

And in the South China Sea, Beijing is increasingly using its impressive maritime power to harass vessels in the waters of neighboring countries—waters that Beijing claims as its own. “First, fishing vessels from the Chinese Maritime Militia swarm a location, and then they’re joined by ships from the Chinese coast guard,” Ewan Lawson, a Manila-based fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank, said in a phone interview. “And because the Chinese are using the coast guard, any response by the other country’s navy would be seen as an escalation.” Shortly before relinquishing command of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Adm. John Aquilino told reporters last spring: “Philippine coast-guardsmen and service members have been injured. That’s a step up the ladder beyond a pressure campaign.”

Undermining the global maritime order seems an odd strategy for a country that owes its rapid economic rise to the oceans. Until a decade or so ago, Beijing mostly collaborated in the maritime order. When piracy skyrocketed off the Horn of Africa in the early 2000s, Chinese vessels joined Western and Russian ships to deter it. Retired Vice Adm. Duncan Potts of the Royal Navy, who commanded the antipiracy Operation Atalanta in the Indian Ocean in the early 2010s, said in a phone interview that “at that time China participated in an information exchange program with Western navies. We even explored whether Chinese tankers could refuel tankers in the Indian Ocean. But today it’s a very different situation.”

Chinese leaders now publicly dismiss maritime rules as outdated. The Law of the Sea convention “should keep pace with the times to better adapt to international maritime practices,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi argued at the convention’s 40th anniversary event in 2022. Like other agreements and treaties conceived during the Cold War, the maritime pacts contain a large Western footprint. For this reason, Beijing seems eager to refashion them. China is sacrificing ocean safety in its quest for a post-Pax Americana world.

Its recurrent game isn’t as dramatic as a direct naval assault. But it’s even more dangerous. Around 80% of global trade travels by sea and requires protection. Similarly, the vast amounts of data, energy and money that travel via undersea cables and pipelines depend on orderly oceans. By undermining maritime pillars, Beijing is causing disorder that will harm every country that depends on oceans for its prosperity—including China.

Countries from Cambodia to the United Arab Emirates dislike details in existing treaties (and the U.S. hasn’t ratified the Law of the Sea convention, although it adheres to it), but the deterioration of those treaties benefits no one. Beijing’s friends and foes should call out its behavior before the maritime order deteriorates beyond repair.

Ms. Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an adviser to Disruptive Industries.

6. The warning five years ago that could have stopped New Orleans attack

There is hindsight and there is foresight. Few listen to those with foresight or take their warnings seriously. On the other hand not all warnings can be acted upon and there will always be priorities and risk assessments based on level of likelihood. But this is why I still believe in basic intelligence analysis for decision makers -tell me what is the most likely enemy course of action and what is the most dangerous enemy course of action. Then with that knowledge you can conduct risk analysis and prioritize levels of effort. But we cannot defend against everything and every possible contingency.

Photos and graphics at the link: https://www.thetimes.com/article/d13f5938-626e-485d-958b-12ac3905f828?shareToken=1da164f125431c0fc6cf996f672561ec

The warning five years ago that could have stopped New Orleans attack

thetimes.com · by Samuel Lovett, New Orleans

DISPATCH

Officials were told in 2019 that the French Quarter’s Bourbon Street was vulnerable to car-ramming. Days on from those fears being realised, it has reopened

Bourbon Street was reopened to traffic 36 hours after the deadly attack on New Year’s Day

EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS

Samuel Lovett

, New Orleans

Friday January 03 2025, 7.00pm, The Times

New Orleans officials were warned five years ago that the city’s famed Bourbon Street, a tourist hotspot that attracts thousands of people each day, was vulnerable to a “vehicular ramming” attack.

As revellers and residents returned to the strip, which reopened only 36 hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar used a vehicle to kill 14 people and injure more than 30 others in the early hours of New Year’s Day, local officials pledged to strengthen security measures throughout the historic French Quarter.

That action was demanded by a confidential security report prepared for the district’s management officials in November 2019. The report said the bollards designed to control entry to Bourbon Street, which were undergoing repairs when Jabbar attacked, did “not appear to work”.

Interfor International, a security company that performed the assessment, recommended fixing the barriers and also noted that “the two modes of terror attack likely to be used are vehicular ramming and active shooting”, The New York Times reported.

President Biden and Jill Biden, the first lady, are to visit New Orleans on Monday, meeting police as well as bereaved relatives and the wounded. Biden has also spoken to victims’ families by phone.

There were few signs of the devastation on Thursday as the police cordon surrounding the street was dismantled and the public was allowed to return, overseen by police officers, state troopers and Homeland Security agents, many armed and wearing protective gear.

A group of drummers and trombonists soon filled the area with music, performing to a small crowd that had assembled close to where Jabbar’s truck first turned onto the street, marked by a memorial of flowers and candles. A toddler, oblivious to the week’s events, danced and waved her arms in the air.

Music fills the air once again

MICHAEL DEMOCKER/GETTY IMAGES

Tod and Connie Bowen, on holiday from Chicago, were among the first pedestrians to return. They had been out on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve but left hours before the attack began. “It’s quiet but will soon be back to normal,” Mr Bowen said.

Connie and Tod Bowen

SAMUEL LOVETT FOR THE TIMES

The couple said the city should “install bollards on the pavements” to make the French Quarter inaccessible to would-be attackers; video shows that Jabbar drove around a parked police car that was blocking Bourbon Street and mounted the pavement instead.

Because of this, said Jean-Paul Morrell, a member of the New Orleans city council, Jabbar “would still have been able to cause carnage even had the bollards been up” on New Year’s Eve. He said the city’s councillors were “absolutely going to have a look” at erecting pavement bollards at key entry points to the district. New Orleans first installed road security barriers along Bourbon Street in 2017.

Makeshift bollards on the street after the street reopened

MICHAEL DEMOCKER/GETTY IMAGES

Don Aviv, chief executive of Interfor International, said Wednesday’s attack “should be no surprise to anyone who’s ever been tasked with protecting an area dense with pedestrian traffic … the French Quarter is the perfect target.”

The company’s concerns about a ramming attack and malfunctioning bollards were not included in a security summary released to the public by the French Quarter Management District a year after Interfor concluded its review. A spokesperson for the management district said: “This study was shared with our partners in the City of New Orleans, and its recommendations were made public.”

The police presence in New Orleans remains heightened, even after FBI officials said that although Jabbar, 42, had been inspired by Isis, he acted alone — reversing earlier statements that indicated he was supported by accomplices in planting remote-controlled explosives in the French Quarter.

Armed officers and heavily armoured vehicles lined the roads to the Superdome, nearly a mile from Bourbon Street, before Thursday’s rescheduled “Sugar Bowl” American football match between Notre Dame and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Before kick-off fans drank outside the stadium, took photos and soaked up the atmosphere under a warm winter sun. About 10,000 sold seats remained empty in the arena, ticket figures showed, but the event unfolded without any disturbances.

A heavy armed police presence close to the Sugar Bowl venue

SAMUEL LOVETT FOR THE TIMES

Pam Matus, 65, and Dwight Deshotels, 69, from New Orleans, praised the police response. “It’s been great,” Matus said. “We feel safe walking the streets.”

Investigators continue to scrutinise Jabbar’s background and descent into radicalism. Tech against Terrorism, a monitoring group supported by the UN, said it had identified Isis supporters on Facebook and other social media platforms celebrating the attack, which was the largest Isis-related act of violence in America since the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. However, the terrorist group has yet to claim responsibility or acknowledge it.

“It often takes a really long time to unwind the web of radicalisation surrounding an attacker like this and understand what happened,” Devorah Margolin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and an expert on Isis, said. “We don’t know if the suspect actually talked to anyone in the group — or was he just inspired? Did he find like-minded people online or in person that he could talk to about his ideology?”

David Shapiro, a former FBI agent, said it could be “weeks or months” before this information is known.

Though many have praised New Orleans for reopening its doors for business so quickly after such violence, not everyone is in agreement.

Jennifer Kennedy, 53, from North Carolina, felt conflicted about the sudden return to normality. She was visiting the city with her daughter as part of a trip across the Deep South and visited the Bourbon Street memorial on Thursday night to pay her respects.

“Should it have reopened? I don’t know. I’m not sure how I feel about it,” she said, as streams of tourists meandered down the street, drinks in hand. “It’s surreal that 14 people were killed where we’re standing yet everything is back to normal.

“I understand there’s a commercial demand to get going again but is it too soon for the people who live and work here and experienced this tragedy first-hand? They need time to process what happened.”

Matthew St Marie, however, said he had returned to the bar of the Old Absinthe House “because you can’t let Isis win”. He had been standing at the entrance of Bourbon Street arguing with his wife for “one more beer” only minutes before Jabbar attacked. “We could have been victims,” St Marie, a 60-year-old from Ohio, said. “But you’ve got to get on with life.”

Down the street at the Famous Door, a band performed as it would on any other day. The singer threw herself across the stage, pointed to the crowd and belted out AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. The masses sang back, their arms outstretched under the lights.

Service resumes at the Famous Door

SAMUEL LOVETT FOR THE TIMES

“It was a tragedy,” said Liborio Medina, a 34-year-old from California among the crowd. “But people have come to have a good time in the city and nothing is going to change that.”

Outside, a single flower bouquet lay against the building, placed there in honour of those who had been killed. It had already started to wilt, its leaves scattered on the pavement as the late-night revellers walked by.

7. Greenland’s leader wants independence from Denmark after Trump suggested buying island

Greenland’s leader wants independence from Denmark after Trump suggested buying island

Mute Egede declared ‘it is about time that we ourselves take a step’ after the US president-elect said he wanted to establish ‘control’

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/03/greenlands-leader-wants-independence-from-denmark/?

Kieran Kelly

OPINION: The Kremlin De Facto Challenges the US to Surrender

As Putin’s circle appears to reject proposals from Trump’s team, eyes are on the US President Elect – will he capitulate or will he channel his Cold War predecessors?

https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/44897

By Anna Magdalena Wielopolska

January 4, 2025, 2:12 pm

Donald Trump listens as Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP

Recent headlines in international media have conveyed the message that “Russia Rejects Donald Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan.”

There have been no officially reported negotiations or meetings, yet the Kremlin has publicly fired its first salvo of “nyet,” and set a demand that any direct peace talks between Russia and the new US administration will not happen with Ukraine’s presence.

In taking this position, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a message that – as far as it is concerned – Russia is not really fighting Ukraine but is fighting the US in Ukraine.

This effectively makes the US an official party to the war and allows the Kremlin to back the US against a wall, demanding its capitulation.

With such arrogance, the Russians have raised the stakes of the negotiations, which leads to the key question – will the Trump Administration be so careless as to allow Russia to dictate terms to the United States of America?

Mysterious flights and alleged meetings

Firstly, it is important to note that there has been no confirmation from either the Russian or US side that meetings and talks between top officials from both countries have taken place.

But, connecting the dots between mysterious flights, public statements from Russian officials, as well as social media reports, evidence suggests that the Kremlin may have recently dispatched its envoy to the US, following which the envoy told the American side (bluntly) “nyet.” To everything.

Ukraine Reduces Length of F-16 Pilot Training – A Step Too Far?

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister confirms a three-month reduction in the training period for its pilots on US F-16 fighters to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.

This meeting allegedly took place between Michael Waltz, Trump’s nominated national security advisor, and the Kremlin’s envoy, none other than Nikolai Patrushev, former FSB director and one of Putin’s closest confidants.

What we know for sure is that some flights from Russia to New York and Washington DC and back took place over the Christmas period and that, shortly afterwards, top Russian officials made comments directly rejecting Trump’s plan for peace.

On Dec. 25, a special airplane flew from Moscow to St. Petersburg. On Dec. 26, flight Il-96 departed from St. Petersburg to New York. Then, after a short break, it flew to Washington. On Dec. 28, the Russian plane flew from Washington to New York again and from there headed to Moscow, according to Flightradar.

The trip was not reported by either the Russian or the American side. After the news of the flight to the US became public, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a hardly convincing explanation – “another rotation of diplomats.”

Given the upcoming inauguration of Trump’s second term and his promises to enforce peace between Ukraine and Russia, such flights could be much more significant than a rotation.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin leave at the end of a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018 / AFPStatements

Public statements followed out of nowhere from the Russian side. In fact, these statements were a direct response to the Trump Administration’s peace proposals. Such proposals were only alleged to have been put forward, but the Kremlin would not have to comment on them unless they had received them.

At his annual end-of-year press conference on Dec. 26, Putin rejected the idea that deferring Ukraine’s membership of NATO would be satisfactory for Moscow.

Putin said while he does not know the specifics of Trump’s plan, current US President Joe Biden made a similar suggestion back in 2021, to defer Ukraine’s admission by 10 to 15 years.

“In terms of historical distances and timeframes, this is a moment. What difference does it make to us – today, tomorrow, or in 10 years?” he asked, rhetorically, in response to a journalist’s question, and according to a Kremlin transcript of the interaction.

Then, on Dec. 29, the Russian state-owned news agency TASS quoted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov doubling down on Putin’s rejection of some of Trump’s proposals for Ukraine.

“We are certainly not satisfied with the proposals made by representatives of the president-elect’s team to postpone Ukraine’s membership in NATO for 20 years and to deploy a peacekeeping contingent of UK and European forces in Ukraine,” Lavrov told TASS.

Lavrov added that Russia has not yet received any official “signals” from the US on the “Ukrainian settlement” and that, until Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20, only Biden’s outgoing administration was authorized to engage with Moscow.

Social media speculation

Rumor has it that Patrushev’s talks with Waltz were “difficult and tense.” The Russians purportedly “slammed the door,” blaming “the non-constructive position of the American side.”

As the Voice of Ukraine presented in a thread on X, Waltz was to state on behalf of Trump that the US “is ready to pass a law at the state level that in principle will NOT allow Ukraine to join NATO, but only in exchange for:

the withdrawal of Russian troops to the conditional line 24 – effectively freezing the current line of separation in Donbas
the liberation of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, subsequently making these territories a “demilitarized zone”

Waltz also allegedly said that the US was ready to sign a new version of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia and China, but if Russia and China refused, the US “would place new such missiles on Russia’s borders.”

Patrushev’s response, according to the same thread, was a total rejection of the proposals as absolutely “not constructive” and not acceptable. Instead, he supposedly presented the following terms:

“Legislative consolidation of Ukraine’s non-alignment” in exchange for the introduction of “peacekeepers from neutral countries” on both sides of the LBZ (first line of defense)
The Russian Federation would negotiate the liberation of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions only in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia (all sanctions – from technology to financial)
Ukraine’s army and range of weapons would be reduced (to practically leaving Ukraine with no army and no means to defend itself)

Patrushev also allegedly proposed to organize a direct conversation between Putin and Trump, because “without it, a breakthrough in the negotiations may never happen.”

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin attend a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFPMaybe not accurate but a clear reflection of the Kremlin’s position

So that is what supposedly happened according to the Voice of Ukraine X account. However, even if this report is not wholly accurate, it aligns with Russia’s well-known stance, further confirmed by the public statements made by Putin and Lavrov as quoted above.

Even if Patrushev did not actually visit the US in December, the Kremlin clearly does not want “talks” to include the Ukrainians, which is consistent with its view of the Ukrainian government as a US puppet and “Nazi regime” to be dismantled, and one not to negotiate with.

This position is evident from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said in early December, “there are no grounds for negotiations with Ukraine.” It also aligns with Putin’s mantra as noted above that Russia is fighting the US rather than Ukraine itself. And by perpetuating this narrative, Putin is declaring that Russia and the US are at war.

From that standpoint, Putin wants the US to abandon Ukraine, which would amount to the US admitting that helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russia has been a mistake. And to correct this “mistake”, the US would formally have to surrender to Russia’s demands.

Brazen? It was only to be expected from the Kremlin – a regime capable of invading a sovereign independent country. Putin’s circle is not going to change the narrative because that narrative justifies Putin’s entire policy over the last three years.

The twist with this narrative, is that Putin is directly and openly challenging the US. It raises a question that will define Trump’s second term – is the president elect ready to become a “Cold War-style” president on the scale of his great predecessors? Or is he going will he capitulate to the Kremlin’s demands?

The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.

Anna Magdalena Wielopolska

Anna Magdalena Wielopolska, former Polish journalist of “Rzeczpospolita,” Ph.D. in international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is currently leading a counteroffensive against Russian propaganda in social media

9. Could FBI Have Prevented New Orleans Terror Attack?

Comments from a "who's who" of some of the best terrorism experts.

Could FBI Have Prevented New Orleans Terror Attack?

https://www.newsweek.com/could-fbi-have-prevented-new-orleans-terror-attack-2008635

Published

Jan 02, 2025 at 10:33 AM ESTUpdated

Jan 03, 2025 at 5:27 AM EST

00:53

Biden Says Alleged New Orleans Attacker Supported ISIS

By Shane Croucher

Senior Editor

Details are still emerging about the life of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the Islamic State-inspired suspect in the New Orleans terror attack that killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Texas, plowed his pick-up truck into the crowds gathered for New Year celebrations in the Louisiana city's party area of Bourbon Street and then began shooting. Police shot Jabbar dead.

The FBI is probing how Jabbar was radicalized and if more people were involved in organizing the attack. Jabbar reportedly recorded videos while driving from his home in Texas to New Orleans in which he talked about joining the Islamic State.

A question observers are asking in the aftermath is: Could the FBI have prevented the New Orleans attack? Newsweek asked experts for their views. Here's what they told us.

Daniel Byman, Professor and Director, Security Studies Program at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

The FBI has prevented many attacks and disrupted numerous plots. However, there is a high random factor, and it is unrealistic to expect the FBI to stop every plot, though it can greatly reduce the numbers.

Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT

It is soon to say, but probably not.

Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow, Emerita, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Professor of Government, Emerita, Wesleyan University

It is difficult to detect and stop individuals who act without communication with or support from the organization—acting largely on inspiration and imitation.

Harvey Wolf Kushner, Chairman and Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Long Island University

Yes, the FBI could have done a better job in preventing the attack in New Orleans. How? By devoting more energy and resources to countering all forms of Islamic terrorism and focusing less on reinventing the term terrorism to broaden its meaning.

Inset, an undated passport photo provided by the FBI on shows Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Main image, FBI and New Orleans Police are seen outside a house fire on Mandeville Street after the mass casualty Bourbon Street... More ASSOCIATED PRESS/Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Vehicle Ramming Terror Attacks: Can Mass Gatherings Ever Be Safe?

FBI Releases New Photos Showing New Orleans Suspect an Hour Before Attack

Shamsud-Din Jabbar: Is the Islamic State Terror Threat Growing Again?

Bourbon Street Reopens Just One Day After New Orleans Attack

Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Author of ISIS: A History

There are limits to what the FBI and other security services could do to prevent terrorist attacks, like the terror attack in New Orleans. The lone wolf phenomenon is extremely difficult to preempt and prevent. It is almost impossible to get into the mind of a committed individual who is bent on killing randomly.

Michael S. Smith II, Terrorism Analyst and International Security Consultant Specializing in Influence Operations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda

It is increasingly common for information to emerge that suggests FBI was aware of the potential that the perpetrators of terrorist attacks may pose threats to public safety.

This is because the Bureau has become much better at identifying individuals and groups of individuals whose behaviors indicate they are susceptible to ISIS's or other terrorist groups' influence.

It is too early to pass judgment on whether this attack was preventable.

Meanwhile, in addition to conducting a rigorous investigation of whether it was, I believe the FBI should more openly engage with Congress via public hearings about laws and related internal protocols that can constrain its and other agencies' capabilities to prevent terrorist attacks, with a view to opportunities to amend existing or implement new laws that can enhance America's national security posture against violent extremism more broadly, without chipping away at the spirit of our Constitution.

Congress itself is rarely a source of creative insights of how to better address threats linked to international and domestic terrorism. Typically, those insights come from outside experts or officials in the national security enterprise.

Therefore, the Bureau should be presented with opportunities to help members of Congress and the public understand what could be done to enhance America's national security posture against enduring threats linked to ISIS, as well as growing threats linked to violent extremism in general.

Despite its founding mandate, and despite its massive budgets, DHS has never demonstrated leadership in the field of counterterrorism. So the best insights on what can be done better or differently, and the adjustments in existing laws and protocols needed to achieve all of it will come from FBI, as well as CIA and NSA.

Tricia Bacon, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Author, Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

It is unclear based on the information available at this point whether the FBI could have prevented the attack.

Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University; International Security Fellow, New America

The barricades (bollards) that were usually up were down (for a few weeks) in advance of the Superbowl. If Shamsud was a lone actor and not part of a cell, it is very hard to detect lone actors in advance.

However, 73 percent of the time, lone actors reveal elements of the plot to family and friends. There are reports that Jabbar did. This is where it is incumbent on people to come forward (if you see something say something). That is how Ted Kaczynski was caught.

But there is a massive bystander effect (e.g. the Boston Marathon Bomber told his roommates at UMass Dartmouth and they did not "want to get him in trouble").

Lone Actors are harder to detect but easier to find... although in the cases of vehicle ramming, they are often killed at the scene.

Paul R. Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University

Probably not. There is simply no way for it to become aware of every ill-minded person who might conduct this kind of attack. Evidence of the individual's affinity to Islamic State does not necessarily indicate that the attack itself was the work of a larger organization that the FBI could follow or penetrate.

J.M. Berger, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

It's much too soon to say. We're never going to be able to prevent 100 percent of all terrorist attacks. The investigation should shed light on how the perpetrator(s) evaded notice, and whether we need to make changes in posture.

Robert J. Bunker, Director of Research and Analysis, C/O Futures

The FBI, from my perspective, via its Field Offices and local operational area JTTF programs, has been doing an extremely good job of interdicting ISIS plots over recent years.

However, we can't expect them to prevent every IS plot from succeeding as we have seen happen in New Orleans.

Also, the physical hardening of the area of responsibility (AOR) for counter-terrorism purposes is the mandate of the local city government—not that of the FBI.

10. Shamsud-Din Jabbar: Is the Islamic State Terror Threat Growing Again?

Again, more comments from terrorism experts.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar: Is the Islamic State Terror Threat Growing Again?

https://www.newsweek.com/shamsud-din-jabbar-islamic-state-terror-threat-growing-again-2008630

Published

Jan 02, 2025 at 12:49 PM ESTUpdated

Jan 03, 2025 at 5:27 AM EST

01:12

What We Know About New Orleans Attack Suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar

By Shane Croucher

Senior Editor

The shocking New Year's Day attack in New Orleans took a grimly familiar turn when it emerged that the FBI had discovered videos made by suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar in which he declared his support for the terrorist group Islamic State.

The FBI also found an Islamic State flag at the scene of the attack. Jabbar rammed his pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating the new year in Bourbon Street killing at least 15 and injuring many more before firing a gun at police. Jabbar was shot dead.

Does the New Orleans attack show that the Islamic State terror threat is growing again? Newsweek put the question to experts. Here's what they told us.

Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT

Yes. Since the Assad dictatorship was overthrown last month, the U.S. military has stepped up its air strikes on ISIS targets in that country because of an alarming increase in ISIS operations there.

In the U.S., FBI director Christopher Wray has repeatedly warned since the October 7, 2023 attacks of the danger of terrorist incidents in the U.S.—describing the situation as the most critical in his experience.

Moreover, in March 2023 the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt-Gen Scott Berrier and the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, warned that ISIS had already re-constituted its international terrorism capabilities.

This would also be the sixth significant international attack or attempt by ISIS in a year—in Iran, Turkey, Russia, Austria, and the plot in Oklahoma City on election day that was foiled by authorities a month previously.

Inset, a photo of Shamsud-Din Jabbar released by the FBI. Main image, a couple pass a police car in the French Quarter after at least 15 people were killed on Bourbon Street during an attack... More FBI/ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow, Emerita, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Professor of Government, Emerita, Wesleyan University

The threat never went away but could be reactivated by events in the Middle East, particularly the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria. It has likely motivated IS supporters including self-starters. We don't know enough yet to tell.

Daniel Byman, Professor and Director, Security Studies Program at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

Last year (2024) saw more active Islamic State plotting in the United States than 2023, although the levels and the threat are lower than they were when the group was at its peak a decade ago.

New Orleans Attacker Left Quran Verse Open at His Home. Here's What it Says

Vehicle Ramming Terror Attacks: Can Mass Gatherings Ever Be Safe?

Bourbon Street Reopens Just One Day After New Orleans Attack

Could FBI Have Prevented New Orleans Terror Attack?

However, it remains unclear if the latest attack involved a single perpetrator or a larger group.

Harvey Wolf Kushner, Chairman and Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Long Island University

As someone involved in the study and countering Islamic-based terrorism for over 50 years, I believe the threat of Islamic terrorism is greater now than before September 11, 2001.

My autobiographical book, Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Islamic Terror Network in the United States, discusses the threat in detail before the 9/11 attacks.

Today, it has metastasized into an entirely more potent threat.

Tricia Bacon, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Author, Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

The Islamic State threat has been growing in various parts of the world, so this attack is consistent with that trend.

Michael S. Smith II, Terrorism Analyst and International Security Consultant Specializing in Influence Operations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Threats linked to ISIS here in the West never significantly ebbed.

Rather, the FBI and other agencies in the U.S. and partner governments have demonstrated increased acumen for identifying aspirant terrorists who intend to demonstrate support for ISIS, such as by traveling abroad to fight with the group or perpetrating attacks in their home countries in the West.

Indeed, hours before Trump repeated his false claim that ISIS was "defeated" during his first term while delivering his election victory speech, the FBI arrested an aspirant terrorist in the US who planned to travel overseas to join ISIS.

When was the last time anyone was caught trying to travel abroad to join a defeated terrorist group? When was the last time a terrorist perpetrated an attack like the one in New Orleans to demonstrate their support for a defeated terrorist group?

In this June 16, 2014 file photo, demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State group, slogans as they carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Meanwhile, tech companies like Telegram whose social media tools have been used by ISIS and al-Qa'ida to incite violence here in the West have gradually done more to constrain these terrorist groups' capabilities to use their platforms to damage both U.S. national and global security more broadly.

Still, ISIS has continued to use these platforms to project an image of strength and durability that factors centrally in its capabilities to build and reinforce support here in the West, including support in the form of attacks like the one in New Orleans.

One major component of its propaganda program in recent years has been the documentation of the group's widening terrorism campaigns throughout most regions in Africa, including southern Africa, where ISIS's operations have expanded significantly in Mozambique since 2019.

Successes like the ones ISIS has been achieving through these campaigns factor importantly in its capabilities to convince people far from those regions that the group is worthy of support.

Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Author of ISIS: A History

The threat of the Islamic State has never gone away. It ebbs and flows depending on world circumstances and social and political upheaval in Muslim societies.

IS has been in state of hibernation since 2019, morphing from the so-called caliphate to a guerrilla force and a transnational phenomenon.

More importantly, the Islamic State inspires and motivates deluded men who are either radicalized or who are mentally and psychologically scarred.

The ideological diet of the Islamic State is the fuel that powers lone wolfs who have carried out scores of terrorist attacks worldwide, including the United States.

Lorenzo Vidino, Director, Program on Extremism, George Washington University

The threat of jihadist terrorism had never gone away, even from the heights of 2014-18, and we have had attacks since then, albeit less frequent and most of them less lethal. IS has persisted in various ways.

The central organization, while unquestionably in disarray, still exists and still sends out its messages. Some of its local affiliates are active, some of them actually faring quite well (see for example ISIS K).

And most importantly, ISIS as a brand has remained somewhat intact, still popular, and massively disseminated online both through a top-down approach but even more horizontally by young people who take it upon themselves to produce and widely disseminate high-quality propaganda.

All this leads to the persistence of small pockets of jihadist sympathizers in the West, whether lone wolves or small clusters, who consume (and produce) ISIS propaganda and at times activate themselves to carry out attacks.

People mourn at a makeshift memorial in front of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church), two days after an Islamic State terror attack at the nearby Christmas market in central Berlin, on December 21, 2016. ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images

Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University; International Security Fellow, New America

As Obama once said, ISIS was not an existential threat to Americans even at its height (compared to many countries in Europe). But inspiration by ISIS could certainly move people within the U.S. to engage in acts of terrorism.

ISIS published in its magazine Rumiyah exactly how to carry out vehicle ramming attacks, what kind of vehicle to use, which locations (sporting events, July 4th celebrations, the Superbowl).

The biggest issue is that we do not know what moves someone from consuming terrorist materials online to engaging in real-world violence. Moreover, the base rate of people who post and share radicalized and extremist materials is decidedly (and thankfully) low.

In all likelihood, the current Gaza crisis and the radicalization around that issue poses the greater threat. Many experts are more concerned about radicalization from extremists on both sides.

Paul R. Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University

That threat never went away entirely, notwithstanding the elimination of the group's "caliphate" in western Iraq and eastern Syria.

The current disorder in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime may give the group a new chance at boosting its fortunes in the Middle East, although this does not necessarily have much to do with whatever threat followers of Islamic State may pose in the United States.

J.M. Berger, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

There's been an uptick in activity recently, including a couple of major attacks in 2024. It's hard to say if this is a trend or just that the threat had persisted.

Robert J. Bunker, Director of Research and Analysis, C/O Futures

Yes, since the highly successful IS Khorasan (ISK) attack in Moscow in March 2024, that group has been emboldened and has been projecting strike teams farther out to engage in more attacks.

Remember, we had the eight Tajiks in the U.S. arrested in June which appears to be a Federal interdiction of a pending operation.

IS/ISK propaganda is actively being produced to promote attacks against the West and also SOAs (Soldiers of Allah)/Lone Jihadi affinity plots were recently foiled in November domestically.

C/O Futures believes the threat to be so credible that we have been providing counter-terrorism training to U.S. law enforcement in relation to vehicular overruns and other Jihadi TTPs such as IEDs and firearms attacks.

We also did a recent ISK operational assessment for the academic journal Small Wars & Insurgencies.

11. Vehicle Ramming Terror Attacks: Can Mass Gatherings Ever Be Safe?

What TTP comes next after we harden all major targets against vehicle ramming (though that is really impossible to do). But let's consider how to anticipate the evolution of TTPs.

Vehicle Ramming Terror Attacks: Can Mass Gatherings Ever Be Safe?

https://www.newsweek.com/vehicle-ramming-terror-attacks-can-mass-gatherings-ever-safe-2008641

Published

Jan 03, 2025 at 10:09 AM EST

00:35

New Orleans Police Declares Bourbon Street Open After Attack

By Shane Croucher

Senior Editor

The Islamic State-inspired New Orleans terror attack used a method of deadly violence the world has seen often in the past decade: Vehicle ramming attacks against crowds of people.

The use of vehicles to attack civilians is encouraged by Islamist terror groups such as Islamic State because it is a low-tech option that is very hard for authorities to detect in advance, so such incidents have become increasingly common.

Ramming attacks such as those by jihadists in Nice, Barcelona, Berlin and New York's Hudson River bicycle path stick in the mind. But it isn't just Islamist terrorists who exploit the security vulnerabilities of mass gatherings to vehicle ramming attacks.

In December, a Christmas market in Germany suffered a similar attack when a Saudi-born doctor drove a car through the festive crowds, killing five people and injuring more than 200 in Magdeburg. The suspect's motive remains unclear.

A month earlier, in November, a Chinese man drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians outside a stadium in Zhuhai, killing 35 people and injuring dozens more. AP reported that the 62-year-old suspect was upset about a divorce settlement.

Whatever the motivation for vehicle ramming attacks, they present a persistent threat to spaces where people gather in public. Can mass gatherings ever be safe from vehicle ramming attacks? Newsweek asked security experts. Here's what they said.

A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man inspired by Islamic State drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and... More AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Daniel Byman, Professor and Director, Security Studies Program at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

Mass gatherings cannot be safe, but they can be safer. Vehicle barriers, crowd control, police monitoring, and other measures all make it harder for attacks to happen.

Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT

The terrorist evaded police vehicles blocking Bourbon Street to mount the sidewalk. Bollards on sidewalks as well as streets could have frustrated the New Orleans attack.

Security Posts Clogged by Beads Delayed Repairs Before New Orleans Attack

Shamsud-Din Jabbar: Is the Islamic State Terror Threat Growing Again?

Bourbon Street Reopens Just One Day After New Orleans Attack

Could FBI Have Prevented New Orleans Terror Attack?

Paul R. Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University

No—at least not without the transformation of an open society into a tightly controlled police state.

Harvey Wolf Kushner, Chairman and Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Long Island University

No one can ever rule out the type of vehicle attacks we just witnessed in Germany and New Orleans; however, we can better harden targets with anticipation.

In other words, New Orleans should have had bollards in place prior to the New Year's Eve festivities. Additionally, perimeters of important events should be secured.

New Orleans and the two recent attempts on the president-elect's life are cases of events that could have been prevented with proper perimeter security. But the impossible can never be ruled out.

Michael S. Smith II, Terrorism Analyst and International Security Consultant Specializing in Influence Operations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda

More can be done to discreetly mitigate against the threat of attacks like the one in New Orleans, but none of that will be a panacea in a broader sense. Because an aspirant terrorist like the one who used a truck and gun to kill and injure civilians and police officers can easily adjust their plans.

As with al-Qaida, the directives devolved by ISIS in propaganda tailored to incite violence here in the West emphasize killing as many people as possible.

If Bourbon Street was inaccessible via truck, and the terrorist responsible for the attack decided to find a way to use the truck to kill people—as called for in ISIS propaganda for years—that could have been done at many other venues where there is commonly high pedestrian traffic and little thought given to security, such as parking areas outside the doors of large airports where physical security is similarly light on major holidays.

Emergency services, police and firefighters at the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver drove into a group of people, killing five. Hendrik Schmidt/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Author of ISIS: A History

Of course, mass gatherings in public can be made safer from vehicle ramming attacks. These events require vigilance, additional security mechanisms and luck.

In the end, all security systems breakdown. There is no such thing as absolute security when it comes to public gatherings.

Lorenzo Vidino, Director, Program on Extremism, George Washington University

The hard truth is that it is close to impossible to do so, particularly in an open society. More measures can always be taken and there is no question that Bourbon Street is not a secondary venue, so some thinking should go to what went wrong there.

But one cannot put physical barriers in any street or open space where people congregate: An elementary school cookout, a shopping street, the exit of a movie theater.

Some vulnerabilities will always exist, best one can do is diminish them and find ways to act swiftly once a danger is detected

Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University; International Security Fellow, New America

The bollards should NEVER have been down before New Year's Eve [in Bourbon Street]. That said, it is impossible to prevent vehicle ramming attacks.

Recall in October 2017 when an ISIS supporter, Sayfullo Saipov, used a truck to mow down cyclists on the bicycle path along the Hudson River. He killed eight people before being shot by police.

Gatherings should have additional protection, but like school shootings, these events are impossible to prevent.

J.M. Berger, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

We'll never be able to prevent 100 percent of these attacks, although there are various things we can do to mitigate the risk.

Vehicle ramming attacks are especially hard to prevent, because they can be carried out with little or no planning, and they don't require any special equipment or training.

We can harden some public spaces, but we can't harden all of them and still allow people to go about their lives.

Fortunately, these attacks are still relatively rare, and most people will never be caught in one. But the risk is there, and it will continue.

Forensics officers and policemen look for evidence in a truck on the Promenade des Anglais seafront in the French Riviera town of Nice on July 15, 2016, after an Islamist terrorist drove into a crowd... More Sipa USA via AP

Tricia Bacon, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Author, Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

This low-tech tactic is particularly effective because it is hard to defend and easy to execute with no training or other suspicious purchases/activities.

For some mass gatherings, there are physical barriers to car rammings, which double as measures to prevent VBIEDs from reaching targets. But it is difficult secure all mass gatherings in this way.

However, tactics tend to follow trends, so vehicle rammings may grow less common as other tactics gain prominence.

Robert J. Bunker, Director of Research and Analysis, C/O Futures

Mass gatherings can almost never be made 100 percent safe from vehicle ramming attacks—though this is highly terrain and avenues of approach dependent.

Simple bollards and barriers can be replaced by dump trucks with sand in them to create far more robust defenses.

The New Orleans failure appears to be some mixture of not paying attention to defending the access points into Bourbon Street and/or an early morning activity in which the barriers were possibly being changed out for later street clean up.

In the video that I reviewed, the perpetrator of the attack was able to slip through a barrier gap and then accelerate and engage in the vehicular overrun phase of the operation (followed by an active shooter component in which he shot two responding officers and was killed at the scene).

12. Trump has a once-in a-century opportunity for change

Conclusion:

The challenge of regime change in communist China, while more of a long-term project than Iran’s, may well be abbreviated by the trade and economic measures Trump is already contemplating, an activist policy he began to implement in his first term. U.S. and international support for much-needed governance reform in Russia and North Korea is warranted by their joint international aggression in Ukraine. It will need to be initiated by the populations of those countries and will require different forms of international support attuned to their own particular circumstances, especially in the area of strategic communications. The Iran precedent can help show the way.

Trump has a once-in a-century opportunity for change

by Joseph Bosco, opinion contributor - 01/01/25 9:00 AM ET

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5060414-trump-person-of-the-century/?utm

Last month, Donald Trump was selected as Time magazine’s Person of the Year — “the individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months.” The designation proclaims no judgment on whether the nominee’s historic role is for good or ill, just that it is “consequential.”

Adolf Hitler was named Man of the Year in 1938. By 1999, Time recognized that women could also be consequential, and the award was changed to Person of the Year. Trump will soon begin his second four-year term as commander in chief, and will have the potential in that compressed time frame to earn the title of Person of the Century (at least, of the first quarter of the century).

That his term will be significant is a virtual certainty, given the need for a response to the international challenges pressing in on the United States today from the new Axis of Evil: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Whether Trump’s tenure will be for America’s and the world’s benefit or detriment will depend on how he responds to those external forces.

Trump will either grasp the opportunity history has thrust upon him to change the world for the better, or he will let it pass by and watch the downward slide into chaos continue. His historical reputation will be set by the strategic choices he makes now. If one or more of the four tyrannical regimes long plaguing the world has not been either removed from power or dramatically changed in its behavior, war and chaos will beckon and will forever stain his legacy. Or, his presidency can be honored by an appreciative global public and embellished with a Nobel Peace Prize.

The prospects for reform vary substantially among the four regimes and none of the possible outcomes is foreseeable with any degree of certainty. But each can be affected by courageous and prudent U.S. policy combining rewards with punishment, and can be nudged along the path of significant reform.

Some observers feared that America’s unsteady foreign policy, especially on Afghanistan and Ukraine, projected an image of confusion and weakness that invites even further overreaching by our adversaries. As history has shown, strategic miscalculation can lead to major conflict. The specter of World War III was already bruited about by both of America’s initial 2024 presidential candidates, though with differing rationales.

President Biden had warned in February 2022 that Vladimir Putin, having successfully seized Eastern Ukraine and Crimea in 2014 during the Obama-Biden administration, was planning to launch the next phase of his Ukraine invasion. When asked if the U.S. would intervene militarily even with a minimal no-fly zone over Ukraine, he quickly rejected the possibility, declaring, “That’s World War III.” He repeated his horrified reaction over the next three years of the war whenever asked about a more vigorous U.S. response to Russia’s aggression.

Trump, for his part, criticized Biden more than once for even the moderate level of weapons support he has provided Ukraine, accusing him of “leading us into World War III.”

In announcing its selection of Trump as the world’s most significant person for this period, Time described his foreign policy approach: “Trump promises to attack the sources abroad that he blames for the country’s malaise: economic interdependence, transnational criminals, traditional allies he sees as free riders on America’s long-running global beneficence. … Willing to upend the nation’s postwar role as a bulwark against authoritarianism, he promises to usher in a foreign policy rooted in ‘America First’ transactionalism.” Nothing in that litany of international challenges or Trump’s likely response would deter further aggressive behavior by America’s proclaimed enemies.

With the right U.S. approach in support of the Iranian people, the regime in Teheran is the most likely to undergo change, from clerical authoritarianism to political tolerance and democratic reform. The Iranian population demonstrated its commitment to political change during the widespread demonstrations in 2009, when the mostly young Iranian protestors fervently appealed for American support. The Obama-Biden administration spurned U.S. involvement — but the incoming Trump team may be more inclined to help.

Trump vigorously opposed the Obama-Biden nuclear deal and terminated it in his first term. Biden’s faltering efforts to revive it still allow time for its demise on behalf of the international community before the final screw is turned on its nuclear weapons program. As administration spokesman John Kirby stated, “President Biden has made clear that Iran will not have that capability. We had tried to do this through diplomacy. Obviously, that didn’t work, because the Iranians were not willing to negotiate in good faith. All other options remain available to the President.”

Those options have widened thanks to the serious undermining of Iran’s security situation over the past year. Israel’s major diminishment of Teheran’s allies and proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah, and lately the Houthis — punctuated by its devastating response to Iran’s missile attacks on Israel — have left Iran exposed and vulnerable to a coup de grace by a joint Israel-U.S. strike. With minimal external involvement beyond destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the Iranian people can take care of the domestic governance problem.

The challenge of regime change in communist China, while more of a long-term project than Iran’s, may well be abbreviated by the trade and economic measures Trump is already contemplating, an activist policy he began to implement in his first term. U.S. and international support for much-needed governance reform in Russia and North Korea is warranted by their joint international aggression in Ukraine. It will need to be initiated by the populations of those countries and will require different forms of international support attuned to their own particular circumstances, especially in the area of strategic communications. The Iran precedent can help show the way.

Joseph Bosco served as China country director for the secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and as Asia-Pacific director of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief from 2009 to 2010. He is a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies, a member of the advisory board of the Global Taiwan Institute and member of the advisory board of The Vandenberg Coalition.

13. Army chooses BAE Systems for prototype base defense artillery cannon

MDAC. HPV. MDACS. IBCS.

I need to get smart on a whole bunch of new acronyms.

Army chooses BAE Systems for prototype base defense artillery cannon - Breaking Defense

The Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon will be focused on defense against unmanned and missile threats.

breakingdefense.com · by Justin Katz · January 3, 2025

Army Gen. Randy George, the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army, addresses attendees at the 146th National Guard Association of the United States General Conference, Detroit, Michigan, Aug. 24, 2024. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Zach Sheely)

WASHINGTON — The US Army has chosen BAE Systems to prototype a new artillery cannon, envisioned to defend bases against a variety of threats including unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles and other advanced air threats.

The system has been dubbed the Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon (MDAC) and Hypervelocity Projectile (HVP) prototype. The service announced the selection in a public Dec. 20 notice, which was sole-sourced to BAE, meaning the Pentagon did not hold a competition amongst private industry to determine its vendor.

The Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office “has a requirement to develop and deliver a full Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System (MDACS) Battery no later than Q4FY27 followed by an operational demonstration in FY28,” according to the notice. “A full MDACS battery consists of eight Multi-Domain Artillery Cannons, four Multi-Function Precision Radars, two Multi-Domain Battle Managers, and separately, no less than 144 Hypervelocity Projectiles.”

The announcement did not include details about the amount of funding the contract would include, but Breaking Defense previously reported the Army was planning to spend $67 million in fiscal 2025 to kick off its efforts before investing more heavily in future years. (The government is currently operating under a continuing resolution, with funding stuck at FY24 levels through at least March.)

“Throughout the developmental effort, soldier touchpoints will gather feedback for Army requirements generation and prototype maturation,” the service wrote in its budget justification documents. “MDACS will use the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) and conduct a series of flight tests culminating in a battery-level operational assessment in FY 2028.”

An assessment is expected in 2028 to determine the technology can be fielded, according to the service, which is increasingly prioritizing base defense as it preps for a potential conflict in the Pacific.

breakingdefense.com · by Justin Katz · January 3, 2025

14. Jan. 1 violence prompts new warnings, extra security for special events

Jan. 1 violence prompts new warnings, extra security for special events

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center warned about possible copycat attacks.

January 4, 2025 at 7:00 a.m. ESTToday at 7:00 a.m. EST

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/04/national-security-measures-major-events-violence/

FBI agents investigate the area where a pickup truck driver slammed into a crowd of revelers during the morning of Jan. 1 in New Orleans. (Shawn Fink for The Washington Post)

By Maria Sacchetti, Ellie Silverman, Mark Maske and Justin Jouvenal

The deadly New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans by a man driving a pickup truck and an electric vehicle explosion in Las Vegas the same day have prompted law enforcement officials nationwide to increase security, issue fresh safety warnings and reassess preparations ahead of events that could be targeted for violence.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center on Friday warned about possible copycat attacks in a security bulletin after an Army veteran from Texas rammed a truck into New Year’s revelers in the early-morning hours of Jan. 1, fatally injuring at least 14 people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

In a statement, DHS urged the public to promptly report suspicious activity and “remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by the New Orleans terrorist attack or other recent, vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe.”

The warning came as officials from coast to coast gear up for events such as the Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles, the Super Bowl in New Orleans and events in Washington, D.C. — the presidential election certification on Monday, the memorial service for President Jimmy Carter on Thursday and Donald Trump’s inauguration as president on Jan. 20.

William “Matt” McCool, the special agent in charge for the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office, said the series of high-profile events calls for heightened security measures. U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said at a Friday news conference that “all of us are on high alert.”

“As our nation struggles to maintain a sense of safety in light of the recent mass killings and acts of terrorism, the eyes of the world would be on the United States Capitol to see what happens here on January 6,” Manger said. “We’re living in a time of a heightened threat environment toward government and elected officials.”

This is the first time the electoral certification by Congress is designated a special security event, following a request from D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and a recommendation by the House select committee charged with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Preparations are well underway for the roughly two-week stretch that will test security in the nation’s capital. Fencing has been added around the Capitol, streets are being closed and drones will be sent aloft to monitor for problems.

All D.C. police officers will be called to work beginning Sunday, joined on Inauguration Day by about 4,000 police officers from across the country and potentially nearly 8,000 National Guard troops. Officials said there is no indication of specific threats to any of the events and no major protests planned for Jan. 6.

The measures had been in the works before the Jan. 1 violence, but officials said they were reassessing security protocols after the recent incidents.

Firefighters remove a tarp after extinguishing a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, on Jan. 1. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Officials with the Golden Globes did not respond to a request for comment, but Inside Edition reported law enforcement and organizers would bolster security ahead of the annual awards for movies and television in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday. The safety measures are expected to include snipers and a no-car zone surrounding the Beverly Hilton, where the event takes place.

A person familiar with security planning for the Super Bowl, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, acknowledged that this week’s attack in New Orleans will be taken into consideration but declined to specify what changes, if any, will result. The Super Bowl will be on Feb. 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

“Plans are revisited, modified, enhanced as necessary based on the latest information,” the person said.

The planning for Super Bowl security begins roughly two years ahead of the game and involves local officials, local and state police, the NFL and a collection of federal agencies, the official said.

Airspace restrictions will curtail flights over the stadium, as with other NFL games. There will also be a 300-foot “hardened perimeter” around the stadium that will involve street closures, fencing and concrete structures, according to the person familiar with the NFL’s planning.

Edward Davis, who was Boston’s police commissioner during the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon and now runs a security company for executives, said private companies are also boosting their security for the coming weeks. Many Fortune 500 companies have been on guard since the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York.

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“They are about as much on high alert as they can be,” Davis said of law enforcement. “We’re all holding our breath.”

Law enforcement officials moved quickly to ramp up security in some sensitive sites following the New Orleans attack, which the FBI said was inspired by the Islamic State, and the explosion of the Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Authorities said Thursday the latter incident was part of an apparent suicide by an active-duty Army soldier.

In New York City, police extended the perimeter around Trump Tower and law enforcement added more patrols around the Trump hotel in Chicago.

Davis said the attack in New Orleans showed how any public gathering could become a target — not just big events such as the Super Bowl — and that city and state officials should remain vigilant. Officials in some smaller cities seemed to be following that guidance.

In Galveston, Texas, shortly after the New Orleans attack, the special events director met with city management to discuss how officials would respond if something similar happened there. That was followed by another meeting on Thursday involving police and officials coordinating special events and traffic.

The city has its annual events marking Mardi Gras, which is March 4, in February and March.

“The city already uses concrete barriers and water barriers, and staff discussed other ways to stage city vehicles to prevent all vehicular access to event spaces,” Marissa Barnett, a city spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

Gary Lhotsky, an associate professor at West Virginia University who has helped coordinate security for college sporting events, said that after the New Orleans attack officials may try to restrict vehicular traffic at more events.

“In a perfect world, you would have concrete barricades around a whole facility,” Lhotsky said. “But obviously that costs money, time and personnel.”

The Department of Homeland Security has said the terrorism threat in the United States will remain high into 2025, driven by people motivated by varying ideologies, personal grievances and international conflicts.

Lone offenders and small groups pose the greatest threat of a surprise attack, DHS said in its annual threat assessment last year. These groups historically employ tactics such as attacking people with machetes, guns or SUVs because they can inflict mass casualties with little training.

Attacks that cause a lot of harm can inspire more violence, officials said.

Before the New Orleans attack, law enforcement officials responded to a handful of attacks in the United States by extremists from September 2023 and July 2024, the DHS assessment said, and disrupted several other plots.

On Dec. 6, DHS, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center issued fresh alerts to law enforcement about the potential for violence in the coming months. Among the threats: media groups supporting ISIS, the Islamic State militant group, had called for attacks in the United States and in other countries during the winter holiday season.

On Dec. 23, DHS issued a “critical incident note” to law enforcement three days after a 50-year-old Saudi man drove a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five people and injuring more than 200 others.

Officials warned that similar violence had happened in the United States. In November 2021, a man driving an SUV rammed into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six and wounding 62 others, the note said.

In New Orleans, city officials have said they took precautions but acknowledged that security bollards, sturdy posts that restrict vehicle access to walkways and streets, were under renovation when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, rammed a pickup truck bearing an Islamic State flag into a crowd Wednesday.

Davis said it’s not just authorities that have to remain vigilant. He advises people to stay aware of their surroundings at big events, but also during mundane trips to a shopping mall, a church or a sporting event. He said people should identify safe ways to exit and flee if there is danger.

“The best thing you can do is put space between you and whatever you think can be a problem,” Davis said. “I’m always surprised when people pull out video and start recording things when you hear gunshots. My first reaction is to get the hell out of there.”

15. Chinese war games system sees surprise US attack on PLA carrier group in South China Sea

Chinese war games system sees surprise US attack on PLA carrier group in South China Sea

When key details about a US stealth anti-ship missile were added to a war games simulation, the results were unexpected

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3292445/chinese-war-games-system-sees-surprise-us-attack-pla-carrier-group-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

Stephen Chenin Beijing

Published: 12:30pm, 3 Jan 2025

Chinese scientists claim to have obtained key parameters of the US military’s latest stealth anti-ship missile and applied them to a warfare simulation.

Boasting unparalleled realism, the enhanced warfare simulation platform reproduces the US military’s most powerful offensive weapons in unprecedented detail, helping the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) formulate more effective countermeasures and tactics to deal with potential military conflicts.

Better understanding the strengths of the enemy will only make China stronger, according to the project team led by researcher Wang Tianxiao with the North China Institute of Computing Technology, a supplier of the PLA’s war gaming system in Beijing.

Wang and his colleagues simulated a large-scale naval battle between China and the United States and revealed some key details in a paper published last month.

The battlefield was set in the northeastern part of the South China Sea, with the Chinese aircraft carrier battle group stationed on the mainland near the Pratas Islands, known as the Dongsha Islands in Chinese. Meanwhile the US aircraft carrier battle group was outside the nine-dash line between Taiwan and the Philippines.

The nine-dash line is the boundary declared by Beijing to assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea. The US military suddenly began a large-scale attack on the Chinese fleet, with one wave of 10 AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs) launched simultaneously from different platforms, targeting one of the large destroyers escorting the Chinese aircraft carrier.

It is not unusual for the PLA to simulate US military attacks, but the devil is in the detail.

In the simulation, these missiles first cruised at high altitude and then descended to a height of just 14 metres (46 feet) above the surface of the water. When they were about 10km (6.2 miles) away from the target, their radars malfunctioned one after another due to electronic warfare interference from the PLA, and they were unable to receive GPS positioning signals.

The war games simulation created by Chinese scientists which saw a surprise US attack launched on a PLA carrier group in the South China Sea. Photo: North China Institute of Computing Technology

At this point, the missiles switched to thermal imaging cameras to continue flying and, at a very close distance from the target, they suddenly rose up, confirmed the specific attack location, and then plunged to an extremely low altitude, successfully hitting the Chinese destroyer.

These complex details have never appeared in previous war game simulations, and they have the potential to change the course of the entire battle, wrote Wang and his colleagues in a peer-reviewed paper published on November 29 in the Chinese academic journal, Command Control & Simulation.

How China obtained this information remains a mystery.

The LRASM is currently one of the US military’s most important weapons against China. It not only has radar stealth capabilities but can also fly nearly 1,000km, earning it the nickname “Game Changer”. The specific technical parameters and operational methods of the LRASM are classified by the US military.

The Chinese team claims that their data came from open-source intelligence and “long-term accumulation”. The South China Morning Post cannot independently verify the accuracy of the data and information provided in the paper with information available in the public domain.

The LRASM missile is not without its weaknesses. To achieve its ultra-long range, its speed is just comparable to that of the P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft from World War II. The Chinese fleet is equipped with laser cannons, close-in weapon systems, air defence missiles and a large number of carrier-based aircraft patrolling the skies.

These defence systems were not activated during this warfare simulation.

Stephen Chen

Stephen Chen is the SCMP's science news editor. He investigates major research projects in China, a new power house of scientific and technological innovation, and their impact to humanity. Stephen has produced a large number of exclusive stories on China research, so

16. Soldier in Tesla Blast Had PTSD and Feared U.S.‘Collapse,’ Officials Say

MSG Livelsberger's actions do not fit any single conventional narrative. Even in death his actions were unfortunately unconventional.

While he wanted to provide us with a political wake-up call he was also the reinforcing the wake-up call on our suicide epidemic within the military that we have been unable to heed.

Soldier in Tesla Blast Had PTSD and Feared U.S.‘Collapse,’ Officials Say

The police shared notes from a phone used by Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, who fatally shot himself inside a Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.

Listen to this article · 5:10 min Learn more

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Police officers working the scene near the Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded on Wednesday.Credit...Ethan Miller/Getty Images

By Jacey Fortin Dave Philipps and Jesus Jiménez

Jan. 3, 2025

The Green Beret who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel this week in Las Vegas and took his own life had written that he wanted to send a “wake-up call” to the country, the authorities said on Friday.

In notes recovered by investigators from one of his phones and made public on Friday, the soldier, Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, praised President-elect Donald J. Trump and wrote that “our soldiers are done fighting wars without end states or clear objectives.”

On New Year’s Day, he pulled the Tesla, which was packed with explosives, into the driveway of the hotel and fatally shot himself before the vehicle went up in flames, injuring seven bystanders and stirring alarm far beyond Las Vegas.

Nothing about what might have led him to take his life had emerged publicly until Friday, when the authorities disclosed that Sergeant Livelsberger, a veteran of several combat tours, had post-traumatic stress disorder and had written in a notes app on his phone that the country was “headed toward collapse.”

“This was not a terrorist attack,” the note said. “It was a wake-up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?”

At a news conference on Friday, Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that in the notes, Sergeant Livelsberger had gone on to “explain a variety of other grievances and issues — some political, some personal.”

Sergeant Livelsberger, 37, had been stationed in Germany and was back in the United States on leave. He rented the Tesla truck in Denver on Dec. 28, according to the police, and spent a few days driving from Colorado to Nevada before making his way to the entrance of the Trump Hotel on Wednesday morning.

After firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found a military ID and a passport that matched Sergeant Livelsberger’s identity. Also in the Tesla were two semiautomatic handguns, which Sergeant Livelsberger had legally purchased two days earlier, and a collection of fireworks and fuel enhancers.

In one note, according to the police, Sergeant Livelsberger wrote: “Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”

Alicia Arritt, a former Army nurse who dated Sergeant Livelsberger in 2018 and was a friend of his until he died, said that he had been a generous person who leaned conservative but was rarely overtly political.

After years of deployments, she said, he struggled with mental health issues that he tried to conceal so that he could continue to serve in the Special Forces.

“He needed help, and he was afraid to get it," she said, “which is very common for guys who do his job.”

The writings found on Sergeant Livelsberger’s phone suggest that he had been increasingly concerned about politics. In one note shared by the police, Sergeant Livelsberger said that people should “try peaceful means first but be prepared to fight” to get Democrats out of the federal government.

In another, he said that “masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” adding that people should rally around Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and a top donor to the Trump campaign.

The authorities retrieved the notes from a badly charred phone they found in the ruined Tesla. It was one of two phones that belonged to him, the police said, adding that they were still working to access the other phone and the soldier’s laptop.

The police said that they had been able to track Sergeant Livelsberger’s travel in the days before the explosion with help from surveillance videos in several states, as well as data from Tesla charging stations.

They added that Tesla engineers dispatched to Las Vegas by the company had helped investigators retrieve data from the Cybertruck, which showed that the vehicle had not been in self-driving mode at the time of the explosion.

The blast was startling and puzzling, but beyond Sergeant Livelsberger, the seven people hurt suffered minor injuries, and the hotel sustained little damage.

The explosion occurred hours after a terrorist attack in New Orleans and raised fears that the two incidents could be connected and that the episode in Las Vegas might be linked to a terrorist group.

But Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas field office of the F.B.I., said on Friday that “we have not identified any connection between this subject and any other terrorist organization.”

He added that based on interviews with friends, relatives and military personnel who had served with Sergeant Livelsberger, the soldier harbored no animosity toward Mr. Trump.

Stephanie Saul contributed reporting and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for the National desk of The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics all across the country. More about Jacey Fortin

Dave Philipps writes about war, the military and veterans and covers The Pentagon. More about Dave Philipps

Jesus Jiménez covers breaking news, online trends and other subjects. He is based in New York City. More about Jesus Jiménez

17. Soldier who died by suicide in Las Vegas told ex-girlfriend of pain and exhaustion after Afghanistan

Check on your friends. Let's look out for each other.

Soldier who died by suicide in Las Vegas told ex-girlfriend of pain and exhaustion after Afghanistan

AP · January 3, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The highly decorated Special Forces soldier who died by suicide in a Cybertruck explosion on New Year’s Day confided to a former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse that he faced significant pain and exhaustion that she says were key symptoms of traumatic brain injury.

Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was a five-time recipient of the Bronze Star, including one with a V device for valor under fire. He had an exemplary military record that spanned the globe and a new baby born last year. But he struggled with the mental and physical toll of his service, which required him to kill and caused him to witness the deaths of fellow soldiers.

Livelsberger mostly bore that burden in private but recently sought treatment for depression from the Army, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public.

He also found a confidant in the former nurse, who he began dating in 2018.

Alicia Arritt, 39, and Livelsberger met through a dating app while both were in Colorado Springs. Arritt had served at Landstul Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest U.S. military medical facility in Europe, where many of the worst combat injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan were initially treated before being flown to the U.S.

There she saw and treated traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, which troops suffered from incoming fire and roadside bombs. Serious but hard to diagnose, such injuries can have lingering effects that might take years to surface.

“I saw a lot of bad injuries. But the personality changes can happen later,” Arritt said.

In texts and images he shared with Arritt, Livelsberger raised the curtain a bit on what he was facing.

“Just some concussions,” he said in a text about a deployment to Helmand Province in Afghanistan. He sent her a photo of a graphic tattoo he got on his arm of two skulls pierced by bullets to mark lives he took in Afghanistan. He talked about exhaustion and pain, not being able to sleep and reliving the violence of his deployment.

“My life has been a personal hell for the last year,” he told Arritt during the early days of their dating, according to text messages she provided to the AP. “It’s refreshing to have such a nice person come along.”

On Friday Las Vegas law enforcement officers released excerpts of messages Livelsberger left behind showing the manner in which Livelsberger killed himself was intentional, meant both as a “wakeup call” but also to “cleanse the demons” he was facing from losing fellow soldiers and taking lives.

Livelsberger’s death in front of the Trump Hotel using a truck produced by Elon Musk’s Tesla company has raised questions as to whether this was an act of political violence.

Officials said Friday that Livelsberger apparently harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, and Arritt said both she and Livelsberger were Tesla fans.

“I had a Tesla too that I rescued from a junkyard in 2019, and we used to work on it together, bond over it,” Arritt said.

The pair stopped talking regularly after they broke up in 2021, and she had not heard from him in more than two years when he texted out of the blue Dec. 28, and again Dec. 31. The upbeat messages included a video of him driving the Cybertruck and another one of its dancing headlights; the vehicle can sync up its lighting and music.

But she also said Livelsberger felt things “very deeply and I could see him using symbolism” of both the truck and the hotel.

“He wasn’t impulsive,” Arritt said. “I don’t see him doing this impulsively, so my suspicion would be that he was probably thinking it out.”

Arritt served on active duty from 2003 to 2007 and then was in the Army Reserve from until 2011. With Livelsberger she saw symptoms of TBI as early as 2018.

“He would go through periods of withdrawal, and he struggled with depression and memory loss,” Arritt said.

“I don’t know what drove him to do this, but I think the military didn’t get him help when he needed it.”

But Livelsberger was also sweet and kind, she recalled: “He had a really deep well of inner strength and character, and he just had a lot of integrity.”

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Friday that it has turned over all Livelsberger’s medical records to local law enforcement, and encouraged troops facing mental health challenges to seek care through one of the military’s support networks.

“If you need help, if you feel that you need to seek any type of mental health treatment, or just to talk to someone — to seek the services that are available, either on base or off,” Singh said.

When Livelsberger struggled during the time they were dating, Arritt prodded him to get help. But he would not, saying it could cost him his ability to deploy if he was found medically unfit.

“There was a lot of stigma in his unit, they were, you know, big, strong, Special Forces guys there, there was no weakness allowed and mental health is weakness is what they saw,” she said.

Livelsberger seeking treatment for depression was first reported by CNN.

___

Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed.

TARA COPP

Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

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AP · January 3, 2025

18. SAS Rogue Heroes sparks complaints minutes in to new series

So based on this I watched the first two episodes of season one. It was a bit hokey, especially the PLF (parachute landing fall) training from the back of a moving truck. And the parachute operation was more than a little over the top. But it is clear the writers are authorized a broad poetic license to interpret events in the most entertaining (and most comedic) way.

But if accents are all that is wrong with the second season that will be lost on most of us in America.

SAS Rogue Heroes sparks complaints minutes in to new series

Express · by Gemma Jones · January 1, 2025

Your first look at SAS Rogue Heroes - BBC Trailer

The much anticipated war drama SAS Rogue Heroes returned to BBC One this New Years Day (January 1). Series two saw the returns of cast members including Jack O'Connell and Sofia Boutella - but as one actor started talking, fans began complaining just minutes into the show.

While the first season was set in North Africa, this second season, set in Spring 1943, sees the troops, now led by Paddy Mayne, being sent to mainland Europe, as the focus of the Second World War shifts. Now the regiment must turn its attention to other parts of the world but, as GHQ have their reservations, the regiment's future is in question.

The creation of a new unit and a surprise arrival makes things even more difficult. Paddy Mayne (Jack O'Connell) takes control of the SAS following David Stirling's (Connor Swindells) capture.

However, as Jack read his lines, fans at home spotted something "wrong" with his Northern Irish accent. Taking to X/Twitter they all issued the same complaint.

One user wrote: "#SASRogueHeroes I can’t stick this. The accent is being slaughtered." Another moaned: "#SASRogueHeroes slightly weird NI accent."

SAS Rogue Heroes returned for series two (Image: BBC)

Meanwhile a third said: "I'd hoped Jack O'Connell would have worked on his North Down accent. Maybe spend some time in Newtownards. Seems not... #SASRogueHeroes."

One more added: "Wow this episode is really boring so far. Why has the Northern Irish accent turned into a weird way of spewing words. I hope it gets better, the last series was good. #RogueHeroes."

While some viewers were not best pleased, others were absolutely delighted with the show's returned and praised the epic performances. One fan gushed: "#SASRogueHeroes did not disappoint wowza!!"

Jack O'Connell as Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne in SAS Rogue Heroes (Image: BBC)

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."

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In Two Attacks, a Pair of Unraveling Lives and Remaining Mysteries

New Orleans and Las Vegas grapple with aftermath of deadly incidents; suicide note is recovered from exploded Tesla

Disappointments, divorce

Confusion in aftermath

Suicide note

Security questions

Tributes to victims

Green Beret in Tesla Explosion Suffered From PTSD, Authorities Say

Investigators recovered writings on Matthew Alan Livelsberger’s phone that aired concerns about the direction of the U.S.

7 Soldiers From Korean, Vietnam Wars Receive Medals of Honor

Pvt. Bruno R. Orig

Pfc. Wataru Nakamura

Cpl. Fred B. McGee

Pfc. Charles R. Johnson

Gen. Richard E. Cavazos

Capt. Hugh R. Nelson, Jr.

Pfc. Kenneth J. David

Elon Musk Under Pressure: China Prepares Technology to Hijack Starlink Satellites and Track Stealth Aircraft

Stealth Technology Under Threat

Starlink’s Evolving Role in Global Technology

Military and Geopolitical Implications

Challenges and Technical Hurdles

The Future of Stealth and Detection

Why Would China Undermine Global Shipping?

Its vessels are suspected of involvement in the sabotage of undersea cables.

The warning five years ago that could have stopped New Orleans attack

Officials were told in 2019 that the French Quarter’s Bourbon Street was vulnerable to car-ramming. Days on from those fears being realised, it has reopened

Greenland’s leader wants independence from Denmark after Trump suggested buying island

OPINION: The Kremlin De Facto Challenges the US to Surrender

Could FBI Have Prevented New Orleans Terror Attack?

Daniel Byman, Professor and Director, Security Studies Program at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT

Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow, Emerita, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Professor of Government, Emerita, Wesleyan University

Harvey Wolf Kushner, Chairman and Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Long Island University

Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Author of ISIS: A History

Michael S. Smith II, Terrorism Analyst and International Security Consultant Specializing in Influence Operations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Tricia Bacon, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Author, Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University; International Security Fellow, New America

Paul R. Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University

J.M. Berger, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

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Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT

Martha Crenshaw, Senior Fellow, Emerita, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Professor of Government, Emerita, Wesleyan University

Daniel Byman, Professor and Director, Security Studies Program at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

Harvey Wolf Kushner, Chairman and Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Long Island University

Tricia Bacon, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Author, Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

Michael S. Smith II, Terrorism Analyst and International Security Consultant Specializing in Influence Operations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Author of ISIS: A History

Lorenzo Vidino, Director, Program on Extremism, George Washington University

Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University; International Security Fellow, New America

Paul R. Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University

J.M. Berger, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

Robert J. Bunker, Director of Research and Analysis, C/O Futures

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Daniel Byman, Professor and Director, Security Studies Program at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations; President, The Hoffman GroupCT

Paul R. Pillar, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University

Harvey Wolf Kushner, Chairman and Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Long Island University

Michael S. Smith II, Terrorism Analyst and International Security Consultant Specializing in Influence Operations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Author of ISIS: A History

Lorenzo Vidino, Director, Program on Extremism, George Washington University

Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies, Georgia State University; International Security Fellow, New America

J.M. Berger, Senior Research Fellow, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

Tricia Bacon, Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Author, Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

Robert J. Bunker, Director of Research and Analysis, C/O Futures

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