The main suspects in two deadly attacks on New Year's Day share a history of service in the U.S. military, highlighting deep-seated fears of extremism within the military that authorities are struggling to root out.
Shamsud Din Jabbar, the suspect in the truck rampage that killed 14 people in New Orleans, is an Army veteran, while he is said to be behind the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the International Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. The man, Matthew Reiblesberger, was a former military man. Active duty military personnel.
Although not the first acts of military extremism, these two deadly attacks are a sign of the number of extremist and unstable veterans and active-duty soldiers, and the effectiveness of the Pentagon's efforts to identify and eradicate extremist beliefs. This amplifies the question of whether or not this is the case.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, who has studied military extremism for decades, said veterans and active-duty military personnel are more likely to be killed because they can be killed more effectively. He said the issue was particularly dangerous.
“Whether it's white supremacists or Islamic extremists, the military is not adequately addressing this issue,” she said. “These incidents are a reminder of how important it is that potential extremists are untrained in military tactics.”
The New Orleans attacker, Jabbar, drove his Ford pickup truck down busy Bourbon Street before being shot and killed by police. In addition to the 14 people killed, dozens more were injured.
Jabbar, 42, is a U.S. citizen from Texas who served in the Army from 2007 to 2020, including one year of deployment to Afghanistan, retiring as a sergeant. It is unclear whether he served in combat, but he was trained as an information technology specialist.
Police said they also found an ISIS flag on his truck and online social media posts sympathetic to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Christopher Reia, deputy director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said at a news conference Thursday that Jabbar posted at least five videos promoting the ideology of ISIS, which he claims he joined last year.
Raia said there is no obvious connection between the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks and explained that the FBI is working to determine how Jabbar became radicalized.
“We are still asking ourselves many questions,” he said. “That's something we're going to really dig into and make a priority in the coming days in terms of paths to radicalization.”
Little is known about the motive of Libersberger, who police identified as the suspect in the Cybertruck that was loaded with explosives and detonated in front of the Trump Hotel. Libersberger was the only person killed in the explosion, but seven others were injured.
According to media reports, Libersberger was an active duty Green Beret stationed in Germany, but was on leave. He was an operations sergeant major.
Todd Helmuth, a senior behavioral scientist and violent extremism expert at the RAND Corporation, said he was surprised to learn about Libersberger. Violent extremism is more prevalent among veterans, as they often suffer from a variety of factors, including mental health problems, after leaving the military. Do your job and leave your friends behind.
“All of these issues can compound the challenge for veterans,” he says. “These life challenges that can occur when people leave military service in close-knit communities can put them at risk of radicalization and conscription.”
Helms added that while on active duty, “it's hard to be a terrorist.”
“You play with your squadmates every day,” he said. “And I think there's a lot of discipline, so if you were trying to carry out this kind of attack, you'd probably have a good chance of being caught.”
However, this is not the first time in recent history that active-duty military personnel have been involved in extremist violence. In 2023, U.S. Army Reservist Robert Card went on a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people.
In 2020, then-active-duty Airman Steven Carrillo killed two police officers after expressing anti-government views. heserve a 41 year sentence.
In one of the deadliest mass shootings ever at a US military base, Army Major and psychiatrist Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others. A subsequent investigation revealed that Hasan's colleagues had noticed signs of his radicalization.
Veterans and active duty military personnel have been charged or convicted of involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, where his supporters tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election in favor of President-elect Trump. Ta.
The Violence Prevention Project has tracked mass shootings from 1996 to 2024. in their databasethe project lists dozens of mass shooters with military backgrounds.
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Terrorism Responses (START) at the University of MarylandI found it last yearFrom 1990 to April 2024, at least 721 people with military backgrounds committed crimes with political, economic, social, or religious motives.
According to START, the number of people with military backgrounds involved in extremist attacks increased from 11 percent in 2018 to 18 percent in 2022.
White nationalism and anti-government extremism account for the majority of radicalized veterans and active-duty military extremists, accounting for more than 80%, according to START data. Jihadist-inspired ideology accounts for just over 6 percent of cases.
Under President Biden, the Pentagon has sought to reduce the number of extremists in the military and better identify them, after Congress called for the efforts in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has established a committee to oversee these efforts, but the Pentagon has been slow to adopt recommendations and is unable to implement recommendations for training military personnel to understand extremism and why it is prohibited. I just did it.
The military's biggest extremism problem is primarily related to radical right-wing ideology, and Austin faces pressure and backlash from Republican lawmakers who call the effort a political witch hunt. Republicans argue that extremism remains a minor concern because so few people hold extremist views compared to the more than 2 million active-duty and reserve troops and about 18 million veterans.
aReport for second half of 2023The report, commissioned by the Pentagon, primarily sought to downplay the role of extremists in the military, stating that “there is no evidence that the number of violent extremists in the military is disproportionate to the number of violent extremists in the United States overall. I couldn't find it.”
However, it added: “There are indications that participation rates among ex-servicemen are slightly higher and may be increasing.” The report isCriticized for using outdated data.
Comparing the overreaction in the U.S. national security field to the overreaction in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Rand Corp.'s Helms said a sweeping crackdown on military extremism, while more can be done, may not be the best approach. He claimed that he could not.
“The best thing the Department of Defense can do is do an assessment and track the numbers,” he said. “The biggest issue so far is public transparency about the number of people discharged from hospital. What are they being fired for? How many people with extremist ideology are being released? ”
But Beirich, of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, pointed to several problems. The Pentagon has deprioritized tackling extremism, the Department of Veterans Affairs has no programs to support veterans who are vulnerable to extremist recruitment, and there are no universal standards for tackling gang violence. There are problems within the military.
“We have a lot of problems when it comes to this issue, and this goes back to the fact that this issue was not taken seriously for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.” she said. “The Biden administration has begun this process in earnest, but it has stalled due to political divisions.”
