Rank-and-file FBI agents dismayed, ‘embarrassed’ by bureau’s handling of New Orleans terror attack
FBI agents say the bureau’s first response to the New Year’s Day terrorist massacre in New Orleans’ French Quarter was disastrous and another reason why the Senate can’t move fast enough to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the agency.
www.washingtontimes.com
4 Jan 2025 ~~ By Kerry Picket
FBI agents say the bureau’s first response to the New Year’s Day terrorist massacre in New Orleans’ French Quarter was disastrous and another reason why the Senate can’t move fast enough to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the agency.
According to several agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the FBI failed to execute a comprehensive counter-terrorism plan when Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar of Texas, an Army veteran, rammed a pickup truck with an ISIS flag into New Year’s Eve revelers, killing 14 and wounding dozens.
They said the top FBI official on the scene broke with bureau decorum and inexplicably declared the attack not to be terrorism and that the bureau failed to follow basic procedures during the investigation.
The New Orleans FBI Office sent Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan, who wore khakis, a blue polo shirt and a nose ring, to the first press conference after the attack.
She immediately contradicted New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, who said at the press conference that her city was “impacted by a terrorist attack.”
Ms. Duncan stepped forward after the city’s police chief spoke and said, “This is not a terrorist event. What it is right now is there were improvised explosive devices that were found, and we are working on confirming if it is viable or not.”
Hours later, the FBI declared the attack was being investigated as a terrorist incident.
Rank-and-file FBI agents were taken aback by Ms. Duncan’s presentation and her comments.
“The new FBI management has to put in basic decorum rules because the bureau should look like the ’Men in Black,’ that they’re all uniform — that they’re transparent,” an FBI agent said.
He said the public should “see the bureau, not somebody with a ring in their nose. Who the hell would go on TV with a ring in their nose,” another agent said. “Who the hell would ever say it’s not a terrorist event when there’s an ISIS flag flying on the back of a truck? They call that a clue.”
“You have two major events going on — the Sugar Bowl and New Year’s Eve, and the SAC is out of town. That’s why she is out there,” said yet another FBI agent. “You have two major [events] going on here, and they left nobody in charge.”
Commentary:
It appears that there are honest FBI agents that are now able to speak up with the election of DJT...
Trump should call on all of them to speak out now before he takes office. They will have no need to be afraid. Name names.
It’s like the 40 or so Benghazi witnesses. They weren’t able to speak out so it didn’t happen.
One only has to look at the media press conferences to discover who the FBI selects to be the heads and spokespersons. The Las Vegas P.D. and D.C. police too....are there no white men that are capable?
There's no doubt in the minds of American citizens that the hierarchy of the FBI have to fired allowing rank and file honest agents to take over the agency. Both the Sixth and Seventh floor of the FBI should be completely vacated.
The agency is irretrievably corrupt as long as they remain in the FBI as it is currently constituted.
Just as everyone in the SS or KGB was corrupt as long as they remained in those organizations.
The FBI is garbage and an enemy of regular Americans. If it’s not radically reformed or replaced all FBI agents will continue to maintain the corruption by virtue of their continued employment.
