Americans were shocked by two fatal events in the United States on New Year’s day 2025, and one was quickly called ‘Islamist terrorism’. Yet the US supports Muslim terrorist groups in Syria.
At 3.15 on 1 January 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, aged 42, an army veteran and an American-born Muslim convert, drove around security barriers and into crowds in Bourbon Street, New Orleans, killing 15, and injuring 35 including two police officers. Only hours after he was shot dead by police, the FBI stated that Jabbar was ‘100% inspired by ISIS’ to commit a premeditated act of terrorism.
Donald Trump quickly took the opportunity to suggest a link between Jabbar and undocumented immigrants, declaring that the time is coming, worse than the president-elect’s followers imagined, he said, when ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism or other forms of violence will become [unbelievably] bad in America’.
Five hours after Jabbar’s rampage, Matthew Livelsberger, another US-born citizen and decorated Green Beret soldier, reportedly shot himself and blew up his truck in Las Vegas in what – despite the truck hire firm he and Jabbar both used, and their similar forewarnings on social media – appeared to be an unrelated event. Both men had served at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) as well as in Afghanistan in 2009: but so have thousands of other Americans. Another mass shooting, another explosion, two veterans dead on the same day: one was terrorism, the other not.
That was shortly after ISIS (or IS) had reappeared, backing Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a self-appointed government in Damascus and a US proxy. Both ISIS and HTS are listed as terrorist groups in the US (and Australia). Yet suddenly, the ISIS coup against President Assad put HTS on America’s side.
How this affected Jabbar we don’t know. But there was no suggestion from the FBI about premeditation, evil, ISIS, or terrorism on the part of Livelsberger, even though his explosion could also have killed people. Jabbar’s planning and his New Year’s Day timing seemed as careful as Livelsberger’s. Both evidently wanted their deaths to make a public impact; Livelsberger sent a manifesto to multiple outlets. It’s possible that his suicide was homage to US Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated on 25 February 2024 outside the Embassy of Israel, in support of the Palestinians. That example was something the US Army wouldn’t want to see repeated.
Few details have emerged about Livelsberger being on leave from the Army, or his family stress. Nothing about his ideology or preferred identity, little about his multiple health problems, including PTSD. But police shared two messages he sent, issuing a ‘wakeup call’ to Americans about the coming world war, and calling for action against Democrats in government and the military, including armed occupation of roads and Federal buildings. He was no Aaron Bushnell, apparently.
Suspicious minds were quick to notice that an ISIS flag behind Jabbar’s crashed ute in Bourbon Street was upside down on its pole, an unlikely error for a devout Muslim who had just pledged allegiance to ISIS. And the body in Livelsberger’s ute, outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, was reportedly burned beyond recognition, yet legible ID documents were found on the seat of the vehicle, and tattoos were said to have helped identify him. How Livelsberger shot himself and the explosion followed was unexplained. Multiple alternative accounts of the two events went viral at once, so accustomed are Americans to false facts.
Soon aired on Sky News (2 January 2025) were reports about Jabbar’s messed-up life and religious motivation, his Facebook videos about joining ISIS, and his plan to kill ‘apostate’ relatives. Much more surprising was a claim on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast about what Livelsberger, one day before the Las Vegas explosion, had confided to Sam Shoemate, a former US Army intelligence officer. Among Livelsberger’s many concerns were advanced anti-gravity drone technology which he claimed the US and China had developed and deployed, and ‘dozens’ of balloons China had off the US east coast. He said he was under surveillance by FBI and Homeland Security. Why?
Because Livelsberger knew from his Army work that in Afghanistan on 5 May 2019, USAF bombers had attacked some 60 sites in Nimruz and Farah provinces. They were reported by the US force in Afghanistan (USFOR-A) to be drug-making factories run by the Taliban, where all workers were Taliban combatants, making contributions to its war effort. No women or children were present, and no civilians. The methamphetamine produced was sold on the international market to fund the Taliban’s resistance to the US and Afghan forces.
In October 2019, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (OHCR) investigated the bombing and found that workers in the drug factories were predominantly civilian Afghans, men and women. Some of the bombed buildings were houses, and UNAMA reported 39 deaths, including a woman and 14 children, and 5 injuries. Unverified casualties included 30 dead and seven injured, most of them women and children. The UN agencies said the attack was unlawful and accused the US of covering it up.
Livelsberger’s knowledge of the carnage evidently haunted him. Like Wikileaks’ ‘Collateral Murder’ video, the drug site bombings exemplified the US practice of killing anyone, anywhere, indiscriminately. Which amounts to terrorism.
Even as we wait for an update from the US, some Australians are in no doubt that HTS terrorists are our new allies. Unnamed ‘security experts’ cited in our mainstream media were quick after New Year’s day to revive the terrorist threat. They even cite ISIS, which supports HTS. A former Army parachute officer, Rodger Shanahan of the Lowy Institute, told the media that IS terrorism is persistent, and Australia could be a target. ‘Islamic State is still a concern for Western countries’, said Clive Williams, formerly in Army Intelligence and now at ANU. He didn’t say why those should include Australia, but suggested that IS was seeking to radicalise people who were angry about ‘the conflict’ in Gaza and Lebanon.
Neither terrorism expert mentioned that for 16 months thousands of Australians of diverse backgrounds have peacefully demonstrated every Sunday against Israel’s US-supported terrorist attacks, genocidal policies, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, its apartheid in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and its bombing of Lebanon. So have students at Australian universities. If security experts don’t want violent radicalisation here, Australia and our allies should decide who are the real terrorists, stop arming Israel, and support the International Courts’ actions against its leaders. We should stop supporting the ‘forever war’ on terrorism too.
Dr Alison Broinowski AM is a former Australian diplomat and a member of Australians fr War Powers Reform
Contributions to Pearls and Irritations
Your contribution will fund quality independent comment and analysis in Pearls and Irritations
Contribute
