Photo: Michael DeMocker / Getty Images News / Getty Images
Terror threats have not ceased to exist in the U.S. since September 11, 2001 and now people are being radicalized online and committing terror acts more often on American soil.
The suspect in the New Orleans attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more after he drove a truck into large crowds of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans just after 3 a.m. on New Year's Day. Before the attack, he posted multiple videos to his Facebook page in which he pledged his support to ISIS. There was also an ISIS flag recovered in the truck he used in the attack which he rented in Houston on December 30, according to the FBI.
FBI officials said it was a premeditated and evil act of terrorism committed by Jabbar, who was a native of Houston and Army veteran. The suspect spent some time serving at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
Criminologist and Texas A&M University Regents Professor Dr. Alex del Carmen said the threat of terrorism is constant and foreign actors are still infiltrating the U.S.
"Terrorism is very much still a threat and even those who appear to be patriotic are in fact being radicalized in places like the military," Dr. del Carmen said.
Dr. del Carmen said the U.S. military has become a place for some people who hate our government to commit acts in retaliation.
"It has become a vulnerable ground for some individuals to actually engage in hatred towards our foreign policy and our government," he said. "Among those individuals who are radicalized, there's still a significant percentage of those that follow a foreign ideology."
ISIS, which has seen a recent resurgence, has seen the failure of U.S. foreign policy and have used the strategy of radicalizing people online in America to get their terror acts done. Countries like Iran have clearly backed terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah too.
"They try to radicalize people online and make it attractive to American-born individuals, especially people with military training" said Dr. del Carmen.
Authorities are also investigating a possible military connection between the New Orleans suspect and the person who died after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas a few hours later on New Year’s Day. At this point, law enforcement officials say there is not a connection.