The FBI is still insisting that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the New Orleans terrorist who killed 14 people with his truck early New Year's Day on Bourbon Street, acted alone. So far, they say they've been unable to unearth evidence that points to any fellow conspirators.
They haven't entirely closed the door on a conspiracy. They just haven't found any evidence suggesting it.
However, Ed Morrissey, at our sister site, Hot Air, uses a little deductive reasoning to question that conclusion by the feds. Ed points to an article by NBC News that contains some new information about the kind of explosive Jabbar used to construct the homemade IEDs that he placed near the site of his attack on Bourbon Street.
Jabbar used a very rare explosive compound in the IEDs, according to law enforcement sources. What makes that suggestive of a conspiracy of some kind is that the explosives have never been used in the U.S., and Jabbar never demonstrated the ability to construct an explosive device using these or any other materials. He was in human resources while in the Army, and would have had no cause to learn how to build an IED with such an exotic explosive.
Authorities are investigating how Jabbar acquired the knowledge to create this homemade explosive, the officials said.
Those officials say that the explosive has never been used in a U.S. terrorist attack or incident, nor in any European terrorist attack. A key question for investigators is how Jabbar learned about the compound and how he managed to produce it.
Another oddity that investigators have uncovered is that the Airbnb apartment that Jabbar was staying in was set on fire more than two hours after the attack in which he was killed.
Admittedly, timing devices are fairly easy to make, and instructions for building one are available on the Internet. Criminals usually torch a house or apartment to cover their tracks and destroy evidence.
Why would Jabbar want to do that? He was on a one-way trip to martyrdom, so why would he care if he had left evidence behind?
Joshua Jackson, an ATF special agent in charge, said at a press conference, "The working theory now is that the fire started after Jabbar was already deceased. There are a lot of ways that could happen. You could have a timed device. ... You could also have pressure cookers, put on top of a stove, filled with gasoline. There are a lot of ways to do it, and that is why the ATF tactical response team is here.”
That seems like a lot of work and potentially dangerous preparation before an attack, only to deliver an F-U to the FBI later. This action lends itself to a motive of concealment, and since Jabbar's attack would either have resulted in his capture or death (not to mention his Facebook postings just before the attack), it didn't intend to conceal his involvement. So who and what did Jabbar want to hide by burning the apartment?
Fortunately, most of the apartment was spared in the fire. Whether it was inexpertly set or there's another reason for the device's failure won't be known for a while.
It seems plausible that the FBI is soft-pedaling the conspiracy angle, especially since it involves a Muslim swearing allegiance to ISIS. The pat excuse of federal authorities is always that they don't want to start a "panic" that would lead to attacks on innocent Muslims.
They are so hypersensitive to being called "racist," "homophobes," or "Islamophobes" when investigating crimes that their methodology can be questioned at every turn. This is an angle that bears watching as the investigation continues.
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