Report: FBI warned of ISIS-inspired threats even amid public emphasis on dangers of 'white supremacy'

A horrifying attack was carried out in New Orleans on New Year's Day, taking the lives of 15, including the ISIS-inspired perpetrator, leaving the world stunned by the savagery of the incident.

However, as Just the News reports, the scenario was not necessarily so surprising to insiders at the FBI, which raised red flags last year suggesting that conflict in the Middle East and ISIS-related attacks in that volatile region had the potential to domestic lone wolf attacks.

Terror unfolds in New Orleans

In the early hours of Jan. 1, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a radicalized adherent of Islam, drove a truck into revelers on Bourbon Street, leaving horrifying carnage in his wake.

While the scenes from Louisiana assuredly shocked the conscience, they were not far off from the sort of scenario that FBI Christopher Wray said earlier this year could unfold right here in the homeland.

Wray told members of Congress in the spring that the risk of homegrown, lone-wolf terrorists was on the rise due to events abroad and that vigilance was needed.

FBI counterterrorism deputy director Christopher Raia confirmed that Jabbar's conduct fit that bill, saying, “So what I can tell you right now is that he was 100% inspired by ISIS. And so we're digging -- we're digging through more of the social media, more interviews, working with some of our other partners to, to ascertain a little bit more about that connection” to the terror group.

Just the News previously noted the increasing incidence with which ISIS turned up on the radars not just of the U.S. but also of its allies, particularly after the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the British intelligence chief declaring in October that ISIS members had “resumed their efforts to export terrorism.”

Misplaced American focus

In the wake of the New Orleans attack, much criticism has been leveled at President Joe Biden and his administration for what many believe were misplaced priorities when it comes to law enforcement vigilance.

As Fox News notes, even during the period highlighted by Wray as one requiring heightened attention to ISIS-related threats, Biden declared the most significant danger facing the country to be that of “white supremacy.”

In 2021, Biden specifically stated, “According to the intelligence community, terrorism from White supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not al Qaeda – White supremacists.”

Biden stated a similar point during his State of the Union speech that same year, seeming to neglect the notion that dangers from abroad were on the upswing and deserved similar -- if not greater -- focus, and his attorney general, Merrick Garland, echoed those sentiments just a few months later.

Fortunately, President-elect Donald Trump does not appear to be operating under any similar delusions regarding the true threats facing the United States, and millions are counting on him to reverse the misguided priorities of the past four years and take stronger action to safeguard the homeland.