Anarchistbear said:
A US born veteran who turned into a suicide bomber. I'd say he had some mental problems.
My guess is he is a lone wolf - maybe with some logistic help. This was a pretty penny ante operation- driving a truck into Bourbon street at 3 am
The reports at this point are that 5 other people were involved, 4 of whom planted IEDs. That goes beyond "some logistic help." But even if it didn't, lone wolf means
lone. You cannot be kind of pregnant. Unless reported facts change this was a coordinated group effort - a conspiracy - which is the exact opposite of lone actor.
He served 5 years active duty. He was deployed to Afghanistan for 11 months. He was an HR/IT guy. In times of non-war those positions often don't even deploy, so I'd say it is highly highly unlikely he saw combat. He then served 5 years in the reserves. He became a suicide bomber 10 years after leaving the service. Anything is possible but the probability of PTSD seems low in this case.
He had a rented vehicle, a rental home that was exploded/set on fire (presumably to hide evidence), stolen weapons from NJ, one of the weapons had a silencer, he built or acquired multiple pipe bombs, partnered with people to have pipe bombs placed in locations around the area and he had more pipe bombs in a cooler in this vehicle. This is not a penny-ante operation in my book. If body count is the measure it is the 5th worst terrorist attack on US soil in the last @100 years.
