Condemn the tragic attack in New Orleans. Reject scapegoating of Middle Easterners, Muslims and Immigrants.

New Orleans

The Workers Voice Socialist Movement (Louisiana) issued the following lightly edited statement on Jan. 1, 2025.

Our condolences go out to the families and friends of those killed and injured in the horrific attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans. We condemn it completely.

We also call upon all people of conscience to be skeptical of the official FBI account. We especially warn against this attack being used as a pretext for the persecution of Middle Eastern people, Muslims and immigrants or to repress protests against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians or justify martial law enforced by National Guard troops as requested by Governor Jeff Landry.

Bush admitted Iraq not responsible for WTC attack

We can see that the statements of President-elect Donald Trump, Landry, local officials, the media and Congress represent yet another dangerous attempt to use a tragedy to carry out violence and harassment. Trump is already using this to carry out his vicious campaign of mass deportations, falsely suggesting that the alleged killer is an “illegal immigrant.”

Today let us remember the words of Ryan Amundson, who lost family members on 9/11: “The loss of our family members has been used to justify war in Iraq, which has nothing to do with September 11. That’s why we are here … to say, not in my name, not in our name.”

On the televised fifth anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, then-President George W. Bush said, “I am often asked, why are we in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the World Trade Center attacks.” The answer is that the U.S. bombed and invaded Iraq to plunder its wealth, especially its oil, not because of the victims of 9/11, for whom Iraq was not responsible.

More than a million Iraqis were killed and 4,000 U;S. soldiers died. Many still suffer from exposure to depleted uranium and others have died by suicide because of what they suffered during the war and occupation of Iraq.

In a Brookings Institute article from Sept. 17, 2021, Bruce Reidel, National Security Advisor to Bush, wrote: “The Bush administration was eager to mobilize the anguish of the 9/11 attack to support the war. Despite the intelligence community’s unequivocal conclusion that Iraq had nothing to do with either 9/11 or al-Qaida, the administration let Americans believe the contrary.”

U.S. wars always start with lies and often start with false-flag operations. The Spanish-American war (the sinking of the USS Maine) and the Vietnam war (the Gulf of Tonkin “incident”) are just two examples. The truth is that the 9/11 attackers were part of a network of terrorists trained, armed and funded by the CIA in an effort (code named “Operation Cyclone”) to crush a popular revolution in Afghanistan.

The truth about the U.S. and ISIS

Officials have acknowledged that the alleged killer in New Orleans was a citizen and U.S. Army reservist who worked on classified tech projects for the military. It is claimed he had an Islamic State in Syria flag. It is very important that people know the real relationship of the U.S. with ISIS.

ISIS is a terrorist group that has been operating in the U.S.-occupied part of Syria and in Iraq since the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In 2012, Wikileaks exposed memos between the current National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that showed the U.S. was funding ISIS forces in an effort to overturn the Syrian government. These are the same forces that last month came to power in Syria with the assistance of U.S. special forces. Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the man who led the overthrow of the Syrian government, hails from the U.S.-armed branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, formerly named al-Nusra Front.

Why, in light of the current heartbreaking tragedy, are we raising this? Because it is important that we deal with this tragedy honestly and not allow it to be used to fulfill a policy objective of the Pentagon. We raise it because it is important that we know not to expect the U.S. government to put our safety first when in reality it is training and arming the very people they claim to be fighting, resulting in more lives lost.

We are raising this, because we don’t want the U.S. using our money to arm the genocidal Israeli assault on Palestinians nor their murderous bombings and campaign of land theft in Lebanon and Syria.

We are raising this, because Landry, despite his crocodile tears, will use our grief and fear over these unjustifiable murders to flood New Orleans with the National Guard to carry out racial profiling, mass arrests and repression of our rights. Trump will use the same excuse to carry out deportations and send soldiers to Syria and Lebanon.

We are raising this because the victims and their families do not deserve this. And because none of the false flags or lies about immigrants will do anything to improve the conditions or safety of the U.S. working class. They are used to justify militarism, impoverishment and repression for us all.

Today’s tragic attack requires a thorough and transparent investigation. Any assistance families need should be given immediately. In order to honor the victims, we must be vigilant not to allow their loss to be used to create more fear, violence, racism and war.