Two U.S. soldiers behind the fatal attacks in New Orleans, Louisiana and Las Vegas on New Year’s Day served on the same Army base and were both sent to Afghanistan at the same time during the U.S. “surge” there. The new timelines of the two men’s service record appear to contradict a law enforcement official’s statement last week that there were no overlapping assignments in the service record of the two men.
The two men served in different units under separate commands on Fort Liberty, North Carolina — then known as Fort Bragg — for 11 months in 2012 and 2013. The two also deployed with different units to Afghanistan in 2009, though the Army
Officials maintain that the investigations have uncovered no connections between the two men as they planned and carried out the New Year’s Day attacks.
Though the two overlapping periods in their careers were not in similar jobs or duty stations, they are odds with public statements by at least two law enforcement officials last week who aimed to dispel conspiracies linking the two soldiers based on their assignments at Fort Liberty, North Carolina and deployments to Afghanistan.
“We have no record that they served in the same unit, or even at the same years at Fort Bragg, something that continues to remain under investigation,” Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference last Thursday. “They both served in Afghanistan in 2009. We don’t have any evidence that they were in the same province in Afghanistan, the same location, or the same unit, again, something else that remains under investigation.”
A second official echoed those remarks at a Friday press conference.
“We’ve identified no telephonic or email communication between the subjects, no information that suggests that they knew each other, that they ever served in the same unit, that they were ever assigned at the same place, at the same time, and had interaction,” said Spencer Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division.
Those statements now appear to have been inaccurate or at least premature.
According to timelines of the two men’s service histories released by the Army, Jabbar and Livelsberger were at then-Fort Bragg during an 11-month period in late 2012 and early 2013. Both soldiers also deployed to Afghanistan for much of 2009, overlapping for seven months.
The two held different jobs in the Army and worked for unaffiliated units during all of those overlapping assignments.
“The only things that we have connecting them are incidental – what we believe to be coincidental similarities in that both vehicles were rented through the same service, that both subjects served in the military, that they both stayed in Airbnb, things like that,” Evans said.
Evans said last week that the FBI didn’t find any connections between Livelsberger and “any other terrorist organization” – a stark difference from the case of former Staff Sgt. Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, who drove a Ford pickup truck through crowds on Bourbon Street, a popular nightlife spot in New Orleans, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. FBI officials said that weapons, a potential improvised explosive device and an ISIS flag were found in Jabbar’s rented truck and referred to it as “an act of terrorism.”
Comparatively, law enforcement officials have labeled Green Beret Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger’s as a suicide and a “stunt,” saying the Green Beret appeared to shoot himself moments before a fireworks-rigged explosion engulfed the Tesla Cybertruck. The vehicle’s explosion outside of a Trump hotel off of the Las Vegas Strip injured seven people.
Unclear details on Livelsberger mental health care
Las Vegas law enforcement and FBI officials said late last week that Livelsberger was suffering from mental health concerns based on information supplied by the Army. Over the weekend, Brig. Gen. Amanda Azubuike, chief of Army public affairs said in a statement that the former Green Beret used a program that provides special operations soldiers with “holistic” physical, cognitive, medical, and support resources.
“He did not display any concerning behaviors at the time, and was granted personal leave,” Azubuike said.
It’s unclear when Livelsberger accessed the Special Operations Command’s the Preservation of the Force and Family program or what the Army defines as “concerning behaviors.” The Army did not immediately respond to inquiries clarifying the statement.
Overlap in North Carolina
Fort Liberty, North Carolina, previously known as Fort Bragg, was a hub for the Army’s special operations forces and many conventional units that were at the forefront of the post-9/11 wars. The base is home to 50,000 troops.
According to the Army, Jabar worked in human resources and information technology for two units within the 82nd Airborne at Fort Liberty. He was the information technology team chief for the airborne division’s headquarters and 1st Brigade Combat Team’s company headquarters between June 2012 and January 2015 at the base.
Their overlap occurred, according to Army records, when Livelsberger was assigned to the base between December 2012 to October 2013 with the Student Support Battalion of the 1st Special Warfare Training Group, the unit that trains all would-be Green Berets. Such an assignment could mean Livelsberger — already a seasoned Green Beret when assigned to the unit — was serving as an instructor or was cross-training within Special Forces from one specialty to another, as he was reported to have done. According to Livelsberger’s LinkedIn page, he entered Special Forces as a communications specialist, but by 2015 had changed to an operations and intelligence specialist, both common roles within a Special Forces unit.
Livelsberger’s detachment assignment in December 2012 came during Jabbar’s second assignment as the IT team chief which indicates that the two soldiers overlapped at Fort Liberty for around 10 to 11 months.
Much like two employees in large civilian companies with unassociated jobs, the two men could have worked for years on the large North Carolina base and in different corners of Afghanistan and never crossed paths. But the Army did not release specifics of the two men’s Afghan deployments nor address specifics of their roles at Fort Liberty during their common time there.
Afghanistan surge
Jabbar and Livelsberger’s deployments to Afghanistan also overlapped, according to new deployment details from the Army, as both were in the country during the U.S. largest commitment of troops to the war. The two soldiers’ deployments came during the U.S. military’s strategy shift in the region which involved a drawdown of U.S. combat forces from Iraq and towards a surge in Afghanistan as part of a renewed counterinsurgency strategy against the Taliban. At its peak in 2011, there were around 98,000 service members deployed to the country, according to the Department of Defense.
Between 2009 and 2010 as U.S. troop numbers were ramping up, Livelsberger deployed to Afghanistan twice for two seven-month deployments and a three-month deployment. He went back in 2017 and 2019 for two seven-month deployments.
In December 2009, there were 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Jabbar arrived for his deployment to Afghanistan in February 2009 and left in January 2010. Livelsberger arrived in Afghanistan in May 2009, a few months after Jabbar, and stayed until December. Jabbar and Livelsberger’s overlap in Afghanistan lasted around eight months.
Both soldiers left the country just as Obama announced the Pentagon’s plans to beef up U.S. presence by sending 30,000 more troops at the start of 2010. The additional forces would help the U.S. military’s “ability to train competent Afghan security forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight,” Obama said in his December 2009 speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Livelsberger was one of those troops and went back to Afghanistan with the 10th Special Forces Group from June to September 2010.