Fort Liberty has missed the mark when it comes to its connection to New Orleans and Las Vegas terror suspects, both of whom spent time at the infamous North Carolina base.
Army vet Shamsud-Din Jabbar and Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, who sparked terror with their Jan. 1 attacks, received training at the nation’s largest base, formerly known as Fort Bragg.
DailyMail.com sent a list of detailed questions to Fort Liberty, including whether they had opened an investigation into the men’s time there, but was referred to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon also did not answer specific questions from DailyMail.com about the two men’s time at Fort Liberty. Instead, they made an earlier statement about the suspects’ military credentials.
“Due to the ongoing investigation, we will not provide additional information at this time,” the Pentagon said.
While officials are keeping quiet about the details of Jabbar and Livelsberger’s stay at the base, an official told the Associated Press that there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, which has a population of about 47,000 active-duty soldiers and is home to from multiple Army special operations units.
The base has a controversial history that has led to several scandals in recent decades. The former name was changed in 2023 because it paid tribute to Confederate General Braxton Bragg, a North Carolinian known for owning slaves and losing key battles in the Civil War that contributed to the downfall of the Confederacy.
New Orleans forward Shamsud-Din Jabbar (pictured) and Las Vegas bomber Matthew Livelsberger both spent time at the nation’s largest base, Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg
An official told the Associated Press that there is no overlap in their assignments at the base. Livelsberger is depicted in military gear
Officials are keeping quiet about the details of Jabbar and Livelsberger’s stay on the base
At the time, many had rejected the base’s renaming, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“It’s an iconic name and an iconic foundation, and we’re not going to let political correctness run wild in North Carolina,” DeSantis said.
The base’s new name was part of a broader effort by the military to confront racial injustice in the wake of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A naming committee established by Congress visited the bases and met with members of the surrounding communities for input. While other bases have been renamed after black soldiers, U.S. presidents and trailblazing women, the North Carolina military installation is the only one not named after an individual.
But the base’s name change hasn’t covered up its dark history of murders, drugs and mysterious deaths.
The base has a history of problems with domestic violence. In just one year, in 2010, four women were murdered by their husbands during the installation.
Commanding officers approach the color guard during a Fort Bragg renaming ceremony
In 2018, special forces soldier Billy Lavigne shot and killed Green Beret Mark Leshikar in a drug-fueled fight. Lavigne, who was never charged with the murder, was found shot to death in the back of his own truck two years later.
A Rolling stone Research found that homicides, suicides and overdoses on base resulted in more than 100 deaths in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2020 alone, there were 44 soldier deaths due to homicides and suicides.
“I have asked the military repeatedly: Can you show me another base that has had such a high death toll in two years?” RS reporter Seth Harp told The Daily Beast.
“But they’ve never been able to actually reference a past situation or event like this, so I’m sticking with my assumption that it’s truly unprecedented.”
The base is back in the public eye after the terrorist attacks in Last Vegas and New Orleans on January 1.
Initially, reports pointed to a possible link between the two, as both attackers were military personnel who rented cars through the Turo app before unleashing the carnage.
However, the FBI has said veteran Jabbar likely acted alone when, inspired by ISIS, he drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans’ French Quarter, killing 14 people.
An ISIS flag and weapons were found in the vehicle, as the FBI continues to assess Jabbar’s connection to the terror group
Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Tesla Cybertruck through the Turo app and driving it to Nevada on Wednesday morning
Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, emphasized that there is no evidence of a link between the attack in New Orleans and Wednesday’s explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck filled with explosives outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel.
Officials are working to determine a possible motive for Livelsberger’s actions in Vegas.