Ex-Secret Service Agent Warns Against Holding Sugar Bowl in New Orleans After Terrorist Attack: ‘The Threat Is Still Out There’

Former Secret Service agent Charles Marino argued that the Sugar Bowl should not be held in New Orleans on Thursday following the New Year’s attack on Bourbon Street.

In an appearance on Fox News on Thursday morning, Marino was asked about how law enforcement officials in the city are “changing their security posture given what just happened.”

“Well, it’s obvious that they don’t have a firm grasp on the overall rap with respect to New Orleans or Las Vegas. They’re conducting a link analysis right now in the FBI to find the commonalities between the two events, if any,” replied Marino. “In the meantime, with respect to the most imminent event taking place tonight, the Sugar Bowl, they have to harden those security plans the best that they can if they want to go ahead with the event. And that includes making sure that screening going into the stadium is going to be up to par to discover any devices, like IEDs. And these were used during the attack on Bourbon Street. So they’ve got a heavy lift going on.”

He continued:

Personally, I don’t think it’s the best time for New Orleans to be hosting this event based on the 24 hour delay. That tells me that one, the threat is still out there in some way, shape or form, and they don’t quite understand it. And two, that they didn’t have overall confidence in the initial security plan set up to support this game. So I’m sure they’ve made some changes. But with respect to the Super Bowl, they will get a lot more federal support as a special event designation from the Department of Homeland Security. And there’s still some time for planning on that and changing those plans.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street early on Wednesday morning before exiting the vehicle and engaging in a shootout with police. At least 14 victims died as a result of the attack. Jabbar was also killed.

Watch above via Fox News.