An Iraqi citizen living in Ohio plotted to smuggle ISIS sympathizers into the United States "who do not care if they are killed during the mission" to murder former President George W. Bush, court records show.
Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 53, believed the former commander in chief was responsible for killing many Iraqis and destroying the country during "Operation of Iraqi Freedom."
Shihab pleaded guilty last year to attempting to provide material support to terrorists and was sentenced in February to more than 14 years in prison for the plot, details of which were revealed in court documents.
Shihab aided al Qaeda as a gun runner during the war. He brought weapons from Syria into Iraq and smuggled explosive-packed vehicles that were set as traps along known roads Americans traveled, federal court documents say.
Shihab's plot included two former Iraqi intelligence agents, who were to carry out the actual assassination while he scoped out the former president's Texas home and coordinated travel logistics, court documents show.
He planned to smuggle the Iraqi nationals across the U.S.-Mexican border for thousands of dollars, but he had no idea he was plotting the assassination with an unnamed informant, identified in court papers as "CS1."
In recorded conversations with the FBI's confidential source, Shihab admitted "he wanted to be involved in the actual attack and assassination of former president Bush," the criminal complaint says, and he would be "proud" to give his life.
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He planned to smuggle at least seven assassins – all Iraqi nationals – across the U.S.-Mexican border for thousands of dollars each.
In the fall of 2021, he believed he successfully smuggled an ISIS member into the U.S. for $40,0000, but "in reality, the individual was fictitious, and the interaction was coordinated under the direction of the FBI," federal Ohio prosecutors said in a press release.
READ THE FULL CRIMINAL COMPLAINT
The court documents don't say what first put Shihab on federal law enforcement's radar or tipped them off about the plot.
But the complaint details several recorded meetings between Shihab and "CS1" between April 2021 and May 2022.
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In February 2022, Shihab traveled with "CS1" to Dallas, where he recorded the driveway leading to Bush's home and "took two passes by the front access gate leading into the neighborhood," court documents say.
He also recorded Bush's front access gate and the surrounding area that led into the abutting neighboring, and the George W. Bush Institute, according to the criminal complaint.
The FBI's informant talked Shihab out of sending the videos to the assassins by saying they could be intercepted by the U.S. government.
The former president was reportedly never worried, despite how close Shihab appeared to be.
"President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the U.S. Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities," Freddy Ford, Bush's chief of staff, told The Guardian after Shihab's arrest in May 2022.
He was finally arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in May 2022 and charged in federal court with attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
Shihab pleaded guilty last March and was sentenced in February to 178 months in prison.
He'll likely be deported after his prison sentence, but he will also be under supervised release for life.
Shihab entered the country in September 2020 on a visitor visa and worked a number of jobs, including in markets and restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, according to prosecutors.
In March 2021, he filed a claim for asylum with U.S. citizenship, which was pending review when he was arrested.
Shihab obtained fake divorce papers from his wife in Iraq to set up a sham marriage with a U.S. citizen to gain immigration status.
