Politics can be a dangerous game. But it should never cost you your life.
And now the FBI uncovered an assassination plot that left one Republican shellshocked.
An Iraqi citizen living in Ohio planned to transport ISIS members into the United States “who do not care if they are killed during the mission” to murder former President George W. Bush, according to court filings.
Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 53, believed the former commander-in-chief was to blame for the deaths of countless Iraqis and the country’s destruction during “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
Shihab pled guilty last year to attempting to provide material assistance to terrorists and was sentenced in February to more than 14 years in jail for the scheme, which was detailed in court documents.
Shihab served as a gunrunner for al Qaeda during the Iraq War. According to federal prosecution records, he carried weaponry from Syria into Iraq and smuggled explosive-packed vehicles that were arranged as traps along well-known American traffic routes.
Shihab’s plot involved two former Iraqi intelligence agents who were to carry out the actual assassination while he scouted the former president’s Texas residence and coordinated travel details, according to court filings.
He intended to smuggle Iraqi individuals across the U.S.-Mexico border for thousands of dollars, but he had no idea he was arranging an assassination with an anonymous informant known as “CS1.”
In taped discussions with the FBI’s confidential source, Shihab stated “he wanted to be involved in the actual attack and assassination of former President Bush,” according to the criminal complaint, and that he would be “proud” to offer his life.
He intended to smuggle at least seven assassins, all Iraqi nationals, across the United States-Mexico border for thousands of dollars apiece.
In the fall of 2021, he felt he had successfully transported an ISIS member into the United States for $40,000.
However, “in reality, the individual was fictitious, and the interaction was coordinated under the direction of the FBI,” federal Ohio prosecutors said in a press statement.
According to the court documents, it is unclear what first brought Shihab to the attention of federal authorities or tipped them off to the conspiracy.
The allegation includes many documented encounters between Shihab and “CS1” from April 2021 to May 2022.
Shihab drove to Dallas with “CS1” in February 2022, when he videotaped the driveway to Bush’s home and “took two passes by the front access gate leading into the neighborhood,” according to court filings.
According to the criminal complaint, he also videotaped Bush’s front entry gate and the surrounding area that led into the next property, as well as the George W. Bush Institute.
The FBI’s informant persuaded Shihab not to deliver the tapes to the assassins, claiming that they could be intercepted by the U.S. government.
Despite Shihab’s apparent proximity, the former president was said to be unconcerned.
“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.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
