Cart
0
Ohio citizen arrested for alleged involvement in plot to assassinate G.W. Bush
Iraqi national Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, was arrested today on federal charged linked to alleged plans to assassinate former President George W. Bush.
According to the Justice Department, the Ohio resident was accused of “aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a former United States Official”. He was also accused of multiple counts of the same immigration crime for his alleged efforts to smuggle Iraqi nationals into the United States as part of the alleged assassination plot.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: ISIS suspect arrested for alleged plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush <a href="https://t.co/OaWSde4uPT">https://t.co/OaWSde4uPT</a></p>— Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1529169071203307523?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gear Spotlight- What Our Readers Are Picking Up
The FBI uncovered the plot through confidential informants, one of whom recorded discussions about the assassination plot with Shihab in meetings late last year and through the spring, the documents show. There is no suggestion in the documents that the former President was ever in danger.
Shihab, who entered the country in 2020, was the subject of a sealed investigation initially targeting his phone records. The sealed application was filed after one the FBI’s confidential informants provided a taped conversation of they and Shihab discussing the alleged assassination plot.
According to documents, during one conversation in November of last year, Shihab allegedly told the informant that he and others “wished to kill former president Bush because they felt that he was responsible for killing many Iraqis and breaking apart the entire country of Iraq.”
In January, Shihab compared himself in a taped conversation with the informant as a “soldier waiting for directions from the leadership in Qatar.”
In February, Shihab and the informant were documented driving around Bush’s Dallas neighborhood conducting reconnaissance, including taking videos of the neighborhood’s entry points.
Bush’s chief of staff, Freddy Ford, issued a statement in which he said, “President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the United States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities.”
Interestingly, this news comes as Iraqi Prime Minister survived an assassination attempt via drone strike.
