In the United States, just by telling someone that you would like to assassinate the president or former president of the country, you are already committing a crime. You don’t even need to try. But if the Secret Service finds out about that thought, an investigation is triggered, which is joined by the FBI. And if it is confirmed, no one takes away from him a minimum of ten years in prison.
That is what has happened to an Iraqi citizen living in Columbus, Ohio, arrested Tuesday, and now facing federal charges related to an alleged plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush, the Justice Department announced.
Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab has been charged with “aiding and abetting the attempted murder” of a former US official, as well as an immigration offense for his alleged attempt to bring foreign nationals into the country illegally.
According to the Justice Department, the man planned to smuggle four Iraqi citizens as part of the plot. The court documents, obtained by CNN, describe Shihab’s acknowledgment that he included in his plans to drive several of his countrymen to the neighborhood of Bush’s residence in Dallas, Texas.
“President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the United States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” Bush’s chief of staff, Freddy Ford, said in a statement.
The investigation was revealed in a March 23 request, filed under seal, seeking a warrant to search the phone records of a person identified in the documents as Shihab Ahmed Shihab, who entered the United States in September 2020.
The FBI discovered the plot through confidential informants. One of them told authorities of discussions about the alleged assassination plot at meetings late last year and during the spring, according to the documents. There is no evidence whatsoever that the former president was ever in any danger.
One of those conversations allegedly occurred in November, during a trip Shihab and the informant took from Columbus, Ohio, to the Detroit area, according to the warrant application and a court complaint made public Tuesday.
Shihab allegedly told an FBI informant during the November meeting that he “wanted to kill former President Bush because he felt he was responsible for killing many Iraqis and dividing the entire country of Iraq.”
According to a conversation recounted in the warrant application, Shihab described himself as a “soldier awaiting instructions from the leadership in Qatar,” but did not say who they were, nor do the documents suggest that.
According to the allegation, Shihab told the informant that “the Al-Raed group planning to assassinate former President Bush was not related to ISIS, but hoped that ISIS would approve of and collaborate with the assassination.” Al-Raed is a group practically unknown to the authorities and the specialized press.
In February, during in-person meetings in Dallas that documents say were recorded by authorities, Shihab and the informant drove to the neighborhood of Bush’s Dallas residence. Shihab allegedly took video of the front door to his home and the surrounding area, according to the documents.
During the February meetings, Shihab and the informant also traveled to the George W. Bush Library, where the former took video recordings of his office area.
The following month, the informant met with Shihab in Columbus. The man allegedly examined firearms and a United States Border Patrol uniform that the informant presented to Shihab. The documents say the firearms and uniforms were provided by the FBI.
In April, Shihab gave an interview to the FBI in which he recounted discussions he had about a smuggling ring, but “wasn’t entirely candid about his own role in the alien smuggling scheme,” presumably to bring carried out the attacks, according to court documents.
