US charges alleged Daesh/ISIS operative with plot to kill George W. Bush

WASHINGTON

The US arrested and charged an alleged Daesh/ISIS operative Tuesday with participating in a plot to smuggle men into the US to assassinate former President George W. Bush.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52, was arrested early Tuesday and he made an initial court appearance hours later, according to the Justice Department.

Shihab is an Iraqi national who was attempting to secure asylum protections in the US after coming to the country on a visitor visa in September 2020, according to court documents. He filed an asylum claim the following March, and the case is pending review.

Shihab worked in a series of restaurant and market store jobs in Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana, according to the documents.

He is alleged to have sought to smuggle four Iraqi nationals across the US-Mexico border with the intent of killing Bush and accepted tens of thousands of dollars to carry out the smuggling in October and December 2021.

Shihab unwittingly told an FBI informant that "these individuals intend to murder former President George W. Bush," according to the documents.

On Feb. 8, Shihab allegedly traveled to Dallas, Texas to surveil the former president's residence and allegedly used a mobile phone to record the route from the highway to the gate that led to Bush's neighborhood. That same day, Shihab allegedly went to the George W. Bush Institute, and made video recordings of the library and office areas.

In March, the documents said, Shihab had a meeting in a Columbus, Ohio hotel room to review firearms, including a Colt M-16 and AK-47 rifles, as well as law enforcement uniforms to potentially use in the plot.

Shihab has been charged with one count of immigration crime, and another of aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a person who formerly served as a US official.