An Islamic State sympathiser planned to murder former US President George W Bush but the plot was discovered by the FBI, US authorities have revealed. The suspect, a resident of Ohio, allegedly sought to have Iraqi operatives smuggled into the US from Mexico for the operation, reports the BBC. He is now in custody and appeared at a federal court in Ohio yesterday.
The FBI used informants and electronic surveillance to foil his plan. According to court documents, the suspect – identified as Shihab Ahmed Shihab, 52 – is an Iraqi national who has been in the US since 2020 and had a pending asylum application. The FBI claims that Shihab told a confidential source, a purported people smuggler, that he belonged to a group known as Al-Raed – Arabic for thunder – which is based in Qatar. In conversations with the FBI source, Shihab said he wished to murder Bush for “killing many Iraqis” and “breaking apart” Iraq. He added that he hoped to take part in the operation personally “and did not care if he died, as he would have been proud to be involved”. Shihab was allegedly seeking fake police badges and was inquiring about whether militants could be smuggled across the Mexican border to conduct the operation and then smuggled back out to escape.