Iraqi asylum seeker arrested over plot to assassinate Bush

AN IRAQI asylum seeker who claimed to be a cousin of the one-time leader of Islamic State plotted to kill former president George W Bush in a drive-by attack with a group of assassins, the US Department of Justice said.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab, 52, told an FBI informant that he wanted to smuggle at least four other Iraqis over the Mexican border to carry out the plot, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Columbus, Ohio.

Two of the hit team would be former Iraqi intelligence agents, while the others would be members of IS or another Qatar-based militant group called “Al-raed”.

Mr Shihab told the informant that they wanted to kill Mr Bush, who ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, “because they felt that he was responsible for killing many Iraqis and breaking apart the entire country”, according to the filing.

He told the informant that he was the cousin of Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, the former IS leader, and had killed Americans in the years after the invasion.

Mr Shihab was arrested on Tuesday and charged with an immigration crime as well as aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a former US official.

A resident of Columbus, Mr Shihab and the informant monitored locations associated with Mr Bush in Dallas, Texas, and discussed how to obtain guns, security official uniforms and vehicles to be used in the plot.

He also offered to help a second FBI informant smuggle family into the US for tens of thousands of dollars.

Mr Shihab arrived in the US on a visitor visa in September 2020 and sought asylum in March 2021 when his visa expired. The affidavit indicates the FBI had the first informant contact the suspect shortly after he applied for asylum.

Mr Shihab allegedly told the informant “that he wanted to be involved in the actual attack and assassination” and that he “did not care if he died as he would be proud to have been involved”. The informant recorded many of their conversations, according to the filing.

Mr Bush last week reignited controversy over the war when he inadvertently confused Iraq for Ukraine while criticising Vladimir Putin for a launching a “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion”.