Man gets 14 years for plot to kill George W. Bush

An Iraqi man who was living in Columbus when federal authorities say he plotted to assassinate former President George W. Bush as revenge for the Iraq War has been sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 53, was sentenced Monday in federal court in Columbus by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson. Although Watson also sentenced Shihab to a lifetime of supervised release, he is likely to be deported by immigration authorities upon release because he is not a U.S. citizen.

Shihab pleaded guilty in March 2023 to attempting to provide material support to terrorists. When Shihab was arrested by the FBI in May 2022, federal law enforcement officials said Bush was never in real danger because Shihab unwittingly told his plans to confidential informants for the FBI between November 2021 and April 2022. The plot included the intention to smuggle at least four Iraqi nationals across the Mexican border to kill Bush.

The road to this case’s disposition Monday has been long. Shihab waffled on a plea agreement at a hearing in January 2023, and then he objected to being sentenced by Watson because the judge was appointed to the federal bench by Bush in 2004.

Most recently, Shihab’s sentencing was delayed after he pushed for and received an Arabic-speaking public defense attorney. He had been utilizing an interpreter with an English-speaking attorney.

In his guilty plea, Shihab admitted he was part of a group overseas seeking to assassinate Bush over the Iraq War. His role was to conduct surveillance on Bush’s residences and offices, and to obtain firearms and vehicles.

According to court records, Shihab traveled with an FBI informant in February 2022 to Bush’s home and the George W. Bush Institute, both in Dallas.

In March 2022, Shihab met with an informant at a hotel in Columbus to look at firearms and law enforcement uniforms, court records state.