The FBI has arrested an Iraqi citizen living in Columbus, Ohio, for allegedly plotting to assassinate former President George W. Bush in the name of ISIS, Forbes reported Tuesday.
On March 23, the FBI filed for a search warrant for Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, who entered the United States in 2020 and had an asylum application pending at the time of his arrest. The FBI's search warrant application was unsealed this week.
According to that document, Shihab wanted to murder the former president to avenge the 2003 invasion of Iraq. To this end, he allegedly traveled to Dallas to surveil Bush's home and used WhatsApp to arrange for four to six ISIS operatives to be smuggled from Iraq to the U.S. via the Mexican border, per NBC News.
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According to Forbes, the FBI's warrant application mentions a pair of confidential informants, "one who claimed to offer assistance obtaining false immigration and identification documents" and another who claimed to be a "customer of the alleged people smuggler."
Federal agents learned of the plot in November 2021, when Shihab asked an FBI informant for help obtaining fake police or FBI credentials.
Bush's chief of staff, Freddy Ford, said in a statement that the former president "has all the confidence in the world in the U.S. Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities."
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