Left: Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab plotted to assassinate former President George W. Bush, say federal authorities. (Mug shot: Franklin County (Ohio) Jail). Right: Former President George W. Bush speaks at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
An Iraqi citizen who has been living in the United States was sentenced Monday to 14 years and 10 months in prison for plotting to assassinate former President George W. Bush. The defendant, Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 53, must also serve 15 years of supervised release and pay a $100 special assessment, according to federal records out of Ohio.
Shihab established a life in the Ohio and Indiana area for a time, working in markets and restaurants after arriving in the states on a visitor visa in September 2020. But authorities said he plotted to sneak four people from Iraqi into the United State in order to kill Bush.
“Shihab planned to smuggle four additional Iraqi foreign nationals into the United States for the purpose of killing former President George W. Bush in retaliation of Iraqi deaths during ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,”” a DOJ press release said. “Shihab then allegedly planned to smuggle the four out of the United States via the United States/Mexico border after they carried out the assassination.”
In connection with that scheme, Shahib allegedly traveled to Dallas in February of 2022 “to conduct surveillance of locations associated with the former President,” the press release said.
Then, in March 2022, Shihab allegedly met with other people in a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, to look at “sample firearms and law enforcement uniforms.”
In addition to being accused of aiding and abetting a plot to murder the former president, Shihab is also charged with trying to illegally bring foreign nationals into the U.S.
“[I]n August 2021, Shihab allegedly intended to help who he thought was another Iraqi citizen enter the United States for a fee of $40,000,” the DOJ press release said at the time. “Shihab provided specific instructions on how he would smuggle the person into the United States after 60 days. In October and December 2021, Shihab accepted tens of thousands of dollars for the purported smuggling.”
“In reality, the individual was fictitious, and the interaction was coordinated under the direction of the FBI,” the DOJ press release said.
