By Tom Winter, Ken Dilanian and Pete Williams - NBC News
An Iraqi immigrant who arrived in the United States in September 2020 has been arrested and accused of trying to smuggle several people across the border with Mexico in an alleged plot to help the ISIS terrorist group assassinate former President George W. Bush in retaliation for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
According to an arrest warrant made available to NBC News, the defendant, Shihab Ahmed Shihab, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, confessed to an FBI informant that he wanted to provide material support to ISIS to commit this crime. assassination.
Shihab entered the country legally and later applied for asylum, while also trying to marry a US citizen to gain permanent residency, according to the FBI.
Documents seen by NBC News show the investigation initially began as an alleged immigration fraud case but morphed into an allegedly more sinister plot.
Shihab claimed that he had transported bombs in Iraq, according to the FBI, and that he had a relationship with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an ISIS leader who was killed in Syria during a US military operation to capture him in 2019 under President Donald Trump.
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Last June, Shihab allegedly confessed to a confidential FBI source that he wanted to smuggle into the country four former members of the Iraqi Ba'ath party (banned after the US invasion), who allegedly resided in Iraq, Turkey, Egypt and Denmark, charging them a minimum of $5,000.
One of the Iraqi citizens mentioned was the secretary of a senior ISIS official, according to the documents consulted.
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Shihab told one of the confidential sources that he planned to use a car dealership in Columbus to send funds to ISIS from the United States.
Once he managed to get the four men into the country, the documents add, they would try to obtain firearms and a van to assassinate the former president.
Shihab said that two of the alleged members of the plot were former Iraqi intelligence agents, according to the documents.
“He declared that he wanted to participate in the attack and assassinate Bush and that he did not mind dying, since he would be proud,” they add.
Shihab allegedly conducted a reconnaissance mission in Dallas, Texas, on February 8, 2022, which included a trip to the Bush residence, and took video of the neighborhood in which he lives.
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During its investigation, the FBI says it collaborated with the Border Patrol to gather information on phone calls, and conducted physical surveillance of the suspect, adding further evidence to his alleged confessions to bureau associates.
The FBI is considering filing several charges for immigration fraud.
and threats to a former president, in addition to terrorist conspiracy.
George W. Bush's office said in a statement that it "has all the confidence in the world in the Secret Service and in the law enforcement and intelligence communities."