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The FBI dismantles an ISIS plot to assassinate former President George Bush

2022-05-24T21:17:15.050Z


The suspect, an Iraqi who wanted to avenge the death of thousands of compatriots during the invasion of the Arab country, intended to illegally introduce four jihadists from Mexico to attack the United States.


Then-President George W. Bush, during a press conference in Baghdad in December 2008. THAIER AL-SUDANI (AP)

In a terrorist plot that still has loose ends, a member of the global jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS) allegedly prepared the assassination of former US President George W. Bush, for which he traveled to Dallas (Texas). ), where the Republican resides, with the aim of recording videos of the place.

The information is an exclusive to

Forbes

magazine , which cites a couple of FBI sources who remain anonymous.

The suspect, an Iraqi national who arrived in the US in September 2020, traveled to Dallas last February.

A month later, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for the man, identified as Shihab Ahmed Shihab by the NBC News television network and based in Columbus, Ohio.

Shihab wanted to provide material support to the Islamic State terrorist group, he explained to an FBI informant whose real identity he did not know, for which he intended to smuggle people into US territory from Mexico "to assassinate former President George W. Bush," whom he blamed for the death of thousands of Iraqis during the war and the subsequent invasion of the country by US troops in 2003.

The arrest warrant against Shibab, on which Forbes bases his information, was declassified this week by an Ohio state court.

According to the investigation, the alleged member of ISIS hoped to have the collaboration of other Iraqi nationals whom he planned to take to Mexico with a tourist visa, from there to irregularly cross the border with the United States, according to the suspect's account to the informant of the FBI, which also intercepted his communications on WhatsApp.

For this clandestine operation, Shihab had a budget of at least 5,000 dollars, he explained to his interlocutor, by means of which he intended to introduce four former members of the single Baath party into the United States, who were supposedly awaiting orders in Iraq, Turkey, Egypt and Denmark.

The alleged mastermind of the terrorist plot traveled to Dallas last November to record videos in the surroundings of Bush's home and from those details to arm the operation.

According to the information in the possession of

Forbes

, it is unknown if the suspect has been arrested or if he is on the run and the Department of Justice has not wanted to comment on it.

NBC News reports for its part that the suspect has been in custody, while the FBI determines the list of charges, which would include a crime of threats against a former president, material collaboration with ISIS and visa forgery, the initial charge.

In his confident talk with the FBI informant, Shihab boasted of having driven a bomb-filled vehicle in Iraq, presumably ready to commit an attack, and of being close to the circle of the top ISIS leader, Abu Baker al-Baghdadi,

neutralized

by a US operation in 2019. As trust between the two grew, the Iraqi even confessed that he was willing to lose his life to kill Bush, something he said he would be very proud of.

Bush Jr. decided in February 2003 to go to war against Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, as punishment for an alleged arsenal of chemical weapons that did not exist, a mistake he later regretted.

Despite information to the contrary from the UN committee of experts, which

evaluated

the supposed threat, and the mobilization of international public opinion, Bush, together with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the then President of the Spanish Government, José María Aznar, decided a month later in the Azores to unleash the war that led to the subsequent invasion of Iraq, in April 2003, and which opened the thunder box of jihadist terrorism in the region.

ISIS took advantage of the power vacuum for its expansion through the fertile crescent, to combat the Shiite majorities in the area -such as the Iraqi-, as well as minorities such as the Yazidi.

Last week, the Republican Bush came out of his political ostracism -although he is a conspicuous detractor of his successor in the White House Donald Trump- to star in a slip of the tongue in which he confused Ukraine with Iraq by speaking of "unilaterally declared invasions", referring to to that perpetrated by the Kremlin in the neighboring country.

Like the one decided by him in Iraq, in 2003.


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-24

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