Iraqi immigrant plotted to smuggle assassins through Mexico to kill former US president: docs
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An Iraqi citizen living in Ohio plotted to smuggle ISIS sympathizers into the United States “who do not care if they are killed during the mission” to murder former President George W. Bush, court records show.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 53, believed the former commander in chief was responsible for killing many Iraqis and destroying the country during “Operation of Iraqi Freedom.”

Shihab pleaded guilty last year to attempting to provide material support to terrorists and was sentenced in February to more than 14 years in prison for the plot, details of which were revealed in court documents.

“President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the U.S. Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” Freddy Ford, Bush’s chief of staff, told The Guardian after Shihab’s arrest in May 2022.

2004 Battle of Fallujah

U.S. Marines of the Light Armored Reconnaissance company of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, fire a rocket to clear houses at the site where four insurgents staged a bloody attack that killed one American and wounded many others, Nov. 23, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

He was finally arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in May 2022 and charged in federal court with attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Shihab pleaded guilty last March and was sentenced in February to 178 months in prison.

He’ll likely be deported after his prison sentence, but he will also be under supervised release for life.

How Shihab entered the country

Shihab entered the country in September 2020 on a visitor visa and worked a number of jobs, including in markets and restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, according to prosecutors.

In March 2021, he filed a claim for asylum with U.S. citizenship, which was pending review when he was arrested.

Shihab obtained fake divorce papers from his wife in Iraq to set up a sham marriage with a U.S. citizen to gain immigration status. 

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