The FBI arrested and prosecuted an Iraqi citizen for planning and coordinating a plot against the former president
By
George Chaya
File image from 2002 of then-US President George W. Bush
An Iraqi citizen living in Ohio was arrested and charged this week after a months-long investigation by the FBI. The accusation against the suspect is for planning and coordinating a plot to assassinate former US President George W. Bush.
The relevant news is that the detainee, a devotee of radical Islam, he acknowledged his ideological affinity and membership in the Islamic State(ISIS for its acronym in English) although at first he denied being part of the cell that planned to assassinate former President Bush in his Dallas residence by facilitating and helping to enter the operatives that would carry out the assassination along the US border with Mexico. That is the solid accusation of the FBI that emerged after raiding his house in Columbus, Ohio, after which the suspect admitted his participation in the plot.
As part of the procedure that led to the arrest of the suspect, FBI officials revealed that the Iraqi citizen Shihab Ahmed, a legal resident of Columbus, organized the entry of 4 ISIS terrorists through the Mexican-American border to attempt on the life of former President Bush.
The investigation began in November 2021 and the recent raid on the suspect’s house allowed the confiscation of various evidentiary material, including several videos -filmed by Ahmed himself- of the house where the former president lives to organize his assassination. < /b>Thus, last Tuesday, Shihab Ahmed was formally accused before a Federal Court of the United States for organization and complicity in attempted murder, according to the Department of Justice.
< p class=”paragraph”>The first clues that focused the FBI investigation to dismantle the criminal plan emerged through two confidential informants that led to the control and surveillance of the suspect’s phone number and WhatsApp account, the messaging platform was crucial for the investigative progress and for his arrest.
In the first interrogations, the detainee denied the charges but, given the voluminous evidence against him, he admitted that he wanted to assassinate former President Bush in revenge for the US invasion of Iraq 2003, blaming the former president for his actions that, according to the accused, led to the death of Muslims. Ahmed’s plan was simple and could have been successful since former President Bush leads a life away from politics and without strict security measures, Bush spends a lot of time attending to private business and secluded in his residence, which is far from of the urban centers of Dallas.
According to his statements in the final statement and before being notified that he would go to trial, the suspect disclosed his plan to negotiate a reduction in sentence. He said that the operation was coordinated from Turkey by a contact via the Internet (who would be his handler), whose name is being withheld due to the continuity of the investigation that extends to several countries.
< p class=”paragraph”>Ahmed planned to facilitate the entry into US territory of 4 Iraqi ISIS terrorists who are residing in Egypt, Turkey and Denmark, and as he stated, one of them is directly close to an Emir who acts as administrator or finance minister of ISIS who would finance the operation to eliminate the former US president. The terrorists would enter Mexico and the plan continued to obtain Mexican tourist visas so that the assassins could cross the border into the United States; that was where Ahmed would come into action, moving and providing a safe house for the assassins until they completed their operation.
Ahmed’s statement also shows thatadmitted belonging to a terrorist cell planted in US territory called Al-Raed, organized and led by a former Iraqi Air Force officer loyal to Saddam Hussein.
According to a paragraph of the statement of the detainee who was offered a reduced sentence for collaborating with the investigation, he assured in detail that his participation in the operation was to locate and monitor the residences and offices of former President Bush; provide the assassins with a safe house and obtain the weapons and vehicles to be used in the attack. However, FBI and Homeland Security officials said on condition of anonymity that former President George Bush’s security is under control and was never threatened. A Bush spokesman told the press that the former president fully trusted the US Secret Service and the US intelligence community.
Beyond what is known so far by the press and leaks from intelligence agencies. It is believed that the plot to assassinate Bush would involve more people and that the number of terrorists would be at least 6 to 7 members of ISIS, and that the role of Shihab Ahmed was much more relevant than What the suspect has stated in his statement, the detainee is also suspected of running a sleeper cell of the terrorist organization in New York City and another in Ontario, Canada.
Asked by the press last Thursday, Freddy Ford, former President Bush’s personal security chief, did not confirm or deny the plot and stated succinctly that President Bush trusts the United States Secret Service, our work in matters of his security and in the country’s police and intelligence forces, also indicating that the former president has not modified his work schedule before or after the investigation and the arrest of Ahmed were made known.
For the Department of Justice, the role of Shihab Ahmed in the plot is based on a revenge plan for the death of Iraqis in the framework of Operation Enduring Freedom ordered by the president at the time and considers it proven that Ahmed traveled to Dallas to least 3 times, the last one last February with the purpose of revealing information about places related to Bush. It also appears in the judicial investigation that in March he met with 2 people in a hotel in Columbus to buy small arms and sub-assault rifles, including an HK 417 sniper rifle that is not manufactured in the United States but in Germany. by Heckler & Koch also bought police force uniforms that were found in his house.
The indictment against Shihab Ahmed includes a concourse of serious crimes ranging from plotting, planning and facilitating an attack on a US citizen to attempted murder, a crime that carries the death penalty in the event that the victim is murdered, and with a minimum of 30 to 40 years in prison if this does not occur. However, this is aggravated by up to 20 years in prison by virtue of the fact that the target was a former US president, hence, once arrested, Ahmed has agreed to collaborate with the Department of Justice to reduce his sentence in his future trial. .
The case has generated a high impact in Washington, several counter-terrorism experts have declared to the press that a plot had not taken place in the United States of such magnitude and audacity in years and goes to show that, while domestic terrorism and recent shootings in shopping malls and schools demand a firm response, the threat of Islamic terror requires a counter-terrorist approach and constant monitoring of several elements that have settled in recent years on US soil.