An Iraqi man who came to the United States two years ago and applied for asylum planned to murder former president George W Bush before the plot was foiled by the FBI, US authorities say.
The suspect — identified as Ohio resident Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52 — also conspired to smuggle other Iraqis into the US from Mexico to help carry out the assassination, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Columbus.
The scheme was allegedly in retaliation for casualties against Mr Shihab’s compatriots during the Iraq war.
Mr Shihab, who appeared at a federal court in Ohio on Tuesday, allegedly insinuated he had contacts with the Islamic State group, but it did not appear the plot came close to materialising.
The complaint revealed the FBI used briefs from confidential informants from April 2021 through to May 2022 to foil his plan.
In conversations with the FBI source, Mr Shihab said he and others “wished to kill former president Bush” because they felt that he was responsible for “killing many Iraqis and breaking apart the entire country of Iraq”.
Mr Shihab allegedly travelled to Dallas in February, where he videoed the gate to the neighbourhood where Bush lives, and to Detroit in November to investigate smuggling Iraqi nationals into the US, authorities said.
He also allegedly sought weapons and fake US border patrol uniforms, and had accepted thousands of dollars for what he thought was payment for him to smuggle another Iraqi citizen into the US, but the transaction was entirely coordinated by the FBI.
Appearing in federal court on Tuesday, Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers ordered that Mr Shihab be held without bond.
He was not required to enter a plea. A detention hearing was scheduled for Friday.
If convicted, Mr Shihab could face up to 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
Freddy Ford, the chief of staff at the 75-year-old former president’s office, said: “President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the United States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities.”
The suspect worked at restaurants in and around Columbus, in the US, and also at a market in Indianapolis where he had an apartment. (AFP )
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