'I wished to kill George W Bush because...': Iraqi man arrested over plan to kill former US president

Columbia: An Iraqi man who came to the United States two years ago and applied for asylum hatched a plot to assassinate former President George W Bush in retaliation for casualties against his compatriots during the Iraq war, the government announced Tuesday. Shihab Ahmed, 52, also schemed to smuggle other Iraqis into the U.S. from Mexico to aid in the plot, after which they'd be smuggled out back through Mexico, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Columbus.

Shihab insinuated he had contacts with the Islamic State group, but it did not appear the plot came close to materializing, with confidential informants briefing the FBI from April 2021 through this month, the complaint said.

Shihab was ordered held without bond by federal Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers during a short hearing in court Tuesday. If convicted, Shihab could face up to 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

Shihab worked at restaurants in and around Columbus and also at a market in Indianapolis where he had an apartment, the government said. He told a confidential informant that he assisted in the killing of American soldiers during the Iraq War, and 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," the complaint said.

Shihab traveled in February to Dallas, where he took video of the entrance gate to the neighborhood where Bush lives, and also traveled to Detroit in November to investigate smuggling Iraqi nationals into the U.S., the government said.

Shihab met a confidential informant in a Columbus hotel room in March to examine weapons and U.S. Border patrol uniforms, according to the complaint. Shihab allegedly planned to use a Columbus car dealership to help transfer money from an Islamic State official into the U.S.

Last fall, Shihab accepted thousands of dollars for what he thought was payment for him to smuggle another Iraqi citizen into the U.S., according to the complaint, but the transaction was entirely coordinated by the FBI. 

'I mean Ukraine': George Bush mistakenly calls Iraq invasion 'unjustified'

Last week, George W Bush had mistakenly described the invasion of Iraq as "brutal" and "unjustified" before correcting himself to say he meant to refer to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bush made the comments in a speech during an event in Dallas on Wednesday (May 19), while he was criticizing Russia's political system.

"The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq,” Bush said, before correcting himself and shaking his head. "I mean, of Ukraine."

Speaking in Dallas this afternoon, former President George. W Bush made a significant verbal slip-up while discussing the war in Ukraine.

He tried referencing what he described as the “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion” — but said Iraq, instead of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tw0VNJzKmE — Michael Williams (@michaeldamianw) May 19, 2022

He, however, jokingly blamed the mistake on his age as the audience burst into laughter.

In 2003, when Bush was president, the United States led an invasion of Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that were never found. The prolonged conflict killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced many more.