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   From: NOT-SURE@idiocracy.gov   
      
   On 5/23/22 9:05 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:   
   > An Iraqi man in the U.S. accused of being linked to ISIS operatives was   
   plotting to kill George W. Bush, going so far as to travel to   
   > Dallas in November to take video around the former president's home and   
   recruiting a team of compatriots he hoped to smuggle into the   
   > country over the Mexican border, according to an FBI search-warrant   
   application filed March 23 and unsealed this week in the Southern   
   > District of Ohio.   
   >   
   > The FBI said it uncovered the scheme through the work of two confidential   
   informants and surveillance of the alleged plotter's account   
   > on the Meta-owned WhatsApp messaging platform. The suspect, Shihab Ahmed   
   Shihab Shihab, based in Columbus, Ohio, said he wanted to   
   > assassinate Bush because he felt the former president was responsible for   
   killing many Iraqis and breaking apart the country after the   
   > 2003 U.S. military invasion, according to the warrant.   
   >   
   > The case shows how federal investigators continue to monitor threats from   
   ISIS even as the group has been severely weakened by American   
   > intelligence and military operations in recent years. It also shows how the   
   FBI, despite its claims of being prevented from   
   > investigating major crimes because of Meta and other tech providers' use of   
   encryption, has been able to work around WhatsApp security   
   > by using old-school policing with sourcing of informants and tracking the   
   metadata they can get from the messaging company.   
   >   
   > https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/628cdcb7   
   63f5296e4e5ffbf/George-Bush-assassination-plot-uncovered-by-FBI/0x0.jpg   
   >   
   >   
   > Shihab is an Iraqi national who'd been in the U.S. since 2020 and had an   
   asylum application pending, according to the FBI's search-   
   > warrant application. Federal agents used two different confidential sources   
   to investigate the plot, one who claimed to offer   
   > assistance obtaining false immigration and identification documents, the   
   second a purported customer of the alleged people smuggler,   
   > who was willing to pay thousands of dollars to bring his family into the   
   country.   
   >   
   > (As the criminal complaint against the suspect has not been made public,   
   Forbes is not publishing the full warrant. According to NBC,   
   > he was arrested earlier today, a fact later confirmed by the Department of   
   Justice.)   
   >   
   > Freddy Ford, chief of staff for the Office of George W. Bush, said,   
   "President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the United   
   > States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities."   
   >   
   > In November 2021, Shihab revealed to the FBI insider the plot to assassinate   
   Bush and asked the confidential source if he knew how to   
   > "obtain replica or fraudulent police and/or FBI identifications and badges"   
   to help carry out the killing, and whether it was possible   
   > to smuggle the plotters out of the country the same way they came in after   
   their mission was complete, according to the warrant. The   
   > alleged smuggler said he also wanted to find and assassinate a former Iraqi   
   general who helped Americans during the war and whom he   
   > believed was living under a fictitious identity in the U.S., investigators   
   said.   
   >   
   > The alleged plotter claimed to be part of a unit called "Al-Raed," meaning   
   "Thunder," that was led by a former Iraqi pilot for Saddam   
   > Hussein who had been based out of Qatar until his recent death, the warrant   
   said. As many as seven members of the group would be sent   
   > to the U.S. to kill President Bush, according to a conversation described in   
   the warrant, and the Shihab's job was "to locate and   
   > conduct surveillance on former president Bush's residences and/or offices   
   and obtain firearms and vehicles to use in the   
   > assassination."   
   >   
   > After traveling to Dallas with the informant to take video of Bush's   
   residence, the accused took more footage at the George W. Bush   
   > Institute, according to federal agents. The Texas city was the site of the   
   assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.   
   >   
   > Bush, a Republican who was in the news last week when he inadvertently   
   referred to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in a speech about the   
   > Russian invasion of Ukraine, was president from 2001 to 2009.   
   >   
   > In one conversation with a confidential FBI source, the suspect said he was   
   planning to get four Iraqi national males located in Iraq,   
   > Turkey, Egypt and Denmark into the U.S., according to the warrant. In a   
   later conversation, he claimed that one of the four was "the   
   > secretary of an ISIS financial minister," the FBI said. The alleged smuggler   
   described the men as "former Baath Party members in Iraq   
   > who did not agree with the current Iraqi government and were political   
   exiles," the FBI said. He was planning to charge each $15,000 to   
   > be smuggled into America, the FBI said. The Baath Party was the political   
   organization of Hussein, who was deposed in the 2003 U.S.   
   > invasion.   
   >   
   > His plan, according to the warrant, was to get Mexican visitor visas for the   
   ISIS operatives, using passport information he would send   
   > to the informant over WhatsApp, before getting them over the border.   
   Meanwhile, he was communicating with a contact in Egypt over a   
   > fake Facebook profile, which carried a profile picture of two individual   
   hands each holding a rose, designed to look romantic and "not   
   > suspicious," according to the FBI's account. In 2021, the FBI got a warrant   
   to search that Facebook account, though it's unclear what   
   > they obtained.   
   >   
   > Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George   
   Washington University, told Forbes, "It's clear this was a   
   > sophisticated counterterrorism operation with a lot of moving parts. It was   
   both far reaching and unique in its targeting.   
   >   
   > "It also shows that while the debate on so called "going dark" can be   
   overcome through the use of undercover operatives, it's labor   
   > intensive but possible." The term "going dark" is used by law enforcement to   
   describe the inability to get to data that has been   
   > encrypted by software applications.   
   >   
   > "Also, we haven't seen a plot of this scale in a number of years. It shows   
   that while domestic terrorism rightly takes a good amount of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)