An ISIS terror plot targeting former President George Bush has been foiled, according to the FBI. NBC News. An Iraqi citizen named Shihab Ahmed Shihab was arrested for a plot that would have illegally brought in ISIS terrorists' to attempt to assassinate the former President. The FBI had been alerted to Shihab during an immigration investigation where they suspected Shihab was committing immigration fraud. Shihab claimed to have links to ISIS and wanted $5000 to bring in four terrorists originally from Iraq from an FBI informant. He also went as far to surveil Bush.
My Comment:
I've got mixed feelings about this. I do think that Shihab was serious about his attempt to assassinate George Bush and could have actually posed a threat to him if he had been even a little bit competent about this. The direct links to ISIS and their financial minister is very concerning.
On the other hand, this seems like another case of the FBI taking advantage of an idiot to entrap him into committing a crime. Would this man have actually tried to do anything if the FBI wasn't goading him on? I don't know. I know in many cases the FBI really does get people that would otherwise never be criminals to attempt terror attacks.
Of course, I don't think this man should have been in the country in the first place. We have no reason to bring Iraqis into this country and we obviously aren't vetting them well enough. At the very least he should have been deported when he was suspected of immigration fraud.
Keep in mind Shihab was trying to use our porous border and generous refugee system to bring terrorists into the country. He failed, but largely because he was too stupid to keep his mouth shut. If he had been smarter about it he probably could have accomplished his goal.
However, I am not sure if his attack would have worked in the first place. Former presidents have strong amounts of security from the Secret Service and I am guessing any attack on George Bush would have ended with the attackers dead and Bush being fine. I know there have been major attacks on politicians before but Bush knows that he is a major target and has good security.
ISIS has largely faded from the news but I do think that they are making a bit of a comeback. The fact that they have had any involvement in this plot at all means that their reach is bigger than they were since they lost most of their territory. They haven't done much lately but I do think that they could have a resurgence, given how distracted the military and intelligence communities are right now.
If they had managed to assassinate George Bush it would have been a coup for them. Islamic terrorists hate Bush and killing him would bring them a huge amount of credibility, funding and recruits. Though I don't think the plot had much of a chance to succeed I am glad that it failed.
No comments:
Post a Comment