UPDATE
Nov 7, 2024 12:30 AM CST
A Kenyan man has been convicted by a federal jury of plotting a 9/11-style attack on a US building on behalf of the terrorist organization al-Shabab. Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 34, was found guilty on all six counts he faced for conspiring to hijack and slam it into a building, according to court records, the AP reports. He's due to be sentenced next March and faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison. In a statement, US Attorney Damian Williams went to flight school in the Philippines and was "on the cusp of getting a commercial pilot license while conducting extensive attack planning, such as how to breach an airplane cockpit door." Abdullah was arrested in the Philippines in 2019 and brought to the US in 2020.
Dec 16, 2020 1:27 PM CST
A Kenyan man has been indicted in a case that "eerily draws parallels" to the 9/11 attacks, the Department of Justice says. Cholo Abdi Abdullah "obtained pilot training in the Philippines in preparation for seeking to hijack a commercial aircraft and crash it into a building in the United States," according to a newly unsealed federal indictment. Abdullah was arrested last year in the Philippines, where he had spent years training as a pilot and completed the necessary tests for a pilot's license, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors say the 30-year-old was taking orders from a commander in al-Shabab, a group that has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda.
Abdullah allegedly researched aircraft security issues including methods of hijacking a plane, information on the tallest building in an unnamed major US city, and how to obtain a US visa. After his July 2019 arrest, Philippine authorities said Abdullah had pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012. They said firearms and explosives were found at his residence. Abdullah was transported from the Philippines to the US Tuesday and entered a not guilty plea in a federal court in Manhattan Wednesday, NBC New York reports. He is being held without bail and faces a potential sentence of 20 years to life. (More terrorism stories.)
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