Suspected Al-Shabaab Operative Charged in 9/11-Style Hijacking Plot
17 Dec 2020
Thirty-year-old Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah, a suspected member of Somalian terrorist organization al-Shabaab, was extradited from the Philippines to the United States on Tuesday to face terrorism charges for a 9/11-style hijacking scheme. Abdullah made his first court appearance in New York on Wednesday.
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) unsealed a six-count indictment on terrorism charges against Abdullah on Wednesday, describing him as “an operative of the foreign terrorist organization al-Shabaab.”
The indictment states that Abdullah received pilot training in the Philippines beginning in 2016, as part of a plan to “hijack a commercial aircraft and crash it into a building in the United States,” as summarized by acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss.