Man convicted of conspiring to commit 9/11 style attack on behalf of terror group
A jury has found a man guilty of conspiring to steal a passenger jet and commit a 9/11-inspired attack under the direction of Somalian terrorist organization “al Shabaab.”
A jury has found a man guilty of conspiring to steal a passenger jet and commit a 9/11-inspired attack under the direction of Somalian terrorist organization “al Shabaab.”
Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 34, was found guilty Monday on six counts including conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to murder U.S. nationals. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Abdullah had sworn allegiance to Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mijahideen, the militant Islamist group commonly known as “al Shabaab,” based in Somalia, prosecutors said. He trained with the group for months “with AK-47 assault rifles and explosives at a series of safe houses in Somalia,” the Department of Justice said in a news release citing his indictment and evidence presented in court.
He took part in a plot to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in the U.S., reminiscent of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said he went to a flight school in the Philippines from 2017 to 2019 in pursuit of a commercial pilot license, researched pilot jobs, and researched targets “such as the tallest buildings in a major American city” and “how to open a cockpit door from the outside,” as well as how to obtain a U.S. visa. He also sent encrypted messages to his al Shabaab handler which included details on post-9/11 hijackings.
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