Kenyan who plotted 9/11 style attack in the US faces life in prison

A Kenyan, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 34, who was conspiring with Al-Shaabab to conduct a 9/11 style attack on a tall building in the US, is now facing life in prison after being found guilty of several counts related to terrorism. 

His sentencing has been set for March 10, 2025, after a jury in Manhattan, New York, returned a guilty verdict on all six counts on Monday.

The charges include conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a foreign terrorist organisation and conspiring to murder US nationals. Others are conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, destroy aircraft and commit transnational acts of terrorism.

His arrest came following the successful coordination of several investigators attached to bureaus across three continents. Authorities in the US, Philippines and Kenya helped track the suspect and shared information on Abdi’s plans and movements. 

Involved in the high-profile case were the US Department of Defence, Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Joint Terrorism Taskforce - Kenya and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Speaking after the verdict, Attorney-General Merrick Garland said the conviction will ensure Abdi spend decades in prison for his crimes. He added that the Department of Justice will never stop working to identify, investigate and prosecute those who use heinous acts of violence to harm Americans. 

“The jury found that Cholo Abdi Abdullah, an operative of the terrorist organisation Al Shaabab, conspired to murder Americans in a terrorist attack reminiscent of the September 11 attack on our country,” AG Garland said. 

On his part, Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the conviction was a testament of the tireless work of the US’s federal law enforcement partners and career national security prosecutors of his office. 

Replicate heinous act of terrorism

For Mr Williams, the plan hatched by the convict was a terrible one that "was to replicate one of history’s most heinous acts of terrorism”.

“This effort (Abdi’s successful conviction) has been carried forward by generations of agents and prosecutors who never relented in their effort to bring Abdullah to justice and keep the nation safe. Thanks to their work and today’s verdict, Abdullah will now serve a lengthy sentence in prison,” he said.

Investigations into Abdi established that he had been trained for months in Somalia to become a deadly terrorist and then spent months at flight school in the Philippines solely preparing to hijack a commercial aircraft to crash it into a building in the US. 

So diligent was he in his pursuit that investigators found he was on the cusp of obtaining a commercial pilot licence and was even training on how to breach an airplane cockpit door. 

Trained by Shabaab

The probe on Abdi showed that in the several months he was trained by the Al-Shabaab, he learnt how to use the AK 47 assault rifle and explosives at a series of safe houses in Somalia. 

The convict had also conducted a lot of research on how to get pilot jobs.

Abdi had sent encrypted messages reporting his progress to his Al-Shaabab handler, including his extensive research on post-September 11 hijackings.

For the specific crime of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years, the same penalty that he will be handed for providing material support to the terrorist group. 

His fate gets even worse as he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison for conspiring to murder US nationals. For the crime of conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, he will face a mandatory 20 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. He also faces 20 years in prison for conspiring to destroy an aircraft, as well as a maximum penalty of life in prison for conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries. 

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