A Muslim who trained in Somalia, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to commit a 9/11-style terrorist attack in the U.S.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, John A. Eisenberg, and Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Christopher G. Raia, made the announcement on Monday.
He was convicted for multiple crimes that included conspiring to provide—and providing—material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, commit aircraft piracy, destroy aircraft, and commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said, “Cholo Abdi Abdullah was a highly trained al-Shabaab operative who was dedicated to recreating the horrific September 11 terrorist attacks on behalf of a vicious terrorist organization.”
“Abdullah pursued his commercial pilot license at a flight school in the Philippines while conducting extensive attack planning on how to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in America. As he later admitted to the FBI, he was fully prepared to die in his terrorist attack. I commend the years of outstanding investigative work of the FBI and the career prosecutors of this Office who disrupted Abdullah’s murderous plot and brought him to face justice in a U.S. court. He will now spend life behind bars, where he will not be able to harm innocent Americans.”
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg noted, “Today, justice has been served.”
“Abdullah, an al-Shabaab terrorist, sought to replicate the most horrific terrorist attack in our history, as he prepared to hijack a commercial airliner to take down a building on U.S. soil. We thwarted this plot due to the relentless efforts of U.S. law enforcement and thereby likely saved many innocent lives. His life sentence is a powerful reminder that those who plot attacks against the United States will be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
Hellbound and Down 