A federal indictment accuses a Kenyan national of getting pilot training and researching how to conduct a 9/11-type of attack on the United States at the direction of the Muslim terrorist group al-Shabaab.
The plot was halted when the Kenyan, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, was arrested, the Department of Justice said.
He was charged with six counts of terrorism-related offenses, including conspiring to hijack an aircraft to conduct a 9/11-style attack.
Abdullah was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges. He moved into the custody of U.S. law enforcement just this month for prosecution, the DOJ said Wednesday.
He is to appear before Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger in Manhattan federal court. The case is assigned to United States District Judge Analisa Torres.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said the case “reminds us of the deadly threat that radical Islamic terrorists continue to pose to our nation.”
“And it also highlights our commitment to pursue and hold accountable anybody who seeks to harm our country and our citizens,” he said. “No matter where terrorists who plan to target Americans may be located, we will seek to identify them and bring them to justice,” said “We owe a debt of gratitude to the detectives, agents, analysts, and prosecutors who are responsible for this defendant’s arrest.”
The FBI’s Jill Sanborn said the case reveals foreign terror groups such as al-Shabaab still are “determined to plot, plan, and conspire to commit terrorist acts across the globe against the United States, our interests and our foreign partners.”