Koonyan Terror Plotter Took Flight Training to Prepare for 9/11-Style Attack

[voiceofreason]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loc...to-conduct-another-9-11-style-attack/2784155/

Terror Plotter Took Flight Training to Prepare for 9/11-Style Attack, Feds Say
Cholo Abdi Abdullah is expected in federal court in New York later Wednesday
12/16/2020

A Kenyan man spent years training in the Philippines to conduct a 9/11-style attack against the United States, going through flight school and researching methods to get into the country and hijack a plane, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Cholo Abdi Abdullah was allegedly part of an al-Shabaab unit and taking orders directly from a commander in the African terror group -- one who was responsible for previously directing a deadly 2019 hotel attack in Nairobi, prosecutors said.

"This chilling callback to the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, is a stark reminder that terrorist groups like al Shabaab remain committed to killing U.S. citizens and attacking the United States," Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.

Abdullah, 30, who has been in custody since last year, entered a not guilty plea in a New York federal court Wednesday and was ordered held without bail. He faces multiple criminal counts related to his alleged plot and support for the terror group, with a potential sentence of anywhere from 20 years to life in prison.

Officials say he was conducting research on American skyscrapers as potential targets - but it was not immediately clear if any New York landmarks were on his list.

Filipino news outlets widely reported his arrest in July 2019, though the details of the alleged plot were not known at the time. According to the web site Rappler, Abdullah had a bomb and bomb-making equipment when he was arrested.


“Nearly 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there are those who remain determined to conduct terror attacks against United States citizens. Abdullah, we allege, is one of them," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said in a statement on the indictment. "He obtained a pilot’s license overseas, learning how to hijack an aircraft for the purpose of causing a mass-casualty incident within our borders."


https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/te...inked-to-al-qaeda-held-in-philippines-1421536

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/12/16/kenyan-man-indicted-for-plotting-9-11-style-terror-attack/

Kenyan man indicted on charges of plotting a 9/11-style terror attack
By Rebecca Rosenberg and Aaron Feis
December 16, 2020 | 12:30pm | Updated

A Kenyan national plotted for years to launch a 9/11-style terror attack against the US, learning how to fly a plane and scheming to sneak into the country, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in indicting the man.

Operating under the orders of African terror group al-Shabaab, Cholo Abdi Abdullah “sought to obtain pilot training, test flaws in airport security, and take other steps for hijacking a civil aircraft,” prosecutors with the Southern District of New York alleged in a 19-page indictment unsealed Wednesday.

“This chilling callback to the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, is a stark reminder that terrorist groups like al-Shabaab remain committed to killing U.S. citizens and attacking the United States,” said acting Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss in announcing the case.

“But we remain even more resolute in our dedication to investigating, preventing, and prosecuting such lethal plots, and will use every tool in our arsenal to stop those who would commit acts of terrorism at home and abroad.”

In late 2016, Abdullah enrolled in a flight school in the Philippines, where he studied into 2019, eventually earning his pilot’s license, according to authorities.

Simultaneously, he conducted research into topics including “security on commercial airliners and how to breach a cockpit door from the outside, information about the tallest building in a major U.S. city, and information about how to obtain a US visa,” according to the indictment.

Prosecutors did not specify the US city in question.

But before Abdullah, 30, could follow through, he was arrested in the Philippines in the summer of 2019, according to the indictment.

Abdullah faces a slew of charges including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder US nationals, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy and conspiracy to destroy aircraft.

During a brief appearance Wednesday in federal court in Lower Manhattan, Abdullah pleaded not guilty.

Abdullah, who faces 20 years to life behind bars, was ordered detained and is due back in court on Jan. 6.

His lawyer, Jill Shellow, declined comment.