A Kenyan man jailed for more than a year in the Philippines was extradited to New York this week to face multiple federal charges of plotting a Sept. 11-style terror attack against the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 30, is accused of receiving years of terror-related training in the Philippines, where he attended flight school, researched commercial airlines and looked for ways to get into the U.S. so he could hijack a plane and fly it into a skyscraper, federal prosecutors allege.
At his arraignment in New York federal court Wednesday, Abdullah pleaded not guilty to the indictment and was ordered held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He is expected back in court on Jan. 6 and faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted.
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Prosecutors said Abdullah was an operative for the Somalia-based extreme fundamentalist group al-Shabaab, an affiliated group of al-Qaida, which was responsible for the 2001 attacks on America.
Abdullah allegedly worked at the behest of a senior al-Shabaab commander behind the 2019 attack on a hotel in Nairobi that killed 21, including a U.S. citizen, according to ABC News.
After obtaining a pilot’s license in the Philippines, Abdullah next sought a visa to enter the United States, 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.
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In July 2019, Abdullah was apprehended in the Philippines, where authorities found a bomb and bomb-making equipment in his possession ― a discovery that first exposed the alleged plot to authorities, reports said.
“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,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. “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.”
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