Kenyan Terrorist Took Flight Lessons, Researched Skyscrapers for 9/11-Style Terror Attack in Atlanta: Feds; Man Who Targeted Atlanta Landmark in 9/11-Style Terror Plot Sentenced to Life

Kenyan terrorist took flight lessons, researched skyscrapers for 9/11-style terror attack in Atlanta: feds

A Kenyan man has been sentenced to life in prison for plotting a 9/11-inspired attack on Atlanta, Georgia — even training overseas with the terror group al-Shabaab and taking flight lessons.

Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 35, was hit with two life sentences on Monday for the terror scheme, in which he also researched tall skyscrapers in the capital of the Peach State to target.

Cholo Abdi Abdullah (right) with a redacted instructor at a flight school in the Philippines.

“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,” New York Southern District US Attorney General Jay Clayton said in a statement Monday.

“As he later admitted to the FBI, he was fully prepared to die in his terrorist attack,” Clayton said.

Federal prosecutors said Abdullah joined al-Shabaab, an Islamist extremist militant group and designated terrorist organisation, in 2015.

He spent about a year in Somali safehouses for military-style training, which included how to make explosives and fire an AK-47 assault rifle.

Between October 2017 and July 2019, Abdullah trained at a flight school in the Philippines, working toward a commercial pilot’s license — with al-Shabaab picking up the tab, the feds said. --->READ MORE HERE

Man who targeted Atlanta landmark in 9/11-style terror plot sentenced to life:

The Brief

• • Prosecutors say Abdullah researched Delta flights and Atlanta’s tallest building while planning a 9/11-style aircraft attack.
  • Court records show he trained as a pilot for al-Shabaab to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a U.S. building.
  • A federal jury convicted him on six terrorism-related counts, resulting in two consecutive life sentences.

WASHINGTON - A Kenyan man who federal prosecutors say researched Delta flights and Atlanta’s tallest skyscraper as part of a 9/11-style terror plot has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.

What we know: Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 34, was sentenced after a jury convicted him in November 2024 of conspiring to support the terrorist group al-Shabaab and plotting to hijack a commercial aircraft and crash it into a building in the United States. Court records show Abdullah specifically researched flights linked to Atlanta and focused on the Bank of America Plaza, a 55-story downtown tower, during his attack planning.

Federal authorities said Abdullah was training to become a commercial airline pilot so he could carry out a mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil.

According to court documents and trial evidence, Abdullah joined al-Shabaab in 2015 and spent about a year in Somalia receiving military-style training, including firearms and explosives instruction. Senior operatives later recruited him for a larger international plot that involved training as a pilot so he could hijack a plane and crash it into a U.S. building.

From October 2017 through July 2019, Abdullah attended a flight school in the Philippines, completing hundreds of hours of classroom instruction, simulator work and flight training toward commercial pilot certification. Prosecutors said his tuition was financed by al-Shabaab, which raises money through extortion in Somalia --->READ MORE HERE

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