He trained as a pilot. He studied targets. He was ready to die. U.S. prosecutors say the plot was real—and chilling.
A Kenyan national has been sentenced to life in prison for plotting a 9/11-style terrorist attack targeting Atlanta’s tallest building on behalf of the Somalia-based extremist group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, U.S. prosecutors said.
Federal judge sentenced Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 34, to two consecutive life sentences plus lifetime supervised release for conspiring to hijack a commercial airliner and crash it into Bank of America Plaza, a 55-story tower that dominates Atlanta’s skyline.
A Manhattan jury convicted Abdullah in 2024 on six terrorism-related counts, including conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, aircraft piracy, conspiring to murder U.S. nationals abroad, and plotting acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
A Plot Years in the Making
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Abdullah joined al-Shabaab in 2015 and underwent extensive training in explosives, clandestine operations, and counter-surveillance techniques.
Prosecutors said he agreed to participate in an international al-Shabaab plot that mirrored the September 11 attacks—training as a commercial airline pilot with the explicit goal of hijacking a passenger plane and crashing it into a U.S. building.
In 2017, Abdullah relocated to the Philippines, enrolling in a flight school to obtain a commercial pilot’s license. During his training, investigators say he conducted repeated online searches about air marshals, Boeing cockpit security, Delta Air Lines flights, and Atlanta’s tallest buildings.
In January 2019, prosecutors said, Abdullah searched specifically for the “Tallest building in Atlanta,” identifying Bank of America Plaza as his intended target.
By the time of his arrest, Abdullah had completed nearly all requirements for his commercial pilot certification.
Attack Thwarted Before Takeoff
Abdullah was arrested later in 2019 on unrelated local charges before the plot could advance further. He was transferred to U.S. custody the following year and later stood trial in federal court.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton described Abdullah as a “highly trained al-Shabaab operative” intent on recreating the horrors of September 11.
“He pursued his commercial pilot license while conducting extensive attack planning,” Clayton said. “As he later admitted to the FBI, he was fully prepared to die in his terrorist attack.”
Abdullah represented himself at trial, declined to deliver an opening statement, and largely abstained from questioning witnesses.
A Persistent Global Threat
The U.S. State Department designated al-Shabaab as a foreign terrorist organization in 2008. The group, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, has carried out deadly attacks across East Africa and continues to plot operations beyond the region, U.S. officials say.
Prosecutors stressed that the sentence reflects both the gravity of the planned attack and the continued risk posed by transnational jihadist networks seeking to exploit global aviation systems.
For U.S. authorities, the case underscores a stark reality: while the September 11 attacks are more than two decades in the past, efforts to replicate them have never stopped.
