Man sentenced to life for planning 9/11-style attack on Atlanta's Bank of America Plaza, prosecutors say
A Kenyan man will spend the rest of his life in prison for plotting what prosecutors called a "9/11-style attack" on Atlanta's tallest building on behalf of an Africa-based terrorist organization.
On Monday, a federal judge sentenced 34-year-old Cholo Abdi Abdullah to two consecutive life sentences as well as a lifetime of supervised release for planning to hijack a commercial airliner and targeting Atlanta's 55-story Bank of America Plaza as part of a campaign by Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, commonly known as al-Shabaab.
In 2024, a jury in Manhattan found Abdullah guilty on six counts: conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to murder U.S. nationals abroad, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, conspiring to destroy aircraft, and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Thwarting an attack planned abroad
Federal prosecutors said Abdullah joined al-Shabaab in 2015 and went through extensive training in explosives and how to operate in secret and avoid detection.
"He agreed to join al-Shabaab's international scheme to execute a mass-casualty terrorist attack, which would involve Abdullah training to become an airline pilot so that he could hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in the U.S.," the Department of Justice wrote in a release.
He then moved to the Philippines in 2017, where he began training as a commercial pilot. While getting his training, investigators say he made multiple online searches about air marshals and "Boeing 737 cockpit door."
In January 2019, Abdullah searched for information on "Delta flights" and the "Tallest building in Atlanta," specifically focusing on the Bank of America Plaza, prosecutors said.
Abdullah was almost finished with his two-year pilot training when he was arrested months later on local charges. Officials say he had completed all but one of the requirements for his commercial pilot's license.
He was transferred the following year to U.S. law enforcement authorities.
"Cholo Abdi Abdullah was a highly trained al-Shabaab operative who was dedicated to recreating the horrific September 11 terrorist attacks on behalf of a vicious terrorist organization," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "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. As he later admitted to the FBI, he was fully prepared to die in his terrorist attack."
Abdullah represented himself during the trial. He declined to give an opening statement and did not actively participate in questioning witnesses.
The State Department in 2008 designated al-Shabab, which means "the youth" in Arabic, as a foreign terrorist organization. The militant group is an al-Qaida affiliate that has fought to establish an Islamic state in Somalia based on Shariah law.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.