Member of al-Shabaab charged with 9/11 style plot to hijack an airplane and crash it into a building in the United States.

 

The Manhattan Federal Courthouse where the suspect was charged. The Guardian/Reuters.

A member of the al-Shabaab terror group has been charged with a plot to hijack an airplane and crash it into a building in the United States. AFP. Cholo Abdi Abdullah, a Kenyan aged 30, was arrested in 2019 in the Philippines and charged with six counts of terrorism. Abdullah had been trained there as a pilot and was prepared to hijack a commercial flight and crash it into a building, echoing the infamous 9/11 terror attacks. He also researched how to hijack airplanes and potential targets to attack with a hijacked plane. It's unclear how much further along the plot was before it was disrupted. Al-Shabaab is the Somalia based al-Qaeda affiliate and has conducted major attacks in the region but have not as of yet attacked the United States directly. 

My Comment:

This might be old news but I only just heard about this terror plot. I don't recall seeing any media coverage of this so I am guessing the news just broke today. I would hope that I would have remembered such a significant terror plot if it had gotten major coverage. 

This was a very serious terror plot. If it hadn't been disrupted it had a decent chance of working. Abdullah had the training to crash his plane into his target, which was not disclosed. We all know how that would have turned out with the best case scenario being the hijacked plane getting shot down or taken down by passengers. 

Still, hijacking a commercial airplane is a lot harder to do then it was before 9/11. Cockpits have been hardened and aren't easily breached. And even if they are the passengers onboard are going to be a lot more willing to fight back then they were in a pre-9/11 world. Plus, air marshals and other security measures would make hijacking a plane dramatically more difficult. 

However, with a pilot's license Abdullah could have chosen a different way to attack. He could have become a commercial pilot and then killed his co-pilot with no real chance at stopping him. This has happened before with the Germanwings crash, though that was a suicide, not a terror attack. And I don't think that is the only time that has happened. 

All that being said, even if this plot hadn't been disrupted, I don't think it was a sure thing. As I said, our defenses against hijacking is a lot more robust than it used to be. We now know what to expect with this kind of attack and that's probably why this plot failed. That and, my guess, some idiot talked and it allowed the plot to be uncovered. 

The biggest news though is that al-Shabaab apparently directed and approved of this attack, which is a major escalation. Though al-Shabaab has committed some truly horrible terror attacks, they have not done much outside of East Africa. Pulling off a 9/11 style terror attack would pretty much by default make them the most dangerous terror group operating today. Thankfully the attack got disrupted but I do think that America needs to take al-Shabaab more seriously.