The Justice Department announced criminal charges against a Kenyan member of the terrorist group al Shabab who federal prosecutors in New York said planned to hijack aircraft to conduct a “9/11-style attack in the United States.”

Cholo Abdi Abdullah, a member of the East African terrorist group that has sworn allegiance to al Qaeda, was arrested in the Philippines in July of last year and was transported to the U.S. on Tuesday to face six terrorism counts in a New York federal court. He faces a minimum of 20 years behind bars and up to life imprisonment if convicted.