Army soldier sentenced to 14 years for ISIS plot to kill US forces, after requesting he serve 40 years

A U.S. Army soldier has been sentenced to 14 years in prison having pleaded guilty to attempting to assist the Islamic State terror group on how to ambush his fellow soldiers in the Middle East during conversations in which he believed he was speaking with a terrorist.

Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was handed down the sentence after a nearly five-hour Manhattan federal court proceeding in which he surprisingly requested he be given a maximum 40-year sentence. Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in June 2023. 

“Honestly, I do believe that I deserve the maximum sentence,” Bridges told Judge Lewis J. Liman. “I know what I did was wrong,” he said, adding he would carry “regret for as long as I live.”

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Liman cited numerous facts that he said demonstrated Bridges was “not a hardened criminal” and said he had no actual communications with the Islamic State organization.

Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, was assigned to the Third Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia, as a cavalry scout at the time of the crime, the Justice Department said. He joined the Army in September 2019.

According to court documents, about a year before he joined the Army, Bridges began researching and consuming online propaganda promoting jihadists and their violent ideology, and began to express his support for ISIS and jihad on social media.

About a year into his service, Bridges began communicating with an FBI online covert employee (OCE), who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East. During these communications, Bridges expressed his frustration with the U.S. military and his desire to aid ISIS, per the court documents. 

Bridges provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in New York City. He also provided the OCE with portions of a U.S. Army training manual and guidance about military combat tactics, with the understanding that the materials would be used by ISIS in future attack planning.

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Bridges also began supplying the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East, including diagramming military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of future attacks on U.S. troops. 

He also gave advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to ambush U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops. 

In January 2021, Bridges provided the OCE with a video of himself in his U.S. Army body armor standing in front of a flag often used by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS. 

Around a week later, Bridges sent a second propaganda video he narrated using a voice manipulator in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.

Judge Liman said the 14-year sentence would deter other members of the armed forces who might want to attack the military. He said Bridges had “shown signs of remorse,” including expressing relief after his arrest that he had been dealing with the FBI rather than terrorists.

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Bridges, the judge added, also had not sought any materials from other soldiers that might be useful to the Islamic State organization. He said the “most chilling evidence” was Bridges’ willingness to provide the undercover agent with advice on how the terrorist group could minimize casualties in an attack.

His attorney, Sabrina Shroff, asked Friday that he be sentenced to the nearly four years he has already served behind bars and argued for leniency because Bridges was lured into the plot by undercover U.S. law enforcement agents who posed as supporters of the Islamic State group. 

She said Bridges was a vulnerable target who was seeking a sense of community after becoming isolated from his family and suffering from depression.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.