U.S. soldier jailed for plotting to help ISIS attack, murder colleagues

Cole Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was sentenced to 168 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation and attempting to murder U.S. military service members, based on his efforts to assist the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to attack and kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East.

Mr Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges on June 14, 2023. According to court documents, Mr Bridges joined the U.S. Army in approximately September 2019 and was assigned as a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Georgia. Before he joined the Army, beginning in at least 2019, Mr 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. In or about October 2020, approximately one year after joining the Army, Mr Bridges began communicating with an FBI online covert employee (the OCE), who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East.

During these communications, Mr Bridges expressed his frustration with the U.S. military and his desire to aid ISIS. Mr Bridges then provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in New York City. Mr Bridges 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.

In or about December 2020, Mr Bridges began to supply the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Among other things, Mr Bridges diagrammed specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of future attacks on U.S. troops.

Mr Bridges also provided 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.

Then, in January 2021, Mr 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.

Approximately one week later, Mr Bridges sent a second video in which Mr Bridges, using a voice manipulator, narrated a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.

The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the FBI field offices in Washington, Atlanta, and Cleveland; U.S. Army Counterintelligence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, and U.S. Army Third Infantry Division.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Adelsberg and Matthew Hellman for the Southern District of New York prosecuted the case, with assistance from Trial Attorney Michael Dittoe of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

SOURCE: US Department of Justice