A U.S. Military soldier has been sentenced to 14 years in jail having pleaded responsible to trying to help the Islamic State terror group on methods to ambush his fellow troopers within the Center East throughout conversations through which he believed he was talking with a terrorist.
Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was handed down the sentence after a virtually five-hour Manhattan federal court docket continuing through which he surprisingly requested he be given a most 40-year sentence. Bridges pleaded responsible to terrorism costs in June 2023.
“Truthfully, I do consider that I deserve the utmost sentence,” Bridges advised Decide Lewis J. Liman. “I do know what I did was flawed,” he stated, including he would carry “remorse for so long as I dwell.”
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Cole Bridges, 22, admitted to making an attempt to assist ISIS ambush his fellow U.S. troopers within the Center East, federal prosecutors stated. (U.S. Military Counterintelligence Command)
Liman cited quite a few details that he stated demonstrated Bridges was “not a hardened legal” and stated he had no precise communications with the Islamic State group.
Bridges, also called Cole Gonzales, was assigned to the Third Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia, as a cavalry scout on the time of the crime, the Justice Division stated. He joined the Military in September 2019.
In keeping with court docket paperwork, a few yr earlier than he joined the Military, Bridges started researching and consuming on-line propaganda selling jihadists and their violent ideology, and started to precise his help for ISIS and jihad on social media.
A couple of yr into his service, Bridges started speaking with an FBI on-line covert worker (OCE), who was posing as an ISIS supporter involved with ISIS fighters within the Center East. Throughout these communications, Bridges expressed his frustration with the U.S. army and his want to assist ISIS, per the court docket paperwork.
Bridges offered coaching and steerage to purported ISIS fighters who had been planning assaults, together with recommendation about potential targets in New York Metropolis. He additionally offered the OCE with parts of a U.S. Military coaching guide and steerage about army fight ways, with the understanding that the supplies could be utilized by ISIS in future assault planning.
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A masked Islamic State soldier poses holding the ISIS flag in 2015. (Historical past/Common Photographs Group through Getty Photographs)
Bridges additionally started supplying the OCE with directions for the purported ISIS fighters on methods to assault U.S. forces within the Center East, together with diagramming army maneuvers meant to assist ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of future assaults on U.S. troops.
He additionally gave recommendation about one of the simplest ways to fortify an ISIS encampment to ambush U.S. Particular Forces, together with by wiring sure buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops.
In January 2021, Bridges offered the OCE with a video of himself in his U.S. Military physique armor standing in entrance of a flag typically utilized by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of help for ISIS.
Round every week later, Bridges despatched a second propaganda video he narrated utilizing a voice manipulator in help of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.
Decide Liman stated the 14-year sentence would deter different members of the armed forces who would possibly need to assault the army. He stated Bridges had “proven indicators of regret,” together with expressing reduction after his arrest that he had been coping with the FBI quite than terrorists.
Bridges offered coaching and steerage to purported ISIS fighters who had been planning assaults, together with recommendation about potential targets in New York Metropolis. (Drew Angerer/Getty Photographs)
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Bridges, the decide added, additionally had not sought any supplies from different troopers that is perhaps helpful to the Islamic State group. He stated the “most chilling proof” was Bridges’ willingness to supply the spy with recommendation on how the terrorist group may reduce casualties in an assault.
His legal professional, Sabrina Shroff, requested Friday that he be sentenced to the almost 4 years he has already served behind bars and argued for leniency as a result of Bridges was lured into the plot by undercover U.S. legislation enforcement brokers who posed as supporters of the Islamic State group.
She stated Bridges was a weak goal who was looking for a way of group after changing into remoted from his household and affected by despair.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
