Former U.S. Soldier Is Sentenced to 14 Years for Planning to Help ISIS

A former soldier in the U.S. Army was sentenced on Friday to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to provide ISIS with information to help plan an ambush he thought would result in the deaths of U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The soldier, Pvt. Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, also discussed potential locations for terrorist attacks in New York City with an undercover F.B.I. agent whom he believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State.

Private Bridges enlisted in the military in 2019 and joined an infantry division in Fort Stewart, Ga. Before enlisting, he had already been persuaded by radical ideologies, according to the Justice Department.

“Cole Bridges used his U.S. Army training to pursue a horrifying goal: the brutal murder of his fellow service members in a carefully plotted ambush,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Beginning in at least 2019, Private Bridges began researching jihadist propaganda and posted his support for ISIS on social media. About a year after joining the Army, he began a correspondence with an F.B.I. agent who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with the group in the Middle East.

A criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York detailed the soldier’s fervent intent on aiding the Islamic State, describing Private Bridges as “a supporter of ISIS and its mission to establish a global caliphate.”

The complaint described internet searches he conducted for terms that included “U.S. soldier shooting” and “Green Beret ambush.”

Private Bridges and the informant began communicating on an encrypted messaging application around October 2020. Private Bridges provided portions of U.S. Army training manuals and advice on combat tactics, thinking that the information would be used in future attacks against U.S. soldiers, according to court records.

Private Bridges also provided advice on how to fortify ISIS encampments to ambush U.S. troops, including by wiring explosives to kill soldiers as they entered certain buildings.

Private Bridges provided the informant with a video of himself in front of a flag known to be used by ISIS fighters while making a gesture of symbolic support for the group, according to court filings. About a week later, he sent another video in which he spoke of his support for what he believed was a coming ambush of U.S. soldiers.

There were also efforts to help in domestic plots, federal prosecutors said.

The informant sent Private Bridges images of government buildings in and around New York City, with a message that questioned whether an attack on heavily guarded buildings would be possible.

“Choose your targets wisely,” Private Bridges wrote. He and the informant later discussed a potential attack on the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan.

Private Bridges was arrested in January 2021. He pleaded guilty in June 2023 to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military service members. Those charges each carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A lawyer for the private could not immediately be located.

In addition to his prison sentence, Private Bridges was ordered to undergo 10 years of supervised release.

“Bridges sought to attack the very soldiers he was entrusted to protect and, making this abhorrent conduct even more troubling, was eager to help people he believed were members of a deadly foreign terrorist organization plan this attack,” Mr. Williams said in his statement. “This is a betrayal of the worst order.”