A US soldier was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempting to help the Islamic State terrorist group murder US troops.
Cole Bridges was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to terrorism charges in June of last year.
Prosecutors revealed that Bridges was already researching jihadist content before he joined the US military in 2019, and had voiced his support for ISIS and other jihadi groups online. He was then assigned to Fort Stewart, Georgia as a cavalry scout in the third infantry division.
In the fall of 2020, Bridges began speaking online with somebody he believed to be an ISIS supporter, but was actually an FBI employee.
Bridges voiced his frustrations with the US armed forces and said he wanted to help ISIS. He provided “training and guidance to purported Isis fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in New York City.”
He also gave a US army training manual to the undercover FBI agent, “with the understanding that the materials would be used by Isis in future attack planning.”
Later that year, he began providing information that could be used to target US forces in the Middle East.
He also sent a propaganda video of himself in which he gave a speech in support of an ISIS attack against US troops he was told would take place.
“Cole Bridges used his US army training to pursue a horrifying goal: the brutal murder of his fellow service members in a carefully plotted ambush,” Manhattan US attorney Damian Williams said in a press 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.
“This is a betrayal of the worst order.”
Bridges’ sentence will be followed by 10 years under supervised release.
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