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ISIS sympathizer sentenced to 14 years after suggesting attacks on NYC, armed forces
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Oct 12, 2024
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Fatih Aktas /Anadolu via Getty Images)
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Oct 12, 2024
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A U.S. Army soldier has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempting to provide support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS — including by suggesting potential targets in New York City.
Cole Bridges, originally from Ohio, also used his Army training to attempt to help ISIS plan a deadly attack on U.S. soldiers in the Middle East — although he was talking to an undercover FBI agent all along — according to Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who announced the sentencing on Friday.
The sentencing comes after Bridges, now 24, pleaded guilty last year to charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. service members.
“Today’s sentence makes clear that this office — along with our partners in law enforcement and the U.S. military — will work tirelessly to bring to justice those who, like Bridges, seek to harm members of our armed forces,” Williams said in a statement on the sentencing.
Bridges’ attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
Bridges first joined the Army in 2019 and was stationed in Georgia before being sent overseas to an Army base in Germany, according to the complaint the federal government filed against him in 2021.
After monitoring social media posts and online searches that appeared to support ISIS, an undercover FBI agent began communicating with Bridges in 2020, posing as a female ISIS supporter, according to the complaint. Bridges told the agent his family knew about his support for ISIS even before he had joined the Army, the complaint says.
Bridges later sent the FBI agent diagrams of a potential attack on U.S. soldiers, according to the complaint. The two also discussed the viability of different targets in New York City, including the 9/11 Memorial, the complaint says.
The FBI agent first sent Bridges various photos of government buildings in and around New York City, suggesting them as potential targets, but told Bridges, “Everything is so heavily guarded, I don’t know that it’s even possible to do an operation in NYC,” the complaint says.
According to the complaint, Bridges responded, “Choose your targets wisely.” When the 9/11 Memorial came up, it says, Bridges suggested “a sniper kill.”
The covert operation culminated with the undercover agent convincing Bridges in 2021 to narrate an ISIS propaganda video promoting an attack on U.S. forces, according to the complaint.
In addition to his prison term, Bridges was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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manhattan
Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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