CLEVELAND, Ohio — A U.S. Army soldier from Stow pleaded guilty Wednesday to terrorism charges that accuse him of trying to aid ISIS in an attack on American forces in the Middle East and in New York.
Cole Bridges, 22, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military service members.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman scheduled sentencing for Nov. 2. Bridges faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count. His attorneys, Sabrina Shroff and Deborah Austern Colson, declined comment.
FBI agents arrested Bridges in January 2021. At the time of his arrest, he was a private first class assigned as a cavalry scout in the 3rd Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia.
Bridges joined the Army in September 2019. Investigators found he researched online propaganda that promoted jihadists and had expressed his support for ISIS on social media.
While deployed in Germany in 2020, he started messaging an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS sympathizer in direct contact with ISIS fighters in Syria.
Bridges said he wanted to help ISIS, believed in their cause and grew angry at the U.S. military.
He wrote in the messages that he had “connections” with people in Hamas and ISIS and joined the military to prove to his family and the government that he wasn’t in touch with terrorists, court records say.
“I don’t tell people I’m in the military, and I hate displaying the U.S. flag on my shoulder,” he wrote.
Bridges, over time, expressed his allegiance to ISIS over the U.S. military. He discussed attack plans for possible targets in the New York, including the 9/11 Memorial.
Bridges also gave the undercover agent official photos from an army manual that discussed troop movements and military tactics in the Middle East and asked if ISIS members liked the information he gave up.
He also passed along advice on how ISIS fighters could attack U.S. forces and fortify encampments against any U.S. Special Forces attacks. His advice included wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill U.S. soldiers.
Bridges later sent two videos of himself to the undercover agent, both times wearing his Army-issued body armor. In one he stood in front of an ISIS flag and in another he narrated a speech in support of an anticipated ambush by ISIS on American troops.
Adam Ferrise covers federal courts at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. You can find his work here.