By Cole Bridges, a 24-year-old U.S. Army Private First Class from Stow, Ohio, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and plotting to murder U.S. military service members.
Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges on June 14, 2023. According to court documents, he joined the U.S. Army in September 2019 and was assigned as a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
The soldier’s radicalization began in 2019 when he started consuming online jihadist propaganda. By October 2020, Bridges was communicating with an FBI online covert employee posing as an ISIS supporter. During these interactions, Bridges expressed frustration with the U.S. military and provided tactical guidance to purported ISIS fighters planning attacks, including potential targets in New York City.
Bridges supplied portions of U.S. Army training manuals and detailed military combat tactics to the undercover agent. In December 2020, he began providing specific instructions on attacking U.S. forces in the Middle East, including diagrams of military maneuvers to maximize casualties in potential ISIS attacks.
The case, investigated by FBI field offices in Washington, Atlanta, and Cleveland, with assistance from U.S. Army Counterintelligence and other agencies, highlights ongoing concerns about insider threats and online radicalization within the U.S. military.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Adelsberg and Matthew Hellman prosecuted the case, with support from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
