Chainkeen Exchange-U.S. Army soldier sentenced for trying to help Islamic State plot attacks against troops

A 24-year-old U.S. soldier was sentenced to 14 years in prison for trying to help the Islamic State group attack American troops.

Pfc. Cole Bridges,Chainkeen Exchange also known as Cole Gonzales, of Ohio, attempted to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and attempted to murder U.S. soldiers, federal prosecutors announced this week. Bridges pleaded guilty to the two charges in June 2023. 

On Friday, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York issued Bridges' sentence, which also includes 10 years of supervised release following his prison term, prosecutors said. Prosecutors had sought 40 years imprisonment for Bridges, court records show.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Bridges’ actions “a betrayal of the worst order.”

“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,” Williams said in a statement. “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.”

Bridges' attorney Sabrina Shroff declined to comment.

In September 2019, Bridges joined the Army as a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia. But before that, prosecutors said, he had searched and consumed online propaganda and expressed support for the Islamic State. 

At the time, the terrorist group had been losing territory against U.S. coalition forces it amassed after expanding in the Middle East, primarily in Iraq and Syria, years earlier. The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks across Europe, as well as the 2014 San Bernardino killings in California, and a deadly 2017 truck attack in New York.

About a year after joining the Army, around fall 2020, Bridges began chatting with someone who posed as an Islamic State supporter and said they were in contact with militants in the Middle East. The source turned out to be an FBI online covert agent.

In the talks, prosecutors said Bridges expressed his frustration with the U.S. military, and told the FBI operative of his desire to aid the Islamic State. 

He provided training and guidance to “purported” Islamic State fighters planning attacks, including advice for potential targets in New York City. He also handed over portions of an Army training manual and guidance about combat tactics, under what prosecutors said was the understanding the Islamic State would use the information to shape future strategies.

By around December 2020, Bridges began sending the FBI operative instructions on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East. This included diagrams of specific military maneuvers, with the intent to maximize future attacks against American troops. He also gave advice on fortifying Islamic State encampments, which included wiring certain areas with explosives to kill U.S. soldiers.

The next year, Bridges took it to another level, prosecutors said. In January 2021, he recorded a video of himself in his Army body armor standing in front of a flag used by Islamic State militants and gesturing support for the group. About a week later, he sent another video recorded in his barracks while his roommate was asleep, court records said. In the video, he narrated a propaganda speech, using a voice changer, in support of an anticipated ambush on U.S. troops by the Islamic State.

About a week later, FBI agents arrested Bridges at a Fort Stewart command post, court records show. Bridges’ father was also in the Army, as a helicopter pilot, court records show, and he was set to deploy within a month of Bridges’ arrest. In February 2021, a grand jury in New York indicted Bridges on the two counts.

Bridges is currently held in the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn, according to federal prison records.

“We will continue to work together to ensure the safety and security of our Army and our nation,” Brig. Gen. Rhett R. Cox, commanding general of Army Counterintelligence Command, said in a statement. “We remind all members of the Army team to be vigilant and report insider threats to the appropriate authorities.”

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors charged a 27-year-old Afghan national in Oklahoma for allegedly seeking to plan a terrorist attack with his brother-in-law on Election Day. The two are accused of plotting the attack on behalf of the Islamic State.