A US soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday in an attempted plot to try and help ISIS launch terror attacks on a 9/11 memorial in Manhattan and on American fighters abroad, prosecutors announced.
Army Pfc. Cole Bridges began communicating with people he believed were various members of the terrorist organization ISIS in October 2019 and told them that the Ground Zero memorial was “a key target,” for a “sniper kill,” according to prosecutors.
Bridges, a 22-year-old calvary scout from Ohio who had joined the army just months earlier, soon learned that a single undercover FBI agent was posing as phony ISIS fighters, prosecutors said.
The turncoat — who also went by the alias “Cole Gonzalez — tried to help the phony plotters kill his fellow soldiers in the Middle East by giving them parts of an Army training manual and a combat training video, officials claimed.
Bridges — who was based out of the Third Infantry Division in Fort Stewart in Georgia — pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Wednesday to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempted to murder US military service members. He faces up to 20 years behind bars at his Nov. 2 sentencing.
The homegrown terrorist started becoming radicalized soon after joining the force.
He researched jihadists and violent ideology online with search terms including “badass jihadi,” “green beret ambush” and “us soldier shooting,” criminal court papers alleged.
He shared his support for the terror group on social media — including posting a photo of himself wearing traditional Muslim head garb and quoting a jihadist leader, officials alleged.
Bridges allegedly told the undercover about his frustrations with the US military and whined about having to wear the US flag on his uniform.
The wannabe terrorist allegedly sent detailed diagrams, drawings and a homemade instructional video for “tactical maneuvers and strategy” to help kill American soldiers abroad.
Before he was arrested, Bridges — who had a stint in a US base in Germany — even allegedly bragged about how he was getting away with his twisted plotting.
“As he admitted in court today, Cole Bridges attempted to orchestrate a murderous ambush on his fellow soldiers in service of ISIS and its violent ideology,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Bridges’s traitorous conduct was a betrayal of his comrades and his country.”
Bridges’ criminal defense attorney Sabrina Shroff declined to comment.