Former U.S. Soldier Is Sentenced to 14 Years for Planning to Help ISIS

U.S.|Former U.S. Soldier Is Sentenced to 14 Years for Planning to Help ISIS

A erstwhile worker successful the U.S. Army was sentenced connected Friday to 14 years successful situation aft pleading blameworthy to attempting to supply ISIS with accusation to assistance program an ambush helium thought would effect successful the deaths of U.S. soldiers successful the Middle East, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The soldier, Pvt. Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, besides discussed imaginable locations for violent attacks successful New York City with an undercover F.B.I. cause whom helium believed to beryllium a protagonist of the Islamic State.

Private Bridges enlisted successful the subject successful 2019 and joined an infantry part successful Fort Stewart, Ga. Before enlisting, helium had already been persuaded by extremist ideologies, according to the Justice Department.

“Cole Bridges utilized his U.S. Army grooming to prosecute a horrifying goal: the brutal execution of his chap work members successful a cautiously plotted ambush,” Damian Williams, the U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of New York, said successful a statement.

Beginning successful astatine slightest 2019, Private Bridges began researching jihadist propaganda and posted his enactment for ISIS connected societal media. About a twelvemonth aft joining the Army, helium began a correspondence with an F.B.I. cause who was posing arsenic an ISIS protagonist successful interaction with the radical successful the Middle East.

A criminal complaint filed successful the Southern District of New York elaborate the soldier’s fervent intent connected aiding the Islamic State, describing Private Bridges arsenic “a protagonist of ISIS and its ngo to found a planetary caliphate.”