Free Republic

There wasn’t any reason to think Cole James Bridges was anything more than an average young American. After he graduated from high school, he worked at a Papa John’s pizza shop in Stow, Ohio, for a while, and then, in Sept. 2019, joined the U.S. Army. He got sent to Fort Stewart in Georgia, where he became a cavalry scout. Thousands of young Americans have followed paths similar to the one Bridges embarked upon, but then he took a sharp turn no one expected: on Wednesday, Cole James Bridges pleaded guilty to trying to aid ISIS’ efforts to kill American...

A Northeast Ohio native pleaded guilty to terrorism charges after investigators say he tried to help terrorists ambush and kill U.S. troops overseas. Cole Bridges, 22, of Stow, pleaded guilty to trying to offer material support to the Islamic State group and trying to murder U.S. soldiers. Bridges faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the two charges he admitted to. He will be sentenced on Nov. 2. According to court records, Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, joined the U.S. Army around September 2019. In the same year, court documents say he started researching online propaganda...

NEW YORK – A U.S. Army soldier was arrested Tuesday in Georgia on terrorism charges after he spoke online about plots to blow up New York City’s 9/11 Memorial and other landmarks and attack U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, authorities said Tuesday.