N. CAROLINA MAN GETS LIFE FOR TERROR PLOT

RALEIGH, N.C. A man who plotted to shoot hundreds of people on behalf of the Islamic State group received a life sentence Tuesday in a case that prosecutors say illustrates the dangers of Americans radicalized through social media.

Justin Nojan Sullivan, 21, received the sentence in federal court in Asheville after pleading guilty late last year to the foiled plot to attack a nightclub or concert and film it for distribution on terrorist sites.

Sullivan was a teenager in the small foothills town of Morganton when he became radicalized in 2014 after watching terrorist beheadings and other Islamic State propaganda online, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose said Tuesday.

Authorities say Sullivan admitted to having frequent contact online with a prominent Islamic State recruiter and propagandist in Syria, the now-dead Junaid Hussain. Sullivan agreed to Hussain’s request to make a video of his planned attack so that it could be used online for recruitment, Rose said.

“They know this is a way to win the hearts and minds of American youth or those who may be disenfranchised in some way,” Rose told reporters after the sentencing. “Certainly the use of social media by foreign terrorist organizations, particularly ISIS, is one of the ways that they’re most effective.” ISIS is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.