Tennessee Man Convicted of Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS

A Tennessee man has been convicted of attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

Benjamin Carpenter, 31, of Knoxville, Tennessee, aka Abu Hamza, was convicted on October 19, following an eight-day trial.

The Department of Justice explained in a press release that Carpenter “served as the leader of Ahlut-Tawhid Publications, an international organization of pro-ISIS ‘munasirin’ (i.e., supporters), dedicated to translating, producing and distributing ISIS propaganda throughout the world.”

“For years, Carpenter, using his alias ‘Abu Hamza,’ published a large body of ISIS media, including his weekly newsletter ‘From Dabiq to Rome,’ a periodical that, among other things, celebrated the deaths of American soldiers, glorified suicide bomber, and called for open war against the United States and its Western allies,” the DOJ said in the press release.

The DOJ alleges that Carpenter contacted an undercover agent while attempting to provide translation services for ISIS’s foreign-language media arm.

“In 2020 and 2021, Carpenter contacted an individual he believed to be affiliated with ISIS’s central media bureau and provided translation services for a project intended to relaunch Al-Hayat Media Center, ISIS’s official foreign-language media arm. Unbeknownst to him, that individual was an FBI undercover employee who had infiltrated Carpenter’s group,” the Department of Justice said.

Carpenter told 10News in 2021, he believed his conduct was protected by free speech.

The Knoxville Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is composed of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, investigated the case with assistance from FBI Field Offices across the country.

Carpenter has not been sentenced but faces up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.