East TN Man Convicted Of Attempting To Aid ISIS

An East Tennessee man has been convicted of helping the terrorist organization known as ISIS. An eight day trial concluded last week that found 31 year old Benjamin Carpenter of Knoxville aka “Abu Hamza” guilty of of attempting to provide material support to ISIS. According to evidence presented at trial, Carpenter served as the leader of an international organization of pro-ISIS 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 that, among other things, celebrated the deaths of American soldiers, glorified suicide bombers, and called for open war against the United States and its Western allies. 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 ISIS’s official foreign-language media arm. Unbeknownst to him, that individual was an FBI undercover employee who had infiltrated Carpenter’s group. Carpenter faces a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison and a lifetime term of supervised release. He will be sentenced at a later date.