Knoxville man who ran ISIS propaganda network sentenced to 20 years

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Knoxville man who led an international group dedicated to spreading terrorist propaganda has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Benjamin Carpenter, 34, was found guilty in October 2023 of attempting to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organization ISIS. Following his incarceration, he will be on supervised release for 20 years.

Federal investigators found that he led efforts to translate, produce, and distribute pro-ISIS propaganda around the world through the international organization Ahlut-Tawhid Publications. According to the Department of Justice, Carpenter published a weekly newsletter under his alias “Abu Hamza” which celebrated the deaths of American soldiers, glorified suicide bombers, and called for war against the United States and its allies.

An undercover FBI employee posing as an affiliate of the central media bureau for ISIS contacted him in 2020 and 2021. Carpenter provided translation services for what he believed was a project to relaunch ISIS’s official foreign-language media arm, investigators said.

“For years, this defendant led a global digital media operation to distribute pro-ISIS
propaganda, promoting the group’s radical message of terror and pushing it to every corner of the world. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of this defendant’s conduct and the Justice Department’s commitment to identifying and holding accountable those who would provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.”

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division

This case was investigated by the Knoxville Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is composed of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. The Knoxville FBI Field Office led the investigation with assistance from FBI offices from across the country.

“Combatting terrorism and keeping our communities safe are the highest priorities of the
United States Attorney’s Office,” said United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III. “This case
deals a serious blow to the expansion of ISIS and its broken message of hatred and senseless
violence.”

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