KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The charges against a Knoxville man under suspicion of trying to help the ISIS terrorist group show the reach of violent extremist ideology through the internet, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
Federal prosecutors said Benjamin Carpenter, 31, was the leader of an organization dedicated to the translation and publication of ISIS media in English. They said Carpenter provided English translations for ISIS media to an undercover FBI agent he thought was associated with ISIS.
The Department of Justice said he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Court documents filed Tuesday showed two dozen exhibits admitted in Monday's case hearing — including videos, articles on beheadings and weapons of mass destruction as well as testimony from Carpenter's mother.
"This case is a good reminder that international terrorism and homegrown violent extremism is still very much alive and must still be dealt with," said Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of National Security in the Knoxville FBI field office Joel Feaster.
He said a significant portion of the development and cultivation of terrorist support happens online.
"It’s every corner of the world," Feaster said. "So while we don’t see a lot of these cases in East Tennessee, it’s not surprising either."
East Tennessee State University Professor Paul Kamolnick, who researches terrorism, said Carpenter's arrest did not surprise him either.
"[ISIS] has been reduced to the strategy of what they basically call 'individualized terrorism,'" he said.
Rather than controlling large swaths of territory, the terrorist organization spreads its message to individuals online. Translations, like the kind Carpenter is accused of providing, are critical to that goal.
"That is the only way they reach audiences — is what they would consider information warfare, media warfare," Kamolnick said.
A federal judge is currently considering whether to release Carpenter ahead of his June trial.