ISIS Propaganda Translator’s Terrorism Support Conviction Upheld

The law that prohibits knowingly providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization covers the provision of translation services, the Sixth Circuit said Friday, upholding an ISIS propaganda translator’s conviction.

Benjamin Carpenter—founder of Ahlud-Tawhid Publications, an organization that translated and published ISIS propaganda—claimed the statute didn’t cover his conduct. But translation work fits within the statute’s definition of any “service,” the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said.

The US Supreme Court has said the word “service” encompasses “concerted activity” in support of another.

“That is just what Carpenter did in helping ISIS to make its propaganda videos ...