Homeland Security News

The leader of a Utah anti-government militia group accused of trying to detonate an explosive two years ago at a remote Bureau of Land Management cabin pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to one count of attempted destruction of federal property by use of an explosive.

William Keebler — who commanded the Patriots Defense Force, also known as Patriots of America, a Tooele County citizen militia whose members allegedly talked about killing Muslims — is scheduled to be sentenced July 9.

The plea deal calls for U.S. District Judge David Sam to impose a punishment of 12 to 70 months in a federal prison.

Read more: Salt Lake Tribune

On 25 April 2018 law enforcement authorities of the European Union Member States, Canada and the USA launched a joint action against the so-called Islamic State (IS) propaganda machine in order to severely disrupt their propaganda flow. The takedown operation was coordinated by the European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) within the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) at the Europol headquarters.

Led by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office and with the support of Eurojust, the operation involved authorities from Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Romania, the United Kingdom and the USA in a coordinated effort to hinder IS’s central capability to broadcast terrorist material for an undetermined period of time.

The case started at the end of 2015 when Europol informed all EU Member States about the rise of the Amaq News Agency and the technical resilience of the terrorist online infrastructure. Since then law enforcement agencies have, in a continuous joint effort, taken down the web assets of the media outlet.

Read more: Europol