Homeland Security News

A fire that caused structural damage at a mosque in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, hours after the start of Ramadan was allegedly set by man who caused property damage to the same building over 10 years ago, police said.

Nicholas Proffitt was arrested on Monday without incident for allegedly setting fire to the Islamic Center of Cape Girardeau.

Federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday that Proffitt was charged with maliciously damaging a building by means of a fire. Cape Girardeau police said he is also facing state charges of burglary, arson and property damage as he was "knowingly motivated to do so by reason of a motive related to the religion of the people who worship at the Islamic Center."

Read more: ABC News

Someone opened fire using an assault rifle outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington early Thursday and was arrested, authorities said.

The gunfire broke out around 2 a.m. outside the embassy in northwest Washington. Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the scene after neighbors reported hearing gunshots, authorities said.

Officers found the suspect with an assault rifle and took the person into custody without incident, police said. Investigators say they believe the person had been shooting toward the embassy, though details about any potential motivation remained unclear.

Read more: WTOP

An area of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside was shut down for hours Tuesday as police worked to detonate an improvised bomb seized during a traffic stop.

On Tuesday, Vancouver police were conducting a traffic stop around 6:30 p.m. when they spotted what appeared to be fentanyl inside the vehicle. During the ensuing search, officers also found what appeared to be a homemade bomb in the back seat of the car. A bomb squad was called in to handle the device, while police locked down the surrounding area.

“This was excellent work by our front-line patrol officers to identify a dangerous situation and safely secure the area,” said Vancouver police Sgt. Aaron Roed. “Their actions, along with the response from our highly trained emergency response section members, ensured no one was injured and the device was destroyed.”

Read more: Vancouver Sun

Germany has banned all Iran-backed Hezbollah activity on its soil and designated it a terrorist organisation, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Police also conducted early morning raids on mosque associations in four cities across Germany. Security officials believe up to 1,050 people in Germany are part of Hezbollah's extremist wing.

Israel and the United States had been pushing Germany to ban the organisation. Germany had previously distinguished between Hezbollah's political arm and its military units, which have fought alongside President Bashar al-Assad's army in Syria.

A spokesman said Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had banned the activities of Hezbollah.

Read more: France 24

Islamist extremist propaganda and white supremacist propaganda not only reflect similar themes and memes in the ways they recruit and incite, but pose the shared danger of reeling in followers and potentially driving them to violent acts.

Terror attacks are increasingly hybrid, and so are the attackers — extremists are feeding off each other’s best practices. The web is a terror marketplace where a group speaks not only to its own adherents and an individual doesn’t just shout into the void when posting bomb-making techniques or target suggestions, but they all contribute to an ample open-source library of D.I.Y. extremist training and incitement that crosses group allegiances and ideologies.

Read more: Homeland Security Today