A new report published over the weekend says that the NSA and its spying programs helped stop numerous terrorist plots in the U.S. and 20 other countries. The agency won’t say which countries those plots may have originated from, and have only released details regarding one plot in which it claims collecting phone records helped to stop an attack.

The plot referenced in the report was a planned attack to blow up the New York City subway in 2009. The agency says that its collection of phone records helped to arrest co-conspirator Najibullah Zazi. The AP and Sens. Mark Udall and Ron Wyden have expressed skepticism by saying the attack in question was prevented by other more traditional spy programs. Wyden argues that the government is going to need a better example if it wants to convince him that the NSA’s spy programs are actually necessary.

As part of the report, the NSA revealed that it only checked less than 300 phone numbers against its database. The revelation suggests that the NSA isn’t indiscriminately gathering phone records just for the hell of it. The agency didn’t address how much information is gathered and/or used from PRISM – the data collection tool that allegedly pulls information from the likes of Google, Facebook and more.

To perhaps attempt to put minds at ease, the NSA also said that it destroys gathered data every five years. It’s unknown if that’s part of the law or just out of necessity as the agency may not have the room to store more than five years worth of data. It may store data for longer once it completes a massive new data center in Utah that’s allegedly being used to store data on Americans and non-Americans alike.

While we wait for more answers from the NSA, the tech industry has been busy pushing for more transparency. Facebook recently got its wish when it published a report over the weekend saying that it received 9,000 to 10,000 data requests over the past six months. Google and Microsoft have also published similar reports detailing how much information they hand over to the government.

[h/t: AP]

39-year old Stephen Jackson says he busted at least six guards–some more than once–napping on the job and was told to just give them warnings when he alerted superiors at FJC Security, the company in charge of hiring for the airport.

“If you fire someone, you have to do paperwork, hire someone new and place others on overtime until you can find somebody else, so a lot of managers wouldn’t want that placed on their shoulders,” he said. “I’d be told, ‘Jackson, why do you have to make more work for us by exposing these people for sleeping? You should just wake them up and give them warnings.’ ”

The news comes with damaging photos and video of Jackson trying to wake up the employees and is especially interesting in light of the headlines the airport made last year, when a jet-skier became stranded and ended up near the property. He eventually climbed the fence surrounding the tarmac and wandered onto the runway to seek help, completely undetected.

Jackson said he was fired on a technicality after he refused to let an employee into a restricted area without an ID badge. He says he believes the company wanted to get rid of him for whistle-blowing.

Image: New York Post

18-year-old Cameron D’Ambrosio was arrested on May 1st after officials were notified of Facebook posts containing “with disturbing verbiage,” according to police.

What did he post exactly?

fuck a boston bombinb wait til u see the shit I do, I’ma be famous for rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me.

“He’s telling people to shut up and in order to get some props he’ll have to go kill somebody. He says he’ll go insane and make the news,” said Police Chief Joseph Solomon at the time of the arrest. “And he said people shouldn’t cry when they see what he does because they have it coming.”

D’Ambrosio has been held without bail for over a month. The charges leveled against him could have resulted in up to 20 years in prison.

The case drew national attention, as many free speech activists argued that the arrest and subsequent incarceration amounted to a First Amendment violation.

Noted First Amendment advocates Fight for the Future launched a petition to free D’Ambrosio. That petition received over 90,000 signatures.

“The post contained no specific threat of violence against any person or group of people, and in the context of the rest of the lyrics and Cams’ rap persona, it was clearly nothing more than a metaphor and rap braggadocio – Cam wasn’t saying he would ‘outdo’ the Marathon bombing, as the media has frequently reported, he’s saying he’s going to be famous rapping, more famous than the marathon bombing. A la Biggie Smalls ‘blowing up like the World Trade.’ It may be a distasteful line, but it’s free speech and it’s protected by the Constitution,” said FFTF.

“At an initial bail hearing, the prosecution was clearly grasping at straws and brought up incidents from Cam’s past – like the fact that he allegedly bit another student during a fight when he was 11 years old, and the fact that the police were called after a fight he had with his sister several years ago.”

“There will be a bail hearing this afternoon, after which point he will probably be released, is my educated guess,” said Essex County DA spokesperson Carrie Kimball Monahan.

The movie star and martial artist along with a group of US Congressmen arrived in Beslan June 1, the International Children’s Day celebrated in Russia. The delegation visited the memorial cemetery in the town, where over 330 terror attack victims, more than half of them children, are buried. “They were shocked. After visiting the cemetery, which has more than 300 similar tombs, most of them with the photos of small children, Steven Seagal said he will spend the rest of his life fighting against terrorism,” said a spokesman for the republic’s head.

Considering Seagal’s post-movie career as a lawman, it’s not a stretch to suggest the action movie staple firmly believed what he was saying, and that he can actcually make a difference. Who knows? Maybe he can.

Lest we forget, the man possesses one of the most devastating clothesline moves in martial arts movie history:

The AP is reporting that two men attacked another man in London this morning. Those on the scene said that the attackers employed a number of weapons, but it’s unknown if a gun was involved yet.

Police responded to reports of an assault where they found one man dead. The two other men were shot and taken to nearby hospitals.

The above scenario may seem like a random act of violence, but the authorities aren’t so sure yet. An anonymous government official said that the attack may have been “terrorist-motivated” and that the authorities are investigating the incident as such.

While it may pale in comparison, this isn’t the first time London has suffered a terrorist attack. In 2005, suicide bombers attacked the public transportation system in London leading to the deaths of fifty-two civilians and over 700 were injured.

More details regarding this latest attack will likely emerge in the coming days. We can just be thankful that not more were injured or killed.

Here’s a report with more details on the attack:

According to an Associated Press report, John Tomkins of Iowa was sentenced to 37 years in prison this week for mailing “dud” pipe bombs to investment firms and investment advisers. The 48-year-old mail carrier had mailed the ineffective pipe bombs with letters signed “The Bishop,” an idea he stated he got from criminals in movies. He will serve a manditory minimum sentence of 30 years.

Tomkins’ crimes were reportedly a scheme to influence the value of stocks that he owned. The letters mailed along with the intentionally disabled bombs had threatened financial executives and their families if stock prices were not raised for certain companies.

According to the AP report, it took U.S. authorities two years to track down Tomkins. The crimes were eventually pinned to him using the stock market records of two companies Tomkins had mentioned in his threats.

Sky News reports that two terror suspects were killed and a third captured after a shootout that took place in the town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo. The town is 85km east of Moscow, but Russian intelligence claims that the three people were planning on attacking Moscow in an unspecified manner.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee released the following statement:

“Our forceful actions prevented an attempted act of terror in the capital. These criminals, who are citizens of the Russian Federation, came from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, where they received training and preparation to commit a terrorist act. In the exchange of fire two of them were killed and one detained. A special forces officer was slightly wounded.”

Other details have since emerged claiming that the militants were trained in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The nationalities of those killed and arrested were not revealed though.

Most terrorist attacks in Russia are carried out by radical militant groups in territories under Russian control. The last major attack from one of these groups was a 2011 suicide bombing in Moscow that killed 37 people.

18-year-old Cameron B. Dambrosio is being held on $1 million bond after making the unspecific threats referencing the Boston Marathon bombings on Facebook. According to Chief of Police Joseph Solomon, Dambrosio’s house has already been searched, and multiple devices have been recovered for analysis (computer, Xbox).

Here’s what went down, according to a Meuthuen Police Department release:

Tuesday, May 1, 2013, at approximately 12:20, Methuen High School students reported to administration that they had received a Facebook phone message sent by a Methuen High School student with disturbing verbiage. The student made terrorist threats. These threats were in general and not directed towards another person or the school. The administration acted quickly, contacted school service officer Jim Mellor, who then contacted the police department. The student was not in school but has since been located and placed under arrest.

So, what did the kid say? According to Solomon,

“F*ck the Boston bombing, wait til you see what I do. I’m going to be famous.” Apparently, he also went on to say that he would “beat every murder charge brought against him.

“He’s telling people to shut up and in order to get some props he’ll have to go kill somebody. He says he’ll go insane and make the news,” Solomon said. “And he said people shouldn’t cry when they see what he does because they have it coming.”

Dambrosio has been charged with Terroristic Threats, which can be punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The Daily Dot found Dambrosio’s YouTube channel, which shows him to be an aspiring rapper – or whatever you call this:

[Methuen PD via Eagle Tribune]

A Wall Street Journal report on the revelation cites unnamed “U.S. officials” as stating the source of the DNA has not been determined. In fact, those same officials have said that the DNA may have come from many different sources, including store clerks or even bombing victims.

Soon after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police, his life in the U.S. began to be revealed, including his wife, Katherine Russell, and his 3-year-old daughter. According to the Journal report, FBI agents this week took a DNA sample from Russell to see if it matches the DNA found on the bomb material. Russell has been staying with her parents since the bombing, and is being guarded by the FBI.

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According to a report from CBS, the surviving Tsarnaev brother is being held in a cell with a steel door at Federal Medical Center Devens. The facility is located just outside of Boston.

Tsarnaev’s room also reportedly has a viewing window and video surveillance. Medical personnel at the facility monitor inmates in shifts. A prison spokesperson told CBS that keeping the bombing suspect locked up was “business as usual” for the facility.

Tsarnaev was injured in the same firefight with police in which his brother, Tamerlan, was killed. Though Dzhokhar was able to escape on that occasion, a city-wide manhunt eventually located the 19-year-old in a boat parked in a Watertown, Massachusetts backyard.

Another detail about the Tsarnaev brothers also emerged this weekend. Russian police reportedly recorded a phone call in 2011 between Tamerlan and his mother, during which the suspected bomber talked of his radical religious views.