On last night's LATE SHOW, General Michael Hayden, the ex-director of the CIA and NSA dismisses Trump's wiretapping accusations against Obama. Watch the appearance below!

Stephen Colbert brings his signature satire and comedy to THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT, where he talks with an eclectic mix of guests about what is new and relevant in the worlds of politics, entertainment, business, music, technology and more.

Featuring bandleader Jon Batiste and his band Stay Human, the show is broadcast from the historic and newly renovated Ed Sullivan Theater. Stephen Colbert took over as host, executive producer and writer of THE LATE SHOW on September 8, 2015.

A multi-talented and respected host, writer, producer, satirist and comedian, Colbert is well-known for his previous late night show, "The Colbert Report," which concluded on Friday, Dec. 18, 2014. The program received wide-spread critical acclaim and earned two Peabody Awards and 29 Emmy Award nominations, including two Emmy wins for Outstanding Variety Series (2013, 2014) and four Emmy wins for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program (2008, 2010, 2013, 2014). Prior to that, Colbert spent eight years as a correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" as an on-air personality and writer of news satire for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series.

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VIDEO: Ex-CIA & NSA Director Dismisses Trump's Wire Accusations on LATE SHOW - Broadway World

A former top intelligence official-turned-whistleblowerat the National Security Agency says surveillance programs by the NSA could have been keeping tabs on the Trump campaign and that their intelligence could have been shared with other agencies.

William Binney, a legend at the NSA, laid out the case for warrantless wiretapping of Trump Tower and how other intel agencies like the CIA could have had access to the wiretaps.

Fox News national security correspondent James Rosen himself bugged by the Obama administration says Trump may be right:

ZeroHedge Blog:

Washington's Blog asked the highest-level NSA whistleblower in history - Bill Binney - whether he thought Trump had been bugged.

Binney is the NSA executive whocreatedthe agencys mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as theseniortechnical director within the agency, who managedsix thousandNSA employees.

He was a 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a legend within the agency and the NSAsbest-everanalyst and code-breaker.

Binney also mapped out the Soviet command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so predicted Soviet invasions before they happened (in the 1970s, he decrypted the Soviet Unions command system, which provided the US and its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and Russian atomic weapons).

Binney told Washington's Blog:

NSA has all the data through the Upstream programs (Fairview/Stormbrew/Blarney) [background] and backed up by second and some third party country collection.

Plus the FBI and CIA plus others, as of the last month of the Obama administration, have direct access to all the NSA collection (metadata and content on phones,email and banking/credit cards etc.) with no attempt at oversight by anybody [background]. This is all done under Executive Order 12333 [the order whichallows unlimited spyingno matter what intelligence officials claim] ....

FBI would only ask for a warrant if they wanted to be able to take it into court at some point given they have something meaningful as evidence. This is clearly true given the fact the President Trump's phone conversations with other country leaders were leaked to the mainstream media.

In other words, Binney is saying that Trumps phoneswerebugged by the NSA without a warrant - remember, top NSA whistleblowers have previously explained that the NSA is spying onvirtuallyallof the digital communications of Americans. - and the NSA shared the raw data with the CIA, FBI and other agencies.

If the FBI obtained a warrant to tap Trump's phone, it was a "parallel construction" to "launder" improperly-gained evidence through acceptable channels.

As we've previouslyexplained:

The government islaundering information gained through mass surveillancethrough other agencies, with an agreement that the agencies willrecreate the evidence in a parallel construction so they dont have to admit that the evidence came from unconstitutional spying. This data laundering is gettingworseandworse.

So does it mean that the NSA spying on Trump Tower actually turned up some dirt?

Maybe ...

Binney has no direct knowledge of any surveillance of Trump Tower. What he has is a roadmap for how it could have been done. He also shows the likelihood that agencies could have used whatever information was captured by the NSA's information dragnet.

A couple of caveats. First, Obama's executive order allowing other intel agencies access to the NSA's raw data was signed after the campaign was over. That doesn't mean that any wiretapped information from the Trump campaign wasn't gathered or even shared by NSA. It means that it is less likely thatintelligence agencies hadaccess to Trump campaign phone and email records before the election.

Secondly, from what we know so far, the FBI was not operating under any warrants, nor were there any FISA warrants issued to spy on the Trump campaign. Again, this doesn't mean that it didn't happen. In fact, Binney's roadmap shows it's more likely that if surveillance occurred, it was done without a warrant. But if we're looking for hard evidence or a paper trail proving Trump's charge, we may never find it.

Astronomer Carl Sagan popularized the adage, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Sagan was talking about alien visitation of Earth and the fact that to date, solid "evidence" has been lacking. The same should hold true in politics. Accusing the former president of the United States of conducting a secret wiretapping program against an oppositionpresidential candidateis just about as extraordinary as it gets. So far, those who claim that the charges are true including the president are lacking solid evidence that the bugging occurred. What is offered as "proof" is more opinion and supposition than substantiation of facts.

But Binney's roadmap, along with what we know of surveillance during the Obama years, points to extremely troubling questions that Democrats cannot dismiss as "conspiracy-mongering." In this case, there were a will and a way. For the sake of the country, Congress needs to get to the bottom of the matter.

A former top intelligence official-turned-whistleblowerat the National Security Agency says surveillance programs by the NSA could have been keeping tabs on the Trump campaign and that their intelligence could have been shared with other agencies.

William Binney, a legend at the NSA, laid out the case for warrantless wiretapping of Trump Tower and how other intel agencies like the CIA could have had access to the wiretaps.

Fox News national security correspondent James Rosen himself bugged by the Obama administration says Trump may be right:

ZeroHedge Blog:

Washington's Blog asked the highest-level NSA whistleblower in history - Bill Binney - whether he thought Trump had been bugged.

Binney is the NSA executive whocreatedthe agencys mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as theseniortechnical director within the agency, who managedsix thousandNSA employees.

He was a 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a legend within the agency and the NSAsbest-everanalyst and code-breaker.

Binney also mapped out the Soviet command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so predicted Soviet invasions before they happened (in the 1970s, he decrypted the Soviet Unions command system, which provided the US and its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and Russian atomic weapons).

Binney told Washington's Blog:

NSA has all the data through the Upstream programs (Fairview/Stormbrew/Blarney) [background] and backed up by second and some third party country collection.

Plus the FBI and CIA plus others, as of the last month of the Obama administration, have direct access to all the NSA collection (metadata and content on phones,email and banking/credit cards etc.) with no attempt at oversight by anybody [background]. This is all done under Executive Order 12333 [the order whichallows unlimited spyingno matter what intelligence officials claim] ....

FBI would only ask for a warrant if they wanted to be able to take it into court at some point given they have something meaningful as evidence. This is clearly true given the fact the President Trump's phone conversations with other country leaders were leaked to the mainstream media.

In other words, Binney is saying that Trumps phoneswerebugged by the NSA without a warrant - remember, top NSA whistleblowers have previously explained that the NSA is spying onvirtuallyallof the digital communications of Americans. - and the NSA shared the raw data with the CIA, FBI and other agencies.

If the FBI obtained a warrant to tap Trump's phone, it was a "parallel construction" to "launder" improperly-gained evidence through acceptable channels.

As we've previouslyexplained:

The government islaundering information gained through mass surveillancethrough other agencies, with an agreement that the agencies willrecreate the evidence in a parallel construction so they dont have to admit that the evidence came from unconstitutional spying. This data laundering is gettingworseandworse.

So does it mean that the NSA spying on Trump Tower actually turned up some dirt?

Maybe ...

Binney has no direct knowledge of any surveillance of Trump Tower. What he has is a roadmap for how it could have been done. He also shows the likelihood that agencies could have used whatever information was captured by the NSA's information dragnet.

A couple of caveats. First, Obama's executive order allowing other intel agencies access to the NSA's raw data was signed after the campaign was over. That doesn't mean that any wiretapped information from the Trump campaign wasn't gathered or even shared by NSA. It means that it is less likely thatintelligence agencies hadaccess to Trump campaign phone and email records before the election.

Secondly, from what we know so far, the FBI was not operating under any warrants, nor were there any FISA warrants issued to spy on the Trump campaign. Again, this doesn't mean that it didn't happen. In fact, Binney's roadmap shows it's more likely that if surveillance occurred, it was done without a warrant. But if we're looking for hard evidence or a paper trail proving Trump's charge, we may never find it.

Astronomer Carl Sagan popularized the adage, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Sagan was talking about alien visitation of Earth and the fact that to date, solid "evidence" has been lacking. The same should hold true in politics. Accusing the former president of the United States of conducting a secret wiretapping program against an oppositionpresidential candidateis just about as extraordinary as it gets. So far, those who claim that the charges are true including the president are lacking solid evidence that the bugging occurred. What is offered as "proof" is more opinion and supposition than substantiation of facts.

But Binney's roadmap, along with what we know of surveillance during the Obama years, points to extremely troubling questions that Democrats cannot dismiss as "conspiracy-mongering." In this case, there were a will and a way. For the sake of the country, Congress needs to get to the bottom of the matter.

Read more from the original source:

NSA whistleblower shows how candidate Trump could have been ...

Republicans have long supported the sweeping surveillance capabilities of the NSA and have insisted theyre vitally important to national security. But with their man Trump caught up in multiple scandals that may involve intelligence services targeting his communications, privacy is suddenly a top priority.

The NSAs Prism and upstream data collection programs first hit the public consciousness when Edward Snowden fled the country and revealed extensive details about the agencys enormous powers to intercept foreign and domestic communications. The programs fall under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which is up for renewal at the end of the year. Just last week, officials from the Trump administration said that the White House supports the clean reauthorization [of Section 702] and the administration believes its necessary to protect the security of the nation. But that may have changed.

Devin Nunes is the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee. He was part of the Trump transition team and has reportedly developed a close relationship with the president. He also is one of the few members of congress that seems to take Trumps allegation that Obama illegally wiretapped him seriously. Asked today about the renewal of Section 702 in the midst of continued intelligence leaks about Trump and Russia, Nunes said, I think its very problematic.

Many people feel that the investigation of the Trump campaigns relationship with Russia should be handled by an independent commission, rather than the House intelligence committee. Nunes has fought back against that suggestion. They can say whatever they want, but at the end of the day, I hold the gavel, theyre in the minority and were going to do what we want to do, he told CNN. We are not going to give up that jurisdiction to anyone else as long as Im here.

Nunes absolute refusal to acknowledge the growing body of evidence that Trump and his team have repeatedly lied about contacts with the Russian government has led to the impression that he is acting as a shield for the administration. And now, he thinks that the NSAs ability to surveil foreign powers and any American communications that might come up in that surveillance might be a problem. He elaborated at todays press conference:

Ive expressed this concern to the IC [intelligence community]. We have sent them many followup questions as it relates to intelligence thats been collected. And we expect prompt answers. I think we also expect unprecedented answers from them of the information that were going to be asking for.

Democrats have typically agreed with Republicans that the NSA programs are necessary and that doesnt seem to have changed. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, told the Guardian today that Section 702 has been a far more impactful and important counterterrorism program and tool. But, That doesnt mean though that we shouldnt explore whether there are ways to improve any of the protections in existing law or whether there are any changes that we need to make to the structure of the program.

No one knows how many American citizens communications have been caught up in the NSAs net at this point. In 2014, The Guardian found tens of thousands of Americans emails were intercepted under one program. Lawmakers have shown little concern. Maybe Trumps relentless self-interest will finally result in something good being done about this egregious overreach. More likely hell find a way to make it more horrible, if not through intent, through incompetence.

[The Guardian]

See more here:

Republicans Starting to Think the NSA Has Too Much Surveillance Power - Gizmodo

Two days after researchers exposed aNational Security Agency-tied hacking group that operated in secret for more than a decade, CIA hackers convened an online discussion aimed at preventing the same kind of unwelcome attention. The thread, according to a document WikiLeaks published Tuesday, was titled "What did Equation do wrong, and how can we avoid doing the same?"

Equation Group eventually came to light because of a handful of errors its members made over the years. One was the widespread use of a distinctive encryption function that used the RC5 cipher with negative programming constantsrather than with the positive constants favored by most developers. The nonstandard practice made it easier to identify Equation Group tools. Another mistake: failing to scrub variable names, developer account names, and similar fingerprints left in various pieces of Equation Group malware. A third error was the failure to renew some of the domain name registrations Equation Group-infected computers reported to. When Kaspersky Lab obtained the addresses, the researchers were shocked to find some machines infected by a malware platform abandoned more than 10 years earlier were still connecting to it.

It was this intrigue that set the stage for the online discussion about how CIA hackers could avoid the same pitfalls.

"As for what 'Equation' did wrong... All their tools shared code," one user, who like all the others was identified only by a unique identifier WikiLeaks used in place of a username, concluded on February 18, 2015, two days after the Kaspersky Lab findings were published. "The custom RC5 was everywhere. The techniques for positive ID (hashing) was used in the same way in multiple tools across generations."

The person continued:"The shared code appears to be the largest single factor is [sic] allowing [Kaspersky Lab] to tie all these tools together. The acquisition and use of C&C domains was probably number 2 on the list, and I'm sure the [CIA's computer operations group] infrastructure people are paying attention to this."

The person also suggested peers avoid using non-standard crypto functions, avoid using custom names in code, and scrub code clean of any PDB database information provided by Microsoft's Visual Studio debugger feature. The person wrote:

1. I would argue using custom crypto is always a mistake for two reasons. First, for the obvious problem described in the report. It makes your code look strange on deep RE inspection. Second, a custom routine greatly increases the odds you implemented the algorithm incorrectly and end up with a much weaker encryption scheme than intended.

2. Named kernel objects in general provide an easy signature for detection because it's usually a unique name. Using the same name in multiple tools is catastrophic.

3. This is PDB string, right? The PDB path should ALWAYS be stripped (I speak from experience. Ask me about Blackstone some time.). For Visual Studio user mode stuff, the /DEBUG linker switch should NOT be used. For drivers, it's a bit harder to avoid it, but a post-build step using binplace will strip the path information.

4. For other strings generally, yeah, search the binary for them. Don't use internal tool names in your code. It's less of a problem if leave-behind code doesn't have any exploit code in it.

The person went on to say, "The 'custom' crypto is more of [an] NSA falling to its own internal policies/standards which came about in response to prior problems. The problems included misconfigured crypto implementations that were corrected by using a single, optimized library.

"Unfortunately, this implementation used the pre-computed negative versions of constants instead of the positive constants in the reference implementation," the person wrote. "I think this is something we need to really watch and not standardize our selves into the same problem."

Other suggestions included the use, when possible, of publicly available crypto libraries, such as Microsoft Encryption Libraries, OpenSSL, and PolarSSL; creating a warning that would be displayed when unique names are embedded in the final binary file; and using a tool that would scan binaries for any usernames used on the local network.

The thread is part of a cache of 8,761 documents and files that WikiLeaks said were "obtained from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virginia." The discussion provides a fly-on-the-wall account of some of the reactions to what must have been one of the more embarrassing exposures of NSA hacking. It wouldn't be surprising if members of NSA hacking units are having discussions of their own speculating on the cause of Tuesday's leak.

Originally posted here:

After NSA hacking expos, CIA staffers asked where Equation ... - Ars Technica

Former CIA and NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden said Tuesday there was no body of evidence for President Trump to make the claim that former President Barack Obama ordered wiretaps of his phones during the election.

What was claimed is inconsistent with the way I know the system works, Hayden told FOX Business Neil Cavuto.

According to Hayden, the president hasnt had the authority to order a wiretap since the 1970s. Instead, the request would need to go through a court, he said.

Since the president took office, the White House has been plagued with intel leaks. Hayden, who took over as CIA director in May 2006, said he faced a similar issue.

"One of the biggest problems we had was leaks. And my first speech to the workforce was: this is stopping. We are out of this as source or subject, Hayden said, adding that he does not believe people within the intelligence community should immediately be blamed.

I would not automatically assume that the source of this are intel people, even when the data being leaked is intelligence, he said.

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Furthermore, Hayden offered advice to the administration, based on his past experience.

My tool though wasnt a vendetta, wasnt an investigation, wasnt beating people up, he said. My tool was openness within the agency, so that people actually felt they had a place in which their views were valued. Id suggest that approach for the administration.

He added: What youve got is a situation that we as Americans have to agree is really bad. We cannot have the permanent government at war with the incoming administration. Both sides need to step back, take a breath.

See more here:

No Evidence for Trump's Wiretap Claims, Former CIA, NSA Chief Says - Fox Business

CNN's Jim Acosta confronts Donald Trump at a White House press conference (screen grab)

Former NSA analyst John Schindler, who now is a national security columnist for the Observer, reported on Tuesday that his sources in the intelligence community believe that President Donald Trumps White House is colluding with Russian intelligence to target journalists.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Schindler revealed: Learned fm very reliable IC sources that Trump WH, w/help fm Russian intel, is targeting US journalists.

Learned fm very reliable IC sources that Trump WH, w/help fm Russian intel, is targeting US journalists. Rough road ahead. Get ready, peeps

John Schindler (@20committee) March 7, 2017

Although Schindler provided no additional details, its no secret that Trump has all but declared war on the media during his first 45 days in office. However, the president has embraced conservative media sources like Fox News, Breitbart and various right-wing blogs.

In one case, the White House tried to punish Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt by planting a false story accusing him of laughing at the death of a Navy SEAL. Trump has called the media fake news and an enemy of the people.

The fake news doesnt tell the truth, Trump told a group of conservatives last month. It doesnt represent the people, it doesnt and never will represent the people, and were going to do something about it.

Go here to see the original:

Ex-NSA analyst: Intel sources say White House 'targeting journalists' with 'help from Russian intel' - Raw Story

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Spain January industrial output yy NSA 7.1% vs -1.5% prev - ForexLive

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NSA surveillance program architect and later whistleblower Bill Binney told Sean Hannity on his radio program Monday that the intelligence community routinely listens in on Americans conversations without court ordered FISA warrants.

President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama on Twitter Saturday of wiretapping Trump Tower during the election.

Under executive order one two triple three, they do surveillance of everybody in the United States without warrants and thats done through various upstream programs Fairview, Stormbrew, Blarney and also in cooperation with other countries in terms of collection worldwide, said Binney.

So its all done without warrants and that was testified to by Adrian Kinney and David Murfee Faulk, who were transcribing at Fort Gordon George. They were transcribing conversations between U.S. citizens with no warrant at all.

ABC News reported in in early October 2009, Murfee Faulk, a Navay Arab linguist, said he and other NSA intercept operators in Baghdads Green Zone from late 2003 to November 2007 listened to hundreds of Americans private phone conversations.

Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends, sometimes one phone call following another, said Faulk.

Hey, check this out, Faulk says he would be told, theres good phone sex or theres some pillow talk, pull up this call, its really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, Wow, this was crazy.

Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 out of disgust wit how the program was being abused, told Hannity, I will put it this way. The IC is becoming more like the Praetorian Guard. You know, where theyre trying to determine who the emperor is and also influence what the emperor does, so I just think that this is getting out of hand.

He added, And I think, you know, President Trump is absolutely right. The intelligence community needs to be revamped.

Are you say that every American can be wiretapped against their will without any warning at any point? Hannity asked.

No. Im saying they are, Binney replied.

Hannity later asked, And by wiretapping that means what? Recording my phone conversations, taking my emails, my texts?

Binney responded, Thats correct and also storing it for mining, noting that the storage was also under the executive order 12333 section 2 -2.3C. The executive order, Binney explained, is the one President Obama opened it up to all the other agencies in the intelligence community. Originally it was just restricted. The only ones that had access were NSA CIA and FBI.

So was Donald Trump being surveilled even without the FISA court? Hannity asked.

Thats correct. And actuallyhes being targeted now. Theyre going into the database looking for data on him, said Binney.

A spokesman for Obama said neither the former president nor any White House official ordered any surveillance on Trump when he was still in the White House. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told NBCs Chuck Todd on Sunday that he was not aware of a FISA court order to monitor Trump Tower.

Not to my knowledge, Clapper said. I cant speak for other authorized entities in the government or a state or local entity.

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NSA Whistleblower: Spy Agencies Eavesdrop Without Warrants ... - Daily Caller

A former NSA intelligence analyst poured cold water on President Donald Trumps statements that former President Barack Obama has his phone lined taped, saying the intelligence community considers Trumps charges to be a kooky fantasy.

Writing for the Observer, ex-analyst John Schindler said that there are already enough questions about the Trump administrations ties to the Russians to warrant a full investigation, but that the presidents foray into a massive conspiracy involving Obama and the highest levels of the intel community is absurd.

Calling Trumps allegations against Obama on Twitter, the most bizarre public statements from any American president, Schindler took up what little specifics Trump provided and spoke with his contacts at the NSA who unanimously dismissed them as a presidential fantasy.

Lets be perfectly clear here: The scenario painted by President Trump of his predecessor tasking the IC with wiretapping Trump Tower simply could not have happened without a far-reaching and highly illegal conspiracy involving the White House and several of our spy agencies, above all the National Security Agency, Schindler wrote. My friends still at NSA, where I served as the technical director of the Agencys biggest operational division, have told me without exception that Trumps accusation is wholly false, a kooky fantasy.

Schindler, who has an extensive background in domestic surveillance, explained how improbable Trumps allegations were.

In the first place, the White House doesnt ask for such wiretaps, ever; such requests come directly from NSA, the FBI, or the Justice Department. Involvement of any White House in such highly classified requests would immediately set off enormous red flags in the IC and DoJ due to their glaringly politicaland therefore illegalaim, he explained.

Having worked with a lot of FISA collection during my time in the spy business, I can state without reservation that President Trumps accusations are so inherently implausible as to render them an absurdity Schindler continued. He needs to offer hard evidence for such incendiary claims or back down publicly, preferably with an apology to his predecessor, whom he has maligned without cause.

The former analyst did leave the door open to the notion that there might be wiretaps at Trump Tower just not ones aimed specifically at Trump and none involving Obama.

Its very plausible that NSA and other spy agencies intercepted Kremlin communications which might have incidentally involved associates of our current president, he explained. But neither Donald Trump nor his surrogates were being spied on as themselves. If they didnt realize their shady Russian friends might be considered foreign intelligence targets by NSA and other Western intelligence services, thats on them.

According to Schindler, if Trump hoped that his wild allegations about Obama will make the Russian contact with administration officials scandal go away, he couldnt have been more wrong.

Whats certain is that KremlinGate isnt going away, and the presidents bizarre efforts to make his links to Moscow a non-story have only made it a bigger one he concluded. Now the media is more curious than ever about Trumps Russian connections, and no amount of chanting fake news will alter that. Neither will Team Trumps obsession with the alleged deep state save them from awkward questions.

You can read the whole piece here at the Observer.

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Ex-NSA analyst: Intel community thinks Trump's wiretapping paranoia about Obama is a 'kooky fantasy' - Raw Story

The CIA and Departments of Justice and Treasury are being sued by a prominent legal organization for their role in leaking highly classified material as part of an effort to undermine the credibility of former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to an announcement.

Judicial Watch, known for its role in exposing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, announced on Monday that it has sued several federal agencies for information related to Flynn's discussions with Russian officials before he officially entered the White House.

Flynn was forced to resign from the White House for apparently misleading President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence about the substance of these conversations.

However, theWashington Free Beaconand multiple other news outlets havereportedon a campaign by former Obama administration officials and loyalists to spread highly classified information in a bid to handicap the Trump administration.

In addition to Flynn, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House adviser SebastianGorkahave been the subject of multiple leaks aimed at jeopardizing their positions in the administration.

Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.

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CIA, DOJ sued over leaks of classified info about former NSA Flynn - Fox News

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Participants jump into water during the annual two-mile sea swimming competition in Colombo, Sri Lanka

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Women take part in a performance to protest against the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa College Raul Isidro Burgos in Guerrero, in Mexico City, Mexico

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A woman looks on as she takes part in a performance to protest against the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa College Raul Isidro Burgos in Guerrero, in Mexico City, Mexico

Reuters

An Iraqi special forces soldier fires at a drone operated by Islamic State militants Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq

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A man cries while carrying his daughter as he walks from Islamic State controlled part of Mosul towards Iraqi special forces soldiers during a battle in Mosul, Iraq

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Iraqi special forces soldiers walk in a street in Mosul, Iraq

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An Iraqi special forces soldier helps a family carry their child to cross from Islamic State controlled part of Mosul to Iraqi forces controlled part of Mosul, Iraq

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A man looks towards a Russian helicopter as it flies over ruins in the historic city of Palmyra, Syria

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Policemen and a passerby look at pictures of the ones killed due to alleged involvement in illegal drugs, during a protest against extra-judicial killings at an open area of a Roman Catholic Church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines

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Families with slain loved ones who they say were killed due to alleged involvement in illegal drugs, weep during a Holy Eucharist mass against extra-judicial killings (EJK) inside a Roman Catholic Church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines

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People hold photos of their family members, who they say were killed due to their alleged involvement in illegal drugs, during a protest against extra-judicial killings (EJK) while marching in an open area of a Roman Catholic Church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines

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More:

US spies have 'considerable intelligence' on high-level Trump-Russia talks, claims ex-NSA analyst - The Independent

The White House wants Congress to reauthorize two of the NSAs largest surveillance programs before they expire at the end of the year.

One of them scans the traffic that passes through the massive internet cables going in and out of the U.S. and ends upcatching a vast number of American communications in its dragnet.

But how many? Lawmakers have been asking for years, and the intelligence community has consistently refused provide even a ballpark figure.

At a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, several members expressed frustration that intelligence chiefs first under Obama, and now under Trump have failed to provide any kind of estimate, even in classified briefings.

The members of this committee and the public at large require that estimate to engage in a meaningful debate, said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the leading Democrat on the committee. We will not simply take the governments word on the size of the so-called incidental collection.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which lapses at the end of the year, allows the NSA to collect vast amounts of domestic internet traffic as long as it maintains it is only targeting foreigners.Documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden described two huge surveillance programs that operate under that authority. One program, PRISM, allows the NSA to collect data in bulk from tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple. The other program Upstream allows the NSA to tap the massive internet cables that carry information in and out of the U.S. and search for communications involving certain foreign targets or selectors.

As the NSA scans the cables for information on its targets, it also collects information on the Americans those targets are communicating with, as well as entirely unrelated information, such as communications from people who happened to be in the same chat room as a target. Furthermore, the targets can be selected for anyforeign intelligence purpose not just counterterrorism.

As a result,the NSA ends up collecting information on a huge number of U.S. persons without getting a warrant collection they describe as incidental, but which is really inevitable. And using what critics call the backdoor loophole, law enforcement officials then search through that material for information on Americans.

That collection on Americans is part of how thelaw was designed, according to Elizabeth Goitein, a lawyer for the Brennan Center for Justice. Incidentally, is the terminology used by the government, Goitein testified at Wednesdays hearing. But it is part of the design of the program to acquire communications of foreign targets with Americans.

The issue of incidental collection has come into the spotlight in the weeks since Trumps inauguration. Last month, anonymous members of the intelligence community leaked information about phone calls between the Russian ambassador who was understandably targeted for surveillance and Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Flynns resignation spooked some Republicanswho worried about that ability being used improperly.Whatever your political persuasion is, for me it had a chilling effect, said Rep. Ral Labrador, R-Idaho. My political opponents could use my personal information, that they maybe gathered in some private information, against me in the future. That should be quite terrifying to anybody, whether youre a Republican or Democrat.

Conyers, along with a bipartisan group of 14 Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to the director of national intelligence in April last year, asking simply for a rough estimate of how many Americans had their communications collected.

Conyers sent a follow-up letter in December. The intelligence community has not so much as responded to our December letter, Conyers said Wednesday. I had hoped for better.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., first requested an estimate in2011 even before the Snowden disclosures demonstrated the reach of the surveillance programs. The federal Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight board recommended in 2014 that the NSA start keeping track of the number. In 2015, more than 30 civil liberties organizations wrote a letter to the Intelligence Communitys Civil Liberties Protection Office, demanding the same thing, and got an unresponsive reply.

The intelligence community insists that it doesnt keep track, in part because doing so would require it to identify which phone numbers and computer IP addresses belong to American citizens.April Doss, a former NSA lawyer, told the committee that it would require the NSA to de-anonymize everyone in their communications. In my view, the collection and maintenance of that reference information would itself pose significant impacts to privacy, she said.

But Goitein noted that the NSA already uses computer IP addresses to approximate who is a U.S. citizen for other purposes, so it would be easy for them to estimate how many Americans communications they collect.

The NSA has determined that the IP address is an accurate enough indicator of a persons status to use it to filter out the wholly domestic communications that the NSA is prohibited from acquiring, she testified. If its accurate enough to enable the NSA to comply with that constitutional obligation, then its certainly accurate enough for the estimate.

Top photo: A man looks at his cellphone as he walks on the street in Madrid in 2013.

Link:

Trump Wants NSA Program Reauthorized But Won't Tell Congress How Many Americans It Spies On - The Intercept

The National Security Agencys (NSA) lead lawyer in a recent speech made the case for creating one federal agency to spearhead the governments cybersecurity efforts.

Glenn Gerstell, the NSAs general counsel, proposed that federal cybersecurity activities be unified under one roof instead of dispersed across the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and other agencies duringremarksat Duke Law School over the weekend that were released by the NSA on Thursday.

While Gerstell acknowledged progress made on cybersecurity by the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he said that glaring gaps remain in our nation's cybersecurity posture.

He noted that the agency could be modeled after Britains National Cyber Security Centre, which has been operational for months but only officially opened in February.

Gerstells argument echoed statements made by retired Gen. Keith Alexander, a former NSA director, before a Senate panel on Thursday. Alexandertoldlawmakers that government agencies focusing on cybersecurity are too stove-piped to effectively defend the nation from cyber threats.

What you have is people acting independently, and with those seams, we will never defend this country, Alexander told the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggesting that the agencies responsible for cybersecurity be brought together under one framework.

During his speech, Gerstell explored potential drawbacks to consolidating cyber activities under one roof, saying that it misses an opportunity to marry cyber expertise with the unique insights and understanding of requirements possessed by each agency in their own fields.

He also said that key questions would need to be answered in the overhaul, such as how the new agency would be afforded the power to protect computer networks across the federal government.

There has been lively debate on Capitol Hill about how to reform the governments cybersecurity efforts, especially in the wake of the Office of Personnel Management data breach and the more recent Russian cyberattacks related to the presidential election.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, has pushed to reform the Department of Homeland Security by codifying its cyber activities under one component department.

More:

NSA lawyer advocates for one agency to handle cyber - The Hill

Former NSA Director Keith Alexander told senators Thursday that the government should undertake a massive reorganization effort that would consolidate some current cybersecurity responsibilities split between the FBI, Homeland Security Department, Defense Department and intelligence community, into a single entity.

When we talk to the agencies they dont understand their roles and responsibilities, said Alexander, who helped author the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity report which was provided to the Trump administration. Yes, I do think it should be brought together I believe there is a way to get around this lack of a strategy by setting up a [new] framework.

Alexander, who now runs a private cybersecurity firm based in Fulton, Maryland, spoke before the Senate Armed Service Committee with other prominent experts about cyber-operations strategy and policy.

Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., previously criticized the Obama administration for how it responded last year to an expansive Russian hacking campaign aimed at the U.S. presidential election. McCains evaluation, at least in part, revolves around how the government has handled these incidents from an organizational standpoint.

Panel member James Inhofe, R-Okla., in agreement with McCain, described that the federal government is facing a stovepipe scenario in which each of these respective agencies are not collaborating in a manner sufficient to protect the nation from and react to cyberattacks.

Its not working, Alexandersaid. There are four stovepipes and it doesnt make sense. If we were running this like a business we would put them together. The issue now gets to you now have all these different committees in Congress looking at these [cybersecurity issues] and its messed up.

The Obama administration in July attempted to clarify who is responsible for what by publishing a White House directive known as Presidential Policy Directive 41, or PPD-41. In short, the directive was designed to draw jurisdictional lines by assigning roles in the case of a cyberattack for coordination, risk mitigation and communications purposes.

What you have is people acting independently and with these seams we will never defend this country. And more importantly, when private industry looks at our government they are, quite frankly, dismayed. We are all over the map, Alexander said. No one can answer who is responsible.

Alexander said that he and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates had previously spoken about combining DHS and law enforcements cybersecurity responsibilities with that of the Defense Department and intelligence community; all under a single framework.

Others who testified Thursday, however, pushed back on the idea of completely tearing down the existing structure.

The situation is a little more complicated, responded Craig Fields, the chairman of the Defense Science Board. I dont see duplication in efforts, I see gaps, because we do not have an orchestra conductor unless we have the policy, orchestra conductor and strategy we can never go where you want to go.

This role of orchestra conductor, according to Fields and former Undersecretary of Defense For Policy James Miller, should exist outside the scope of the National Security Council.

During the Obama administration, White House cybersecurity adviser Michael Daniel seemingly played this so-called orchestra conductor role. Daniels job often involved managing the vast bureaucracy of government to further both defense and offensive missions.

McCain subsequently asked the panel of speakers to submit a list of recommended individuals for this position. It remains unclear if or when the Trump administration will fill Daniels vacant post, since he left the White House in January.

I am not convinced a mass reorganization is appropriate, certainly at this point in time. I look toward an integrating body, Miller explained.

He added, One option which I believe should be considered is to build out from the so-called CTIIC, or Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center [we should] look to build towards the National Counterterrorism Center model if not to the joint interagency task force model.

Founded in 2003 as part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the McLean, Virginia-based National Counterterrorism Terrorism Center brings together specialists from several federal agencies, including the CIA, the FBI, and the Defense Department, to focus and synchronize interagency investigations into suspected terrorists.

See the article here:

Former NSA director: It's time to trash the federal cybersecurity ... - CyberScoop

A former leader of the National Security Agency (NSA) told lawmakers Thursday that government agencies working on cybersecurity are too stovepiped to safeguard the nation from digital threats.

Retired Gen. Keith Alexander said that the four groups handling cyber issues the Homeland Security and Defense departments, the FBI, and the intelligence community are too stovepiped, meaning they bottle up information instead of sharing it with one another and across the government.

Its not working, Alexander said of the governments organization on cybersecurity. There are four stovepipes and it doesnt make sense. If we were running this like a business, we would put them together.

Alexander suggested that all four groups be brought together under one cybersecurity framework in order to defend the countrys networks and critical infrastructure and respond to cyberattacks.

Before that, he argued, the agencies should participate in exercises with Congress, the Trump administration and the private sector to develop a policy and strategy on cybersecurity.

What you have is people acting independently, and with those seams, we will never defend this country, said Alexander, who now leads a private cybersecurity firm. He added that industry leaders are dismayed about how the government handles cybersecurity.

The senators also heard testimony from two members of the Defense Science Board, a group of roughly 50 retired armed service members, government and industry leaders who give the Pentagon advice on how to solve cybersecurity and technology problems.

Craig Fields, a former Pentagon technology chief, and James Miller, a former undersecretary of defense for policy, pushed back on the notion that the way that the government handles cybersecurity needs to undergo massive reorganization but agreed with Alexander on the need for more integration.

Im not convinced that a massive reorganization is appropriate, Miller said. Id be looking toward an integrating body.

When we talk to the individual agencies, they dont understand their responsibilities, he later observed.

Rewiring is not the solution, Fields, who chairs the Defense Science Board, explained. [That would be] too disruptive, but fundamental change in how it works, absolutely.

Alexander led the NSA and Cyber Command before his resignation in March 2014 amid controversy over Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA's domestic spying. Current Director Mike Rogers succeeded him.

Continued here:

Ex-NSA head: Cybersecurity agencies don't share enough ... - The Hill - The Hill

National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA)

Q4 2016 Earnings Conference Call

February 28, 2017 1:00 PM ET

Executives

Marti Dowling Director-Investor Relations

Arlen Nordhagen Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Tamara Fischer Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President

Analysts

Vikram Malhotra Morgan Stanley

RJ Milligan Robert W. Baird

Todd Thomas KeyBanc

David Corak FBR

Ki Bin Kim SunTrust

Barry Oxford DA Davidson

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the National Storage Affiliates Fourth Quarter and Year End 2016 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Marti Dowling, Director of Investor Relations for National Storage Affiliates. Thank you. Miss Dowling, you may now begin.

Marti Dowling

Hello, everyone, we would like to thank you for joining us today for the fourth quarter and full year 2016 earnings conference call of National Storage Affiliates Trust. In addition to the press release distributed yesterday after market close, we have filed an 8-K with the SEC containing our supplemental package with additional details on our results, which may also be found in the Investor Relations section on our website at nationalstorageaffiliates.com.

On today's call management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions that actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. For additional detail concerning our forward-looking statements, please refer to our public filings with the SEC.

We encourage listeners to review the definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO, core FFO and net operating income contained in the supplemental information package available in the Investor Relations section on the companys website and in filings made with the SEC.

Today's conference call is hosted by National Storage Affiliates' Chief Executive Officer, Arlen Nordhagen; Chief Financial Officer, Tamara Fischer; and Senior Vice President of Operations, Steve Treadwell. Following prepared remarks management will accept questions from registered financial analysts. I will now turn the call over to Arlen.

Arlen Nordhagen

Thanks, Marti, and welcome, everyone, to our year-end 2016 earnings conference call. To begin 2016 was a very strong year for NSA on all fronts. We realized robust growth across virtually our entire portfolio driving strong increases in all our operating metrics. We grew same store portfolio average occupancy by 210 basis points, increasing average occupancy to 90% for the year.

Our average rent per square foot increased by 5.3% resulting in same store revenue and NOI increases of 7.7% and 10.2% respectively. It was another year of very strong acquisition growth further demonstrating the depth and quality of our pipeline and our unique ability to source and close accretive acquisitions through our PRO relationships.

During 2016, we acquired and invested in a total of 173 high quality assets primarily in our core growth markets representing total investment of over $1.3 billion including the addition of our seventh PRO hideaway in April and the acquisition of our 66th property, iStorage portfolio through a joint venture with the major state pension fund. As a result, we ended the year with a portfolio of 448 self storage properties located in 23 states.

In total, we have about 28 million rentable square feet, an increase of 75% from one year earlier and over 100% since our initial public offering. In 2016, we materially expanded and improved our balance sheet. We upsized our creditor facility to $725 million, closed on an additional $100 million term loan and issued over $500 million in new equity.

Our equity base grew through two well received common equity offerings issuances under our ATM program and through substantial issuance of new OP and SP equity for property acquisitions. The combination of these transactions maintains the capacity and flexibility we need to fund future growth opportunities.

As a result at the bottom line, we achieved core FFO of $1.12 per share for 2016, up 21.7% from 2015, which meaningfully exceeded our own guidance. In December, our Board announced a 9% increase in our quarterly common dividend to $0.24 per share. This was on top of the 10% increase we announced in May. And we continue to maintain significant AFFO coverage of our dividend payout.

And finally, I'm very pleased to announce that we have recently signed Marc Smith of Personal Mini storage in Orlando, Florida to become our 8th PRO. Through this transaction, Personal Mini is co-investing the SP equity to assume management of four of our recent third-party acquisitions in this market. And we will be having a 5th property to our portfolio very soon.

Beyond that Personal Mini operates a portfolio of over 30 properties, which we will look to acquire over the next several years in addition to other third-party acquisitions. Further Marc is very well known and respected as a major thought leader within the industry and has served on the board of directors of the National Self Storage Association for the last six years including as Chairman in 2016.

His reputation and relationships are a huge plus for us as we continue to recruit additional PROs to join our platform. It was truly an exceptional year for NSA and I'm enormously proud of the hard work, spirit and dedication of the entire NSA and PRO teams. Thank you to all.

Fundamentals in the self storage sector remain good and we remain optimistic about more normalized, but continued growth through 2017. We continue to experience stable demand across our portfolio, driven by positive economic fundamentals in nearly all our core markets including high employment rates and growing consumer spending. Although new supply is certainly creating some pressures in a few markets, such as Oklahoma, we believe this risk is generally concentrated and market specific and we still don't see new supply risk being elevated for NSA's portfolio on a national basis. There continues to be a lot of market chatter about starts but as for now we're not seeing plans translating into supply exceeding demand in a significant way in most of our primary markets.

I'd like to take a moment to update you on our key initiatives. Our portfolio is now operating near what we believe to be our optimum stabilized occupancy levels. So our initiatives to capture revenue upside from rent increases and other sources are vitally important. Our revenue management system is constantly evolving and is more active on our platform than ever.

At this time, virtually all of our properties are configured on the revenue management system. We're now evaluating implementation of new modules to enhance the current system and more effectively drive additional revenue.

In addition, we continue to make upgrades and improvements to our management information systems, our internet marketing platform and our call center operations to allow us to make better decisions and improve the results of our marketing spend.

Turning to the transaction front in the fourth quarter alone we acquired 31 wholly owned self-storage properties for a total investment of approximately 228 million dollars. These fourth quarter acquisitions encompass about 2.1 million rentable square feet with more than 16,600 storage units.

In addition the 66 iStorage joint venture properties added over 4.5 million rentable square feet and over 35,000 storage units to NSA's platform. Our pro network is a key element to our continued ability to grow. First through, our captive pipeline, which includes properties that are PROs manage but NSA does not yet own. Today with the addition of Personal Mini, The captive pipeline consists of over 120 properties and over 8 million square feet, valued at nearly a billion dollars.

Our second channel is third party acquisitions where our PROs act as our boots on the ground. They are market focused and have local knowledge and relationships, which lead to substantial third party off market acquisitions. In total over the last two years through our captive and third party pipelines and our joint venture, we've acquired over 230 properties adding over 15 million rentable square feet.

Equally important this growth has both expanded our geographic reach and deepened our presence within our existing markets providing enhanced local marketing and efficiency gains. Our third channel of growth is adding new PROs and we're always in discussions with a number of high quality operators.

As I mentioned, we're extremely pleased that we've added our eighth PRO Personal Mini Storage to join NSA this month. We are clearly-off to a great start in 2017 and we look forward to working with Marc Smith and his team to continue to grow NSA. We are very proud of NSAs accomplishments to-date, which demonstrate our unique opportunities for continued growth both internally and externally, as well as our ability to deliver strong value for our shareholders.

With our joint venture acquisition, the addition of our eighth PRO, balance sheet flexibility and a healthy pipeline we're excited to continue executing on our stated growth initiatives in 2017. I'll now turn the call over to Tammy.

Tamara Fischer

Thank you Arlen, in my comments today, Ill review our fourth quarter and full-year 2016 results, update you on our balance sheet and liquidity and finally discuss our outlook for 2017, which was provided in detail in our earnings release issued yesterday.

Beginning with our financial results for the fourth quarter 2016, we reported net income of $6.1 million, compared to $5.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2015. And core FFO of $20 million or $0.30 per share an increase of 25% on a per share basis compared to Q4 2015.

For the full-year 2016 our net income was $24.9 million compared to $4.8 million in 2015 and our core FFO was $65.5 million or $1.12 per share, an increase of 21.7% compared to $0.92 per share reported in 2015. The increase in core FFO for both the quarter and the year was due to strong growth within the same store portfolio. As well as our robust acquisition activity in 2016 partially offset by higher financing costs, G&A and an increase of the fully diluted share count.

Turning to our operations for the fourth quarter 2016, we reported a 9.2% increase in same-store NOI compared to Q4 2015. Same store revenue was up 6.3% driven by a 6.7% increase in average rent per square foot, slightly offset by a 30 basis point decrease in average occupancy to 89.1%.

One impact we are seeing of our new revenue management system is that it results in pushing rental rates further. Even if that results in slight occupancy decreases property operating expense increased only a 0.5% compared to the prior year, which was in line with our expectations.

For the full-year 2016 our same-store NOI increased 10.2% compared to 2015. Same-store revenue was up 7.7% driven by a 5.3% increase in average rent per square foot and a 210 basis point increase in average occupancy to 90%. Property operating expenses increased 2.9% year-over-year, again in line with our expectations.

We continue to benefit from our geographically diverse portfolio that is concentrated in states with the above average population and job growth.

Our stores located in Oregon, California, Georgia and Arizona, which represent more than half of our 2016 same-store NOI, continued to outperform, each delivering double-digit same-store NOI growth in 2016. We continued to see softness in the fourth quarter in Oklahoma and West Texas, which has been impacted by both the energy sector and new supply coming online. And our stores in Washington State were impacted in the fourth quarter, by higher property taxes, timing of repair and maintenance projects and increased advertising spend. While we have selectively used increased discounting in promotions to support occupancy gains in some markets, we continue to benefit from a roll up in rental rates for move in versus move out, driven in part by our revenue management system.

We also delivered double-digit growth in tenant insurance revenues during 2016 as our penetration rates continue to grow through high rates of adoption among our new customers, ending the year at over 55% penetration across our portfolio. As we discussed, in October we formed a joint venture with the major state pension fund to acquire the iStorage portfolio. And as they invested roughly $80 million for a 25% ownership stake and the joint venture put in place $320 million of mortgage financing. The investment was immediately accretive to core FFO per share and we expect to generate approximately $7 million to $8 million per year in gross fee income before incremental G&A expense of approximately $3.5 million, allowing us to leverage our total G&A spend.

Our balance sheet remains a strong point for NSA. During 2016 and into the first quarter 2017 we actively worked to expand our capacity and retain financial liquidity and flexibility. During the fourth quarter, we completed our second follow-on equity offering issuing nearly 5.2 million common shares and raising net proceeds of $105 million. We use the proceeds of the offering to pay down our revolving line of credit.

Also in the fourth quarter, we launched an ATM program adding yet another source of capital to enhance our balance sheet and fund growth. During the fourth quarter, we issued approximately 1.7 million shares under the ATM, raising net proceeds of about $34 million and leaving about $165 million of liquidity under the program. In addition we issued over $16 million of OP and SP equity in the fourth quarter to fund acquisitions completed during the quarter.

At year end, our total consolidated debt outstanding was about $873 million of which about 72% was fixed-rate mortgage financing or fixed with swaps. Our weighted average effective interest rate was about 3% and our weighted average maturity was 5.2 years. We have almost no debt maturing before 2020.

Subsequent to year end we completed an expansion of our credit facility, which increased our borrowing capacity by yet another $170 million, resulting in total capacity under our credit facility today of $895 million. As part of this expansion we increased our five-year term loan by $10 million dollars, our six-year term loan by $55 million and added a $105 million seven-year term loan tranche.

We expanded capacity on our revolver from $350 million to $400 million last December. As we have consistently demonstrated, we remain disciplined on the capital front, ensuring a strong and flexible balance sheet to support our growth strategy.

Turning to our guidance, we recognize that 2017 may be a year of transition for the industry with more new supply coming on line, making it a bit more challenging to forecast. While we have not yet seen a material slowdown in our property performance, we are cognizant of the fact that new supply may impact NSA more significantly later in the year. For that reason, we have built into our guidance somewhat lower growth expectations, compared to 2016.

As we announced last evening, we expect 2017 core FFO to be in the range of $1.22 zero to a $1.29 nine per share. Our guidance is based on several factors, including anticipated same-store NOI growth of 6% to 8%, driven by expected revenue growth of 5% to 7% and expense growth of 3% to 4%. As a note, our same-store portfolio in 2017 will include 277 properties. Expected acquisitions in a range of $200 million to $500 million, full-year corporate G&A cash expense including all iStorage G&A is expected to be in the range of 9.5% to 10.5% of revenue, excluding the iStorage property revenue. Plus another 1% to 1.5% in non-cash comp expense.

To put these numbers in context if we included the iStorage property revenue in the total revenue denominator, our total cash plus non-cash G&A and would be 9% to 10% of total revenues as we continue to leverage our G&A capacity.

This concludes our prepared remarks. With that we will now take your questions. Operator?

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you we will not be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Vikram Malhotra with Morgan Stanley, please go ahead with your questions.

Vikram Malhotra

Thank you. Two quick questions, so one, can you maybe just give us a little bit more color on when you talk about supply and not really seeing impacts but you're baking in some impact towards a second half. How are you the sort of the new supply coming online, whats your expectation in terms of how it will impact occupancy, rent growth and how are you factoring that into the guidance?

Arlen Nordhagen

Hi Vikram, this is Arlen. So yes we monitor of course all of our properties on a regular basis to look at where do we see new supply potentially coming in online over the next 12 to 18 months. And particularly as it relates to properties that have some exposure to new supply this year about 12% of our portfolio has the potential that by the end of the year some new supply will be within their trade area.

And so our forecast in our budgeting for this year reflects the fact that we expect those new stores to come online, which will obviously create some additional pressure on discounting some impact on occupancy and therefore slower revenue growth in the few cases even revenue being flat. But generally we reflect that based upon those forecasted openings as the time that they're expected to come into the market.

Vikram Malhotra

Okay, that's helpful. And just to clarify the revenue growth expectation for 2017, the five to seven, can you break that, Arlen between occupancy and rate growth?

Arlen Nordhagen

Yes, we are pretty close to what we would consider optimal occupancy based on the way the revenue management program is directing us to push harder on rate, we might gain another 50 basis points for average occupancy for this year or something like that but we're really forecasting almost all of that to be rate growth.

Vikram Malhotra

All of that to be rate, okay and then just last one to clarify on the supply comment. Just based on what you're seeing and talking to other PROs. Will we peak supply is 2017 sort of the year where we see peak supply your comments around the second half. And just maybe how much lead time are sort of what you need to see to get a sense of how supply would could potentially look like in 2018?

Arlen Nordhagen

Yes. It looks like late 2017 will probably be the peak additions of new supply. Now we do have some visibility into supply coming into 2018 obviously. But we're also starting to see some of the developers canceling projects as they reevaluate the market and they recognize wait a minute, there's too much supply here already on the pipeline. So we are actually starting to see some of that. So I do think late 2017 maybe early 2018 will probably be the peak of when supply additions peak in the overall total National market.

Vikram Malhotra

Okay. Thank you very much.

Arlen Nordhagen

Thanks, Vikram.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is come from the line of RJ Milligan with Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead with your question.

RJ Milligan

Hey, good afternoon guys. Arlen, I was wondering if you could give some guidance in terms of your expected external growth this year $350 million at the midpoint, can you give us an idea of what buckets those are coming from whether itd be another PRO, within your captive pipeline or just one-off growth?

Arlen Nordhagen

Yes, thanks RJ. We have as I mentioned we have our captive pipeline now is almost $1 billion. And as we look at that of what's maturing in 2017 for debt maturities about 20% of that will be maturing in 2017, now we never project that well get all of that because obviously the decision makers on that are not always are PROs and such. But we know sizable portion of that growth will come through the captive pipeline this year. We also do expect a sizable number of third-party acquisitions, we already have closed on some this year. And we have a number of ongoing discussions underway as well. We as you know we added Marc Smith in Personal Mini as our new PRO, we dont anticipate very much new properties coming from the Personal Mini this year.

But we will have at least one or two acquisitions on that area as well. And then if we ended with another new PRO in late this year that would be more to put as toward the high end of the guidance. But otherwise it's primarily just what we know right now plus the captive pipeline in the third-party acquisitions.

RJ Milligan

Okay. And then Tammy, I wanted to talk about the same-store definition. So does same-store for 2017 include everything that was acquired in 2015?

Tamara Fischer

Its all the stores that we owned for all of 2016.

RJ Milligan

Is it fair to assume, given that you guys have acquired a significant amount in 2016. I think $1.3 billion as you bring those on to your platform and continue to lease those up or maximize revenue in those properties. Could we expect in I guess an added benefit in 2018 same-stores NOIs those properties are brought into the system in the same-store pool?

Arlen Nordhagen

Yes, RJ. This is Arlen. I would say that weve definitely seen that. Particularly as we acquire new properties the first two years of that we see outsized growth. So 2017 obviously, we don't they're not in our 2017 pool but in 2018 we'll see some continuation on that. To be honest, wed like to be able to continue to accelerate the platform adoption programs to try and get those benefits as quickly as possible. But historically, we've seen substantial gains in both year one and year two.

RJ Milligan

So on average the acquisitions in 2015 will be a greater contributor to same-store NOI growth in 2017 versus the legacy portfolio?

Arlen Nordhagen

Yes, that's true. It's probably about a percent or so higher than the legacy portfolio.

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National Storage Affiliates Trust's (NSA) CEO Arlen Nordhagen on Q4 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha

If there is one piece of information that would fatally undermine the NSA's argument that it doesn't abuse Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), it would be the number of American citizens whose personal information it has "incidentally" hoovered up.

And that is why it refuses to provide the figure.

There were two House Judiciary Committee meetings in Congress yesterday over the reauthorization of Section 702 in December. The first was held in secret with members of the security services; the second in public with panelists.

We don't know what happened in the first but in the second, a number of Congressmen made it plain that the NSA had failed to provide an estimate for the number of American citizens it has data on despite the committee asking for it 11 months ago in a formal letter.

John Conyers (D-MI), the lead Democrat on the committee, noted that the lawmakers had repeatedly asked for the estimate but "the intelligence community has not so much as responded to our December letter" a letter that asked for no more than an update on how long it would take to arrive at an estimate.

The intelligence community continues to argue it is difficult to tell the nationality of someone making a call or sending an email without a huge amount of effort or without violating their privacy.

That claim "seems like baloney to me," said Jim Jordan (R-OH), adding: "It's the greatest intelligence service on the planet. You'd think they'd be able to know that."

The truth is that the NSA cannot disclose the true figure if it wishes to retain its extraordinarily broad surveillance powers powers that it has interpreted to include tapping the internet's backbone and big tech companies' server farms.

Section 702 repeatedly and explicitly notes that it only provides authority to gather information on non-US citizens and events occurring outside of the United States. And yet, incredibly, the security services have layered misinterpretation of the law on top of misinterpretation in order to authorize themselves to tap into US companies' systems based in the US.

The moment the scale of the domestic spying this has enabled is laid bare, the NSA's obtuse claim of "incidental" and "accidental" gathering of data on US citizens will be shown to be the faade it is. Which is why it won't release the figure.

In a political climate where up is down and down is up, where the attorney general can answer an explicit question with a No and then claim he was asked a different question when that turns out not to be true, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the other answers asked at the hearing stretched reality to the breaking point.

One of the panelists, assistant professor at the US Naval Academy Jeff Kosseff, argued that the Fourth Amendment (no unreasonable search without a warrant) did not apply to Section 702 because it covered "foreign intelligence."

That is despite the fact that the Snowden documents showed particularly through the PRISM system that the security services were spying on domestic telecommunications.

Equally mind-boggling was the claim by former NSA attorney April Doss, now a partner at Saul Ewing LLP, that Section 702 was only used for "targeted surveillance." While that is certainly the intent of the law, the reality is the opposite we know, again from the Snowden documents, that vast quantities of data are pulled into government databases, retained, and then searched.

Doss also repeated the NSA argument that trying to estimate how many Americans had been included in the broad sweep of communications would lead to a greater intrusion into their privacy.

You suspect that the argument that Congressmen shouldn't consider anything in the Snowden documents because they were leaked illegally is rolling around the back of their heads just waiting to slip out.

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US Congress to NSA: How many Americans do you illegally spy on? - The Register

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Trump's attacks on the NSA are actively harming morale, report ... BGR The intelligence community has come under fire from newly sworn-in President Donald Trump for what he perceives to be attacks on his own credibility. Now ... US Spy Agency Risks Talent Exodus Amid Morale Slump and Trump ...Jakarta Globe all 2 news articles »

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Trump's attacks on the NSA are actively harming morale, report ... - BGR

During an interview with Neil Cavuto on the FOX Business Network, former NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander addressed the recent controversy involving Attorney General Jeff Sessions and allegations he communicated with Russian diplomats during the presidential election, despite stating that he didnt during his confirmation hearing before Congress.

Well, I think the facts are what we need and I think jumping to the conclusion that the Attorney General did something wrong is a big jump, General Alexander said.

He went on to add that he doesnt believe Sessions intended to mislead or do anything wrong.

In a statement to Fox News, the Attorney General denied the accusations, I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false," he wrote.

Alexander also noted that the presidents promise to rebuild the military and to increase defense spending by $54 billion is a good thing.

I have tremendous confidence in Secretary Mattis. He is a good person. He will take the money needed; he will come back with a great plan and help get us the military that we need.

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Alexander went on to add that taking care of those who would give their life for this nation is the right thing to do.

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Fmr. NSA Director: Trump's Military Spending Increase is Needed ... - Fox Business

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