NSA chief's job reportedly at risk

House intelligence panel calls 2 said to urge Rogers’ ouster

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Saturday asked the nation's intelligence chief and defense secretary to appear and answer questions about reports that they recommended the ouster of the director of the National Security Agency.

In a statement issued late Saturday, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he sent a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and National Intelligence Director James Clapper Jr. asking them to appear before the committee to "discuss the veracity of press reports" that they recommended the removal of Adm. Michael Rogers, who oversees the agency and the new U.S. Cyber Command.

Nunes referred to a report in The Washington Post that Carter and Clapper wrote a letter to President Barack Obama last month recommending Rogers' removal. The Defense Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the White House all declined to comment on the news report. Reached by phone Saturday afternoon, Rogers also declined to comment.

Nunes asked Carter and Clapper to contact the committee by 5 p.m. Monday to provide members with times and dates the two could testify.

The Obama administration promoted Rogers to his current posts two years ago. The four-star admiral is responsible for surveillance and the growing U.S. arsenal of cyberweapons.

Administration and intelligence officials, who insisted on anonymity to detail the private discussions, said the recommendation that Rogers be removed was driven by breaches during Rogers' tenure as leader of the National Security Agency. Rogers also has been in the middle of a debate over whether the agency and Cyber Command should be run by two people, not one.

Carter's first major disagreement with Rogers dates to last fall. Carter expressed frustration that Cyber Command, which is responsible for offensive action against adversaries, was not acting aggressively enough to disrupt the Islamic State extremist group's networks in Iraq and Syria.

In the spring, Carter said for the first time that the U.S. was using its cyberarsenal against the Islamic State group. But one official said the effort was moving too slowly for the Pentagon leadership. Carter went several weeks ago to the complex at Fort Meade, Md., where the National Security Agency and Cyber Command are housed, to give Rogers and his team "a kick in the pants," the official said.

Rogers took command after Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, disclosed widespread surveillance. But the disclosure in October that the FBI had secretly arrested another former agency contractor, Harold Martin III, prompted intelligence officials to wonder openly about the agency's leadership. The FBI is investigating whether Martin had stolen and disclosed highly classified computer code developed by the agency to hack into the networks of foreign governments.

Martin was charged with theft of government property and the unauthorized removal or retention of what agents said were enough classified documents to fill 200 laptop computers.

Nunes defended Rogers on Saturday.

"Since Adm. Rogers was appointed as NSA director in April 2014, I have been consistently impressed with his leadership and accomplishments," Nunes said in the letter.

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Rogers for a top post in his administration, including director of national intelligence overseeing all 16 intelligence agencies. Rogers met Thursday with Trump in New York.

Administration and intelligence officials said Trump's interest in hiring Rogers had no bearing on the recommendation to remove him.

On one major issue, Trump and Rogers disagree -- quite publicly.

While Trump has insisted that no one knows whether Russia was responsible for the hacking of email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and a range of prominent officials, Rogers has said he has no doubt. He recently said that "this was not something that was done casually, this was not something that was done by chance, this was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily."

He added, "This was a conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect."

Information for this article was contributed by staff writers of The Associated Press.

A Section on 11/20/2016

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