HALIFAX – The director of the U.S. National Security Agency is defending his record at the Halifax International Security Forum as rumours swirl about calls he be ousted from his current post and a potential promotion in president-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
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At the forum Sunday, Adm. Mike Rogers refused to address media reports saying Defence Secretary Ash Carter and National Intelligence Director James Clapper wrote a letter to President Barack Obama last month recommending his dismissal as head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has asked Carter and Clapper to testify in Congress on Monday to discuss “the veracity of press reports.”
Rogers, who took over the NSA after documents leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2014 exposed the U.S. government’s widespread surveillance program, accepted accountability for later breaches of classified material under his watch.
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Rogers, whose name has been floated for a role in Trump’s administration, acknowledged the Russians’ “effort” to help elect Republican presidential candidate but denied the foreign power achieved its intended “outcome.”
Rogers brushed off the debate about whether the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command should be run by two people rather than him alone, but said the question is worth reassessing in the future.
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