Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who announced his retirement this week, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter want President Barack Obama to fire Admiral Michael Rogers as director of the National Security Agency, according to sources close to the situation.
The pair made their recommendation to Obama in October, reports The Washington Post, but he has not yet taken action on the matter, as he has not yet decided on a plan to separate the NSA from the national Cyber Command.
Clapper, though, has said he wants a civilian in charge of the NSA, and has called for it to be operated separately from the cyber unit, while Carter does not believe Rogers has done enough to ensure the agency's security.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump is considering Rogers to replace Clapper. Rogers met with Trump on Thursday in New York without notifying supervisors, which caused an issue with senior administration officials according to The Post.
The White House, Pentagon and Clapper's office have not commented on the matter, nor has the NSA.
Rogers took over leadership of the NSA and Cyber Command in April 2014, after NSA contractor Edward Snowden downloaded documents and shared them before fleeing to Russia.
However, there have been two more security compromises since that time, including one with Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, Harold Martin III, who allegedly stole the largest amount of classified government material in history. Martin started his activity before Rogers took control of the agency, but continued it under the new director's watch.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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