washington<u+2014>the u.s. government<u+2019>s top military and intelligence leaders have recommended president barack obama remove national security agency director adm. michael rogers from office, several people familiar with the matter said, amid questions about his leadership. the calls by defense secretary ash carter and director of national intelligence james clapper came a month ago and are a rare rebuke of a top military commander, particularly when he is being considered for a senior intelligence post in the trump administration. president barack obama declined to discuss the matter sunday when asked at a news conference in peru if he is planning to fire adm. rogers. he called the nsa director <u+201c>a terrific patriot<u+201d> who <u+201c>has served this country well.<u+201d> he also said <u+201c>it is inevitable that we are going to have to modernize and update<u+201d> the u.s. approach to cybersecurity. <u+201c>it is true that we are exploring a range of options in terms of how we organize the mission that currently exists.<u+201d> adm. rogers has served in the navy since 1981 and leads the nsa and the pentagon<u+2019>s cyber command. he declined to comment. spokesmen for the pentagon and office of the director of national intelligence also declined to comment. the effort to oust adm. rogers was earlier reported by the washington post. the nsa is a division of the military that conducts spying and surveillance against foreign targets and came under heavy pressure following the sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to detect and intercept new plots. its mandate was secretly expanded following those attacks, and it swept up and stored the telephone records of millions of americans . its expanded surveillance reach was revealed in 2013 by former nsa contractor edward snowden, which led to a public backlash against the agency. adm. rogers assumed command in 2014 and was charged with reforming the nsa, improving morale and responding to the new threats posed by islamic militants. the nsa director also leads the pentagon<u+2019>s cyber command, which mr. carter revealed earlier this year had begun offensive missions<u+2014>essentially, computerized attacks<u+2014>against islamic state in an effort to disrupt the intelligence network. adm. rogers<u+2019>s critics say the agency wasn<u+2019>t able to defend the u.s. military from cyberattacks, conduct cyberattacks of its own and collect information through surveillance activities amid intense public scrutiny. his supporters say adm. rogers was doing the best he could given the competing missions and directives, particularly as the federal government fumbled to find a way to deter foreign countries from using digital attacks against the u.s. the white house and national-security officials have spent months studying whether to split the nsa and cyber command apart, essentially having two leaders run the agencies separately instead of one. this has been a source of tension between adm. rogers and messrs. carter and clapper, the people familiar with the matter said. the nsa has faced other challenges in recent months. in october, the justice department charged a former nsa and pentagon contractor with stealing thousands of pages of classified documents and digital records that included the identities of u.s. spies and secret programs. even though the man charged in the case, harold miller, was accused of stealing the records over two decades, it became another embarrassment for the nsa and its ability to protect secrets, particularly after mr. snowden<u+2019>s revelations forced the agency to rethink how it prevents leaks. the white house was expected to push for the agencies to split on dec. 1. that date was moved up, to oct. 1, in an effort to expedite the changes. but the plan was shelved following pushback from senate armed services committee chairman john mccain (r., ariz.), people familiar with the matter said. the white house was expected to push for the agencies to split on dec. 1. that date was moved up, to oct. 1, in an effort to expedite the changes. but the plan was shelved following pushback from senate armed services committee chairman john mccain (r., ariz.), people familiar with the matter said. following the washington post report, house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes (r., calif.) sent a letter to messrs. carter and clapper, calling for more information about their reported push to have adm. rogers removed. <u+201c>since admiral rogers was appointed as nsa director in april 2014, i have been consistently impressed with his leadership and accomplishments,<u+201d> mr. nunes wrote. <u+201c>his professionalism, expertise and deckplate leadership have been remarkable during an extremely challenging period for nsa. i know other members of congress hold him in similarly high esteem.<u+201d> he directed both messrs. carter and clapper to notify him no later than monday when they would be able to testify before congress about their push to remove adm. rogers. mr. nunes is on the transition team advising president-elect donald trump on how to build his national security team, and mr. trump<u+2019>s top national security adviser, retired lt. gen. mike flynn, is close to adm. rogers. mr. trump met with adm. rogers on thursday, and he is a leading candidate to take over mr. clapper<u+2019>s job as the next director of national intelligence, people familiar with the matter said. earlier this week, adm. rogers in a public appearance repeated u.s. intelligence conclusions that moscow sought to tamper with u.s. elections by hacking into mailboxes of the democratic national committee and dumping their contents in the weeks before voting. <u+201c>this was not something that was done by chance, this was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily,<u+201d> he said in a question-and-answer session at a wall street journal conference in washington, d.c. <u+201c>this was a conscious effort by a nation state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.<u+201d> write to damian paletta at damian.paletta@wsj.com and carol e. lee at carol.lee@wsj.com
pentagon, intelligence chiefs push to oust nsa director - wsj
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