Rogers was born on October 31, 1959[4] and is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from New Trier High School in 1977.[5] He is a graduate of Auburn University (1981) and the Naval War College.[6]
Rogers speaking to a group of sailors at the Center for Information Dominance in January 2012.
Rogers received his commission through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program and has served in the United States Navy since graduating from Auburn University in 1981. He started his career as a Surface Warfare Officer working in naval gunfire support operations off Grenada, Beirut, and maritime surveillance operations off El Salvador on board the USS Caron (DD-970).[7] In 1986, he was selected for transfer from Unrestricted Line Officer to Restricted Line Officer and re-designation as a cryptology officer.[8]
During the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Rogers joined the military's Joint Staff, which works for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he specialized in computer network attacks. From 2007 onward he served as director of intelligence for the military's Pacific Command. In 2009, he became director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was subsequently named commander of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and commander of the U.S. 10th Fleet, with responsibility for all of the Navy's cyberwarfare efforts.[7] As such, Rogers was the first restricted line officer to serve as a numbered fleet commander and the first Information Warfare Community (IWC) officer to achieve the rank of vice admiral.[9]
In January 2014, the Obama Administration announced Rogers' nomination as director of the National Security Agency and the commander of the United States offensive cyberoperations unit in the Department of Defense. Rogers succeeded General Keith B. Alexander, who served as the NSA director for nine years,[10][11][12] and became the first IWC officer to achieve the rank of admiral. Although the NSA directorship does not require Senate approval, Rogers had to be confirmed by the Senate to head United States Cyber Command,[13] for which the Senate unanimously confirmed him.
In his first public remarks as NSA director, Rogers stated that he believed that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was "probably not" working for a foreign intelligence agency, despite frequent speculation and assertion by the NSA's allies to the contrary. Rogers added: "He clearly believes in what he's doing. I question that; I don't agree with it. I fundamentally disagree with what he did. I believe it was wrong; I believe it was illegal."[14]
The Washington Post reported on 19 November 2016 that Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James R. Clapper, Jr. had sometime earlier in the year recommended to President Obama that Rogers be terminated as director of the National Security Agency.[15] Carter reportedly recommended he be terminated due to poor performance, whereas Clapper considered it wise that the position be held by a civilian.[15] Both Clapper and Carter had put Rogers on notice for poor performance in internal security and leadership style.[15]This belief is buttressed by the IG report and by the April 26, 2017 U.S. FISA Court "Memorandum Opinion and Order." The declassified version of that document states "The October 26, 2016 Notice disclosed that an NSA Inspector General (IG) review and report and NSA Office of Comliance for Operations (OCO) verification activities indicated that, with greater frequency than previously disclosed to the Court, NSA analysts had used U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of Internet 'upstream' collection, even though NSA's Section 702 minimization procedures prohibited such queries. To understand why such queries were prohibited, and why this disclosure gave the Court substantial concern, some historical background is necessary."[16] The report goes on to state "At the October 26, 2016 hearing, the Court ascribed the government's failure to disclose those IG and OCO reviews at the October 4, 2016 hearing to an institutional 'lack of candor' on NSA's part and emphasized that 'this is a very serious Fourth Amendment issue'" (page 19). As a result of these transgressions, there were "changes in the scope of NSA collection under Section 702, as reflected in the March 30, 2017 Amendments" (page 14). These changes were designed to prevent recurrence of the illegal collection discussed in the Court filing. Other sources contend that Admiral Rogers' termination was delayed due to stalled changes to the bureaucratic structure of the intelligence community.[15] Before the recommendation of firing was made, Rogers met with then President-elect Donald Trump without notifying his superiors.[17] Some sources contend that the reason he did not notify Mr. Clapper was the fact he was alerting President Elect Trump about Mr. Clapper's allegedly illegal actions with respect to FISA Section 702. Trump was reportedly considering replacing Clapper with Rogers as DNI, however that position went to former Senator Dan Coats, with Rogers remaining NSA director.[15]
In January 2018, Rogers announced he would be retiring from the NSA in the spring.[18][19][20] Rogers still has his US Gov't Security Clearance and as of December 9, 2018 works for Israel's Team8 helping them with new venture (Globe, Israel's Business Arena, 12/9/2018)
