Rep. Mike Rogers Is Taking His NSA Propaganda to the Airwaves

Rep.
Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the outgoing chairman of the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence,
has announced details of his plan to become a talk-radio
host.

Rogers, who didn’t run for re-election, will launch a
thrice-daily radio segment on Cumulus media’s national radio
network.

The good news is that the National Security Agency (NSA) will no
longer be able to count Rogers as one of its loudest and most
influential supporter in Congress. The bad news is that Rogers will
be able to continue spreading his sycophantic support for all
things Orwellian, albeit as one among many pro-surveillance,
pro-torture shock jocks.

The radio segment will be called “Something To Think About with
Mike Rogers.” This is a fitting name for a congressman who has
provided the public with much to think about: mostly negative
thoughts, provoked by his utterly appalling views.  

Since becoming a committee chair in 2011, Rogers has been at the
center of many public debates, always arguing in favour of
government power at the expense of civil liberties and individual
rights.

He has defended the use
of “enhanced interrogation techniques”—otherwise known as
torture—emphasising and celebrating their role in the eventual
death of Osama Bin Laden. He did this despite senior intelligence
officials, such as former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta,
disputing their importance to the investigation.

Rogers responded to the revelations of mass, indiscriminate NSA
surveillance by helping to instigate what can only be described as
a propaganda campaign. He
argued that the programs involved “zero privacy violations” and
claimed that they had prevented more than 50 terrorist attacks. (A
White House study later
revealed that the metadata program had in fact stopped zero
terrorist attacks.) He participated in a smear campaign against
Edward Snowden,
calling for Snowden to be charged with murder despite the
complete absence of any evidence to support such an allegation.
Possibly of even greater concern was his suggestion that reporting
the Edward Snowden leaks amounted to a
criminal offense, something that shows a complete
disregard for the First Amendment, and the Constitution he
swore to protect.

With any luck, Rogers’ career change will put him and his ideas
on a path to obscurity.