McCain wants NSA purge, Germans say
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called on National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander to quit over the damage stemming from accusations his agency tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, according to a German news report.
The disclosures and allegations meant it was time for a “wholesale housecleaning,” including a personal apology to Merkel by President Barack Obama and repercussions for Alexander, McCain said in an interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel published Sunday.
“Of course he should resign, or be fired,” McCain said. It’s “conceivable” that Obama didn’t know about the eavesdropping, “but the fact remains that he should have known it. Responsibility always stops at the president’s desk,” he added.
A spokesman for McCain disputed Der Spiegel’s reporting, saying that the senator wasn’t specifically targeting Alexander and that the magazine’s translation didn’t accurately reflect the senator’s comments.
“Senator McCain believes that there needs to be accountability for the Snowden leaks, but he is not calling for the resignation of General Alexander, who is retiring soon,” Brian Rogers, McCain spokesman, said in an email.
Alexander has said he would step down as National Security Agency director in March, a decision the Obama administration has said preceded the backlash over revelations about National Security Agency surveillance programs. Most of the spying was exposed by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who fled to Russia, where he has temporary asylum.
Merkel called Obama last month to demand clarification after Der Spiegel reported that German authorities had enough information to confront the U.S. over suggestions that the National Security Agency may have tapped Merkel’s personal mobile phone. While the revelations risked a rift over broader U.S. surveillance of German citizens, Merkel’s government made clear last week that its trans-Atlantic relationship with the U.S. was paramount and would ride out the spying scandal.
McCain, a former presidential candidate who sits on both the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, said the allegations of phone tapping had overstepped “certain boundaries.”
He proposed the Obama administration set up a commission to make recommendations on intelligence gathering in the post-Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attack world, including “credible people here and around the world” such as former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.