Rep. Mike Rogers named next chairman of House Intelligence Committee

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), a former FBI agent who has criticized the Obama administration’s interrogation policies for terrorism suspects as too restrictive, has been named the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Rogers, who represents Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, was appointed to the post by House Speaker-designate John A. Boehner (R- Ohio), who made the announcement Wednesday. Rogers replaces Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan’s 2nd District, the ranking Republican on the committee, who is retiring.

A former Army officer, Rogers pressed the George W. Bush administration to better secure weapons and munitions sites that were subject to plunder by insurgents after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As a Chicago-based FBI agent in the early 1990s, he was part of an investigation into a notorious public corruption case in Cicero, Ill., where the former town president and six others were convicted for their roles in pilfering $12 million from a municipal insurance fund.

Rogers joined other Republicans in criticizing the decision by federal authorities to read Miranda warnings to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a plane over Detroit last Christmas Day with a bomb sewn into his underwear. Rogers said authorities should have been more concerned about gathering intelligence, especially given the other evidence against Abdulmutallab.

Rogers is expected to press the administration to end an ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether CIA officers exceeded their authority by employing techniques such as waterboarding in interrogating Al Qaeda detainees during the Bush administration.

“It will be an incredible responsibility to serve as chairman as we work to get the oversight, policy and funding right to provide our nation’s intelligence professionals with the tools and support they need,” he said Wednesday.

ken.dilanian@latimes.com