James Robert Clapper Jr. Clapper has held several key positions within the United States Intelligence Community. He was the first director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and simultaneously the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Clapper was unanimously confirmed by the Senate for the position on August 5, Following the June leak of documents detailing the NSA practice of collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans' telephone calls, Clapper was accused of perjury for telling a congressional committee hearing that the NSA does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans earlier that year.
One senator asked for his resignation, and a group of 26 senators complained about Clapper's responses under questioning. In November , Clapper resigned as director of national intelligence, effective at the end of President Obama's term. In May , he joined the Washington, D.
Clapper graduated from Nurnberg American High School in West Germany in where his father was stationed at the time. Clapper earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the University of Maryland in and a Master of Science degree in political science from St.
Mary's University, Texas , in He served two tours of duty in Southeast Asia where he commanded a signals intelligence detachment based at a listening post in Thailand 's Udon Thani Province , and flew 73 combat support missions in ECs , including some over Laos and Cambodia.
He then spent six years in private industry, including two years as president of the Security Affairs Support Association, an organization of intelligence contractors. From to , Clapper worked for GeoEye satellite company and was an executive on the boards of three government contractors, two of which were doing business with the NGA while he served as director. Clapper defended the private sector's role in intelligence-gathering in his confirmation hearings telling the committee, "I worked as a contractor for six years myself, so I think I have a good understanding of the contribution that they have made and will continue to make.
