US Rep Mike Rogers, the incoming chairman of the US intelligence committee, was the man who pushed President George Bush to launch drone strikes in Pakistan, reported Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. The paper said five years ago, Mike Rogers was visiting a thinly-guarded US special operations base in a remote part of Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan. One of his hosts took him up to the roof, where he peered through binoculars at militants loading 122-millimeter rockets. Those rockets soon will be raining down on this base, the officer told the congressman. What are you going to do about it? Rogers asked with a note of concern, according to someone who was present. I cant do anything about it, the officer replied. They are on the wrong side of the Durand Line. Rogers and an aide were hustled onto a helicopter and flown out. The Afghan base indeed was rocketed. Rogers, whose resume includes a stint as an Army officer and another as an FBI investigator, returned to Washington determined to find out, as part of his role on the House Intelligence Committee, why the US wasnt doing more to strike Taliban militants in Pakistan. The responses he received frustrated him, those close to Rogers say, and led him to mount a campaign to press the George W. Bush administration to do more. In a story known only to a small group of participants, Rogers played a role in convincing President Bush to issue a July 2008 order that dramatically expanded the scope of Predator drone strikes against militants in Pakistan, according to two former Bush administration officials close to the matter and two members of the House Intelligence Committee who were involved. The officials declined to be named speaking about secret deliberations. Rogers unpublicized efforts as an advocate for that covert programme, which has been expanded dramatically by President Obama, helped convince House Republican leader John Boehner last week to name Rogers incoming chairman of the intelligence committee. Mike went out and found out the ground truth on this stuff, said US Rep. Peter Hoekstra, who is retiring as the ranking Republican on the committee.