Allowing Moammar Gaddafi to remain in power “is not an option,” House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers said Sunday, adding that he believes Gaddafi could be a terrorist threat to the United States.

“Here’s somebody who was a state sponsor of terrorism, the bombing of the German discotheque, killed American soldiers, planned through Gaddafi’s regime the Pan Am bombing,” the Michigan Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This is somebody who still has a chemical weapon stockpile. And he has other weapon systems that keeps me up at night thinking about if these things were to happen to fall into the wrong hands.”

He continued, “I think if you have a stalemate with Moammar Gaddafi still in power … where he still possesses stockpiles of some pretty awful stuff, I think you have to worry that he’s a terrorist threat,” adding later: “I’ve been in Libya. I’ve seen his chemical stockpile. We know it’s there. It exists. He has other weapons systems that concern us.”

Pressure for regime change is being applied, said Rogers, who has served in the Army and as a special agent for the FBI. Better organization among the opposition movement, defections among regime members and seizing assets all play a role, he added.

“All the components [are] here and a smart way of going forward so that we don’t get embroiled in owning the problem of the cleanup, if you will,” Rogers said.