WASHINGTON: The head of secretive US intelligence body the National Security Agency (NSA) was fired, US media reported.
The Washington Post cited US officials who said General Timothy Haugh was fired after little over a year in the job.
The officials did not give a reason for Haugh’s removal, The Post added. Haugh was also serving as head of the US Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s cyber warfare body which conducts offensive and defensive cyber operations.
His NSA deputy Wendy Noble was also fired and reassigned to another job at the Pentagon, The Post said. The NSA is the US government’s largest and most secretive signals intelligence agency. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Haugh, who was appointed in February 2024, previously held a string of high-profile government cybersecurity roles, including commander of the elite Cyber National Mission Force.
Reacting to the news, Democratic Congressman Jim Himes said he was “deeply disturbed” by Haugh’s sacking.
“I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security force,” he said in a statement posted on X.
“I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration.”
US President Donald Trump has led a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership since taking office in January.
Trump fired top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown in February, offering no explanation for Brown’s dismissal less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
His administration is presiding over sweeping layoffs of federal workers and moves to dismantle government institutions just months into his second term.
US Cyber Command’s Deputy Commander William J. Hartman and NSA executive director Sheila Thomas have been named acting NSA chief and deputy, The Post reported.
The NSA is one of the United States’ premier intelligence agencies and uses top-tier, specialised technology and systems to collect and analyse intelligence. U.S. Cyber Command carries out both offensive and defensive operations and monitors the networks of the Department of Defense.
Renée Burton, a cybersecurity expert who spent more than two decades at NSA, called the news of Haugh and Burton’s ouster “alarming.”
“NSA mission is vast and extremely complicated,” Burton told CNN. “General Haugh and Ms. Noble have built the expertise and credibility it takes to oversee such a vital part of our national security. Replacing them will not be easy and the disruption will expose the country to new risk.”
In an unprecedented purge of the military’s senior leadership in February, Trump fired the top US general just moments before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the chief of the US Navy and the vice chief of the Air Force.