The administration of President Donald Trump of the United States, US, has severed ties with the director of the National Security Agency, NSA, Gen. Timothy Haugh.
Haugh was chief of US Cyber Command before he was reportedly fired on Thursday night.
Haugh, a career Air Force leader, was deputy commander of US Cyber Command at Fort George G. Meade, until former President Joe Biden tapped him to lead the NSA in February 2024
Commenting, the US Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman, Mark Warner of Virginia described as “astonishing” that Trump would fire the “nonpartisan, experienced leader” of the NSA while failing to hold any member of his national security team accountable for the leaking classified information about war plans in Yemen on Signal, a commercial messaging app, last month.
In a statement, Warner said Haugh “has served our country in uniform, with honor and distinction, for more than 30 years.
“At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats, as the Salt Typhoon cyber attack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing him make Americans any safer?”
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was “deeply disturbed by the decision to remove General Haugh as Director of the National Security Agency.”
“I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first, I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration.
“The Intelligence Committee and the American people need an immediate explanation for this decision, which makes all of us less safe,” Himes said in a statement.
