US National Security Agency director ousted in sudden dismissal

(Reuters): The director of the United States National Security Agency (NSA) was fired on Thursday, the Washington Post reported, citing two current and one former US officials.

Timothy Haugh, who is also head of US Cyber Command, was dismissed along with his deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, the newspaper said.

Noble was reassigned to a job within the Pentagon's office of the Undersecretary of Defence for Intelligence, the newspaper said. The NSA is part of the US Defence Department.

The current and former officials cited by the Washington Post said they did not know the reason for Haugh's dismissal or Noble's reassignment.

US Cyber Command deputy William Hartmann was named acting NSA director, and Sheila Thomas, who was the executive director at the NSA, was named acting deputy, the newspaper said.

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Democrat Jim Himes, a ranking member of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, condemned Haugh's firing.

"It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office," Warner wrote in a post on X.

Republican President Donald Trump, since taking office on January 20, has fired multiple top officials at US agencies and installed loyalists.

Elon Musk, who is leading the Trump administration's effort to cut and streamline the federal government's workforce, visited the National Security Agency last month to meet Haugh.

The NSA is one of the United States' premier intelligence agencies and uses top-tier, specialised technology and systems to collect and analyse intelligence. US Cyber Command carries out both offensive and defensive operations and monitors the networks of the Department of Defense.