Add this to the trail of breadcrumbs that we’ve been following here. This week alone you get: 1. A Pentagon watchdog group investigating Pete Hegseth and SignalGate; 2. Laura Loomer in the White House persuading Trump to “vet” people better, so as to avoid RINOs; 3. Trump blowing up — again — at a reporter asking about SignalGate. And now late tonight on the east coast, we find out that General Timothy Haugh, director of the powerful wiretapping and cyber espionage service, the National Security Agency, was fired. And nobody can reach Pete Hegseth or his spox Sean Parnell to find out why.
Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also heads U.S. Cyber Command, was let go along with his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, according to the officials.
Noble was reassigned to a job within the Pentagon’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. The NSA is part of the department.
Haugh, who assumed his dual position just over a year ago, was traveling on Thursday and could not be reached for comment. Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, did not respond to a request for comment.
The current and former officials said they did not know the reason for Haugh’s dismissal or Noble’s reassignment. […]
Haugh last month hosted Trump adviser and U.S. DOGE Service head Elon Musk at the NSA’s Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters — Musk’s first known visit to a U.S. intelligence agency.
Haugh is a cyber professional with more than 30 years of military service, including as head of Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, which led offensive cyber military operations overseas, and as commander of the 16th Air Force in San Antonio, Texas.
Haugh ran Cyber Command’s half of the “Russia Small Group,” a joint effort with the NSA to defend the 2018 midterm election from Russian interference. The NSA portion was led by Anne Neuberger, who went on to serve in the Biden administration as a deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies. […]
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said that Gen. Haugh served with distinction.
“At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats, as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing him make Americans any safer?” Warner said in a statement.
“I am deeply disturbed by the decision” to remove Haugh, said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), Warner’s counterpart in the House.
Let’s wait for the next shoe to drop, which is to see who ends up replacing Haugh. That could tell you the why.
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“Haugh ran Cyber Command’s half of the “Russia Small Group,” a joint effort with the NSA to defend the 2018 midterm election from Russian interference.”
I bet this is why he was fired.
I’d say that’s a sure bet.
I had the same thought when I read that.
Can’t have DonOld’s BFF Pootie-poot being investigated now, can we.
Has anyone else noted that amongst all the tariffs to punish US allies for trading, Russia gets a zero rate? How does that happen?
Also appointed by Biden. That alone is reason enough. Combine the two.annd he,’s tsking the fall for Signalgate
that and being an apolitical professional. and why was musk at nsa?
Especially without a security clearance?
I think such things as security clearances are an antiquated idea with this bunch, they’re more shoot-from-the-hip types.
Don’t forget Hegseth stopped the offensive cybersecurity on Russia awhile ago. Stating that Putin is running things behind the scenes doesn’t cover it! Process that and figure what he has knowlege of already. We’re screwed.
In normal times, Loomer trying to enter the White House would trigger a security event, and security would respond with weapons and dogs, but these ain’t normal times.
All these high-level firings have nothing to do with making America or anything else better, it’s the taint of democracy on these people that offends Cheeto. One of them could have told him something he was about to do was illegal, and we know how he feels about that sort of thing.
I’m no cheerleader for the NSA or several other agencies under attack from this administration. Still, if they’re doing the job as prescribed under the Constitution, their function is vital to our security and functionality, and the very best should be running the show, not unqualified loyalists who think they can do the job without an understanding of what the job is.