【By Observer News, Zhang Jingjuan】According to China Central Television news, Timothy Haugh, former director of the U.S. National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, was suddenly removed from his post in April this year, with neither the Pentagon nor the White House explaining the reason.

Recently, Timothy Haugh gave his first interview after being fired. He claimed that China is exploiting vulnerabilities in the U.S. defense system, and its cyber plans pose a challenge to the United States.

This former national security director stated that there are weak points in the U.S. cyber defense, and although cybersecurity and cloud computing companies are trying to strengthen their defenses, some vulnerabilities are areas that these two types of companies have not given enough attention to.

He slandered that China's primary goal is to collect intelligence, steal intellectual property from U.S. agencies and companies, and prepare for potential attacks. He also brought up old issues, mentioning the so-called "Volt台风" operation and "Salt台风" operation, hyping up the "China threat theory".

Timothy Haugh added that artificial intelligence may exacerbate this threat, but it can also help the United States find new defense methods. The venture capital company Ballistic Ventures is helping to address a series of challenges, including identifying "synthetic media", which refers to propaganda content promoted by foreign entities or their hired companies.

"This is one area I am very willing to delve into - how to identify synthetic media, and how to ensure we understand the source of what we see," said Timothy Haugh.

It needs to be clarified that according to a special report previously released by China's cybersecurity institutions, the "Volt台风" operation was secretly planned by the U.S. National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and other U.S. intelligence agencies, with multiple federal government administrative units and the cybersecurity authorities of "Five Eyes" alliance countries jointly participating. It was a false information and public opinion manipulation campaign targeting American taxpayers, the U.S. Congress, and domestic opponents of the United States represented by former U.S. President Trump.

The reason why U.S. government agencies fabricated the so-called "Volt台风" network attack organization with Chinese background is to continue to hold the "unauthorized" surveillance power granted by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in order to maintain its massive "non-discriminatory" and "unlimited" surveillance plan. And it is precisely with the relevant authority of Section 702 that the U.S. government agencies can continue to conduct non-discriminatory surveillance on global Internet users, and even directly obtain user data from the servers of major American Internet companies, making it a real "snooper" in cyberspace.

The so-called "Salt台风" incident has no substantial evidence at all, and instead exposes the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies have been conducting large-scale surveillance and espionage on their own citizens.

Timothy Haugh IC photo

At the age of 56, Timothy Haugh served in the U.S. military for over 30 years and was an air force commander. In May 2023, he was nominated by then-Democratic President Biden as the director of the National Security Agency, and was approved by the Senate in December of the same year.

In April of this year, Timothy Haugh was dismissed, and his deputy at the National Security Agency, Wendy Noble, was also reassigned to another department of the Department of Defense.

The day before, Laura Loomer, a loyal supporter of former President Trump and an extreme right-wing activist, visited the White House. According to reports, she submitted a list of "disloyalty" to Trump and "showed her research and evidence."

Laura Loomer later attributed Timothy Haugh's dismissal to herself on social media. She claimed that during her meeting with Trump, she urged him to fire Timothy Haugh, because he was "carefully selected" by the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, who has had a tense relationship with Trump for many years.

In his first interview after being fired, Timothy Haugh seemed unwilling to elaborate on the reasons for his dismissal, only saying that he worked for Trump.

"I did not and do not expect an explanation. From the moment I was told I would no longer hold this position, the focus shifted to the new person appointed by the president," said Timothy Haugh.

According to reports, it is currently unclear why Laura Loomer targeted Timothy Haugh. Some intelligence officials said that the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had asked him to speed up the writing of important reports on key issues. However, current and former officials said that the National Security Agency's actions were swift.

They said there was little indication that the White House believed Timothy Haugh had specific leadership problems. Trump allowed him to retire with the rank of four-star general and used an exemption clause to avoid his rank automatically being reduced.

Reports state that Timothy Haugh will teach at Yale University this fall. In addition, Ballistic Ventures announced on the 29th that Timothy Haugh will join the company as a strategic advisor.

Although the United States continues to smear China for "cyber attacks", in fact, the United States is the largest source of global cyber attacks. On December 18, 2024, the National Internet Emergency Center reported two cases of U.S. intelligence agencies conducting cyber espionage on large Chinese technology enterprises. According to a survey report released by the National Internet Emergency Center in January this year, the attackers exploited a vulnerability in an electronic document security management system within China, stealing a large amount of commercial secrets and intellectual property information from Chinese technology companies. The attack time mainly occurred from Monday to Friday in U.S. time, and no attacks were observed during major U.S. holidays.

China has always opposed the politicization of technical investigations into cybersecurity incidents, and opposes the politicization of attributing cyber attacks. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jia Kun, once stated at a regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that cyberspace concerns the national security and economic prosperity of all countries. The United States should reflect on itself and stop political smears. What they require others to do, they should first do themselves. The United States should abide by the same international rules with a responsible attitude and work with the international community to jointly maintain peace and security in cyberspace.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer News, and it is not allowed to be reprinted without permission.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7532703085785874970/

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