Pentagon Purges Decades of Classified Documents After WaPo Revealed Top Brass Warned Hegseth
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The Pentagon reportedly removed decades’ worth of classified military documents from a secret network used by defense officials and U.S. troops after The Washington Post revealed that several top military leaders had raised concerns about extending the war with Iran.
Documents from the Secretary of Defense Orders Book were pulled from an internal portal on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet, three people familiar with the matter told the Post in a report published Wednesday. The system houses information classified at the “secret” level and is frequently used by authorized military personnel.
It remains unclear, the paper noted, whether the documents are still available elsewhere or whether the Pentagon moved them to a more restricted system.
While Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell chose not to discuss the move with the Post, he did not deny that it happened.
“As we have previously stated, the Department of War does not publicly discuss internal operational deliberative processes, including the management, handling, or access protocols for the Secretary of War Orders Book (SWOB),” Parnell said.
The Orders Book, which is issued twice monthly, contains information about the whereabouts and availability of U.S. forces, ships, weapons, and other military assets. It also allows senior commanders to formally register objections to orders through a process known as “non-concurring.”
That process landed in the spotlight Sunday when the Post reported that four senior military leaders — Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Gen. Francis Donovan, Adm. Samuel Paparo, and Adm. Daryl Caudle — had warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the risks of prolonging large-scale military operations against Iran.
Parnell lashed out following that report, accusing the newspaper of publishing classified material.
“Publishing highly classified assessments from the Secretary’s orders book is a crime. It’s a betrayal of the force. And much of what they’re publishing is inaccurate,” he wrote on X, while acknowledging that “Non-concurs are standard.”
Post reporter Dan Lamothe, also a co-author of Wednesday’s report, fired back: “Fact check: Independent journalism is not a crime.”
A former defense official told the Post of this recent purge that removing the Orders Book from SIPRNet or placing it on a more highly classified network would “dramatically reduce the number of people who have direct access to it,” potentially making time-sensitive military planning slower and more difficult.