{"id":661167,"date":"2026-10-30T01:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T01:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661167\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T01:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T01:04:11","slug":"hegseth-reportedly-fires-high-ranking-army-strategist-over-alleged-leaks-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661167\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth reportedly fires high-ranking army strategist over alleged leaks | US military"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth<\/a>, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon\u2019s joint staff, following allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had referred an alleged information leak case for criminal investigation, maintaining that the removal of the senior general was essential \u201cto protect sensitive information\u201d, the Washington Post<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Sylvia had served as the director for strategy, plans and policy on the joint staff.<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell acknowledged the dismissal in a statement<\/a> on social media, though he did not mention Sylvia by name.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing an extensive Air Force OSI investigation, the Department took necessary personnel action to protect sensitive information,\u201d Parnell wrote. \u201cTo protect the integrity of the investigation, no further comment will be made regarding the individual or the circumstances of this action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis matter, along with others, have been referred to the Justice Department for potential further legal action,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said in a statement that it \u201chas ongoing investigations related to possible leaks of classified information\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work closely with our government partners, which includes the Department of War,\u201d the spokesperson added, using the Trump administration\u2019s name for the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

Sylvia\u2019s removal represents one of the most significant actions so far in Hegseth\u2019s extensive campaign to identify officials suspected of sharing information with journalists, as the unpopular<\/a> US war on Iran moves into its ninth month.<\/p>\n

In July, Hegseth \u200bannounced that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice had created a joint taskforce<\/a> \u201c\u200bto identify and \u200bprosecute\u201d what he called the \u201cunauthorized disclosure \u200bof sensitive\u201d information to the press.<\/p>\n

Last year, Hegseth implemented new restrictions governing media access that prompted legal concerns from press organizations.<\/p>\n

Dozens of journalists surrendered their press badges rather than agree to the new media policies, which have been subject to legal challenges.<\/p>\n

A senior Pentagon official told Reuters<\/a> that Sylvia failed three separate polygraph tests, in which he was asked whether he had disclosed classified material.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent of his leaking became so critical that Secretary Hegseth took immediate action and fired Sylvia in order to protect national security. Urgent action was needed and could not wait another second,\u201d the official said, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

However, a colleague of Sylvia told the Washington Post that the general had consistently rejected accusations that he leaked classified information, while also acknowledging that he had previously communicated with members of the press.<\/p>\n

In August, three journalists fired<\/a> by the Pentagon from the US government-funded news outlet Stars and Stripes sued the department in federal court, arguing their dismissals were illegal and violated their first amendment rights to free speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-661167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}