By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
The Pentagon's hunt for a leaker has reached deep into its own command structure.
Some of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S. military have been subjected to polygraph tests as part of a sweeping leak investigation, U.S. officials briefed on the matter told CBS News. The New York Times reported the effort has expanded further still, placing roughly 50 members of the Joint Staff under polygraph examination.
The Times reported the aggressive push comes in the wake of news accounts detailing the military's diminished stocks of crucial munitions as the U.S. fought Iran — reporting that evidently rattled officials enough to trigger one of the more expansive internal leak hunts in recent memory. Neither report reviewed here named the specific officials polygraphed or specified what classified information investigators believe was disclosed, details that matter for assessing the scope and justification of the inquiry.
Polygraph tests are not admissible in most courts and are widely regarded by scientists as unreliable, though the military has long used them as an investigative tool and a deterrent. Subjecting dozens of senior officers and Joint Staff members to the tests marks an unusually aggressive posture, even by the standards of past Pentagon leak investigations.
The probe unfolds against the backdrop of the broader Iran conflict, in which 18 U.S. service members have been killed, according to ABC News. Whether the leak investigation produces a named source or fizzles, the willingness to polygraph the military's own top brass signals how seriously the Pentagon regards the disclosure — and how far it's willing to go to find who was responsible.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News, The New York Times and ABC News.
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