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Pentagon’s Top Military Planner Reportedly Fired After Admitting Ukraine and Iran Leaks
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The Pentagon’s top military planner admitted to leaking classified information about Ukraine and Iran to two reporters from separate outlets over roughly a year, Axios reported on October 30.
Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia was fired this week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the alleged disclosures, which a US official told Axios Sylvia acknowledged on video after failing four polygraph tests.
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An internal Pentagon report accused Sylvia of making “unauthorized disclosures to the media” and noted that he cooperated with investigators, including by providing his personal phone for forensic examination. The investigation was conducted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
The report stated that Sylvia’s contacts with reporters began as early as June 2025 and continued through Signal and in-person meetings. In one case, he met a reporter at a Silver Diner in Arlington, Virginia, after the journalist’s Pentagon access had been revoked.
During that meeting, Sylvia allegedly relied on notes taken while reviewing a classified secret report and verbally disclosed information on US assistance to Ukraine, according to Axios. The reporter was writing a book and met Sylvia twice.
The report noted that Sylvia did not coordinate the meetings with the Pentagon’s Public Affairs Office or seek review of the information before providing it to the reporter.
Investigators also examined Sylvia’s Signal communications with another reporter. The report stated that Sylvia received messages believed to concern Iran and later deleted the entire message thread, removing records of Signal messages and calls from his personal phone.
US officials told Axios they suspected the deletion was intentional, while Sylvia maintained that he believed he had erased the thread accidentally.
The report further stated that Sylvia admitted being one of 20 officials cited in another story criticizing Pentagon leadership.
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Another US official told Axios that Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle’s office had pushed the Joint Staff to release a statement supporting Sylvia before the reason for his dismissal became known internally. An Army official disputed that account, calling it “a coordinated campaign of lies” and stating that Telle’s office had not advocated for such a statement.
Sylvia’s dismissal comes amid a wider Pentagon crackdown on unauthorized disclosures. In July, the Defense Department announced a joint task force with the Justice Department aimed at identifying leakers and prioritizing prosecutions for unauthorized disclosures to the media, Axios reported.
Sylvia’s firing comes as Hegseth is separately withholding approval for a major transfer of Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine. The missiles have already been paid for by Ukraine’s allies, but their delivery remains pending authorization from the US Defense Department.
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