EASTORA REPORT | The Pentagon has removed one of its most senior military strategists just as Washington weighs another round of strikes on Iran.
Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, who led the Joint Staff’s Strategy, Plans and Policy directorate, was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid allegations that he leaked classified information about the Iran war, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive military matters.
Sylvia’s post placed him near the center of long-term U.S. military planning. CBS News reported that he had been coordinating planning related to the Iran campaign, while the Pentagon has separately stressed that operational control of the war rests with U.S. Central Command.
A senior Pentagon official said Sylvia failed three polygraph examinations concerning alleged disclosures to journalists and that the case has been referred to the Justice Department. Two other Pentagon sources disputed those accusations.
The Pentagon has not publicly detailed what information Sylvia is alleged to have disclosed, and he has not been charged with a crime.
His removal comes at a particularly sensitive moment. Donald Trump is considering renewed strikes on Iran after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, while the military is reviewing the cost, ammunition use and readiness implications of the war so far.
Hegseth has made leaks one of his defining battles inside the Pentagon, expanding investigations, using polygraphs on senior officials and tightening journalists’ access to the building.
The Joint Staff initially issued a statement thanking Sylvia for 32 years of service, then withdrew it, saying it did not reflect the “full circumstances.”
The message from Hegseth’s Pentagon was less ambiguous.
“We vowed to find you,” spokesman Sean Parnell said of leakers.
“And we meant it.”