Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to The Classifieds. Read on to learn about the week’s top secrecy news.
Pentagon limits internal access to records to stifle Iran war dissent
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has retaliated against senior military leaders who voiced disagreements about his Iran war strategy by cutting off access to strategy documents that serve as both an essential planning resource and an official forum for dissent.
On Aug. 14, an edition of the twice-monthly Secretary of Defense Orders Book, which provides updates on worldwide military posture, announced that U.S. troops would remain stationed across the Middle East, in some cases through 2027. Several combatant command leaders warned against this decision, stating it would compromise U.S. readiness elsewhere.
Days after the warning was published, the Defense Department abruptly removed “decades of classified documents” from an internal web portal known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, including the orders book, The Washington Post reported.
It’s not clear if the records have been taken completely offline, moved to a more-restricted top secret network, or to an even more compartmentalized system. What is clear is that the decision to take the records off SIPRNet will keep the millions of service members and contractors who rely on it in the dark about everything from deployment schedules to readiness assessments across the globe.
This is absurd and dangerous. Restricting access to the data will make military planning more difficult, and undermines the strategic importance of having an internal dissent process. The point of this process is to improve decision-making, not to shield fragile egos or allow an administration to escalate a war blindly without facing the necessary, grueling scrutiny.
Hegseth isn’t just trying to keep his own military in the dark — he’s trying to keep the public uninformed, too.
Days after purging SIPRNet of an untold number of classified documents, the Pentagon carried out a massive polygraph campaign of the Joint Staff to try and root out who is speaking to journalists about the Iran war — including the disclosure of the Aug. 14 SDOB warning to the Post. The move will likely be ineffective in helping Hegseth catch leakers, but it could intimidate others from speaking to journalists in the future.
That’s the last thing we need from the Trump administration, which is already downplaying the loss of 18 American lives in Iran as “small potatoes.”
Pentagon also restricting public access to unclassified records
Along with keeping information from service members, the Pentagon is also hiding more unclassified information from the public.
In its latest secrecy move, the Pentagon is now restricting access to Defense Technical Information Center reports, which cover a vast array of topics and are deemed a “priceless historical archive” by the Society for Military History. The database is now available only to DOD employees and there is no plan to restore public access.
This follows the department’s proposal early this summer to hide unclassified information from the Freedom of Information Act.
9/11 records should be declassified for 25th anniversary
The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks holds special significance for a country still waiting to learn the full truth about what its government knew about the threat posed by al-Qaida and when it knew it. That’s because the executive order governing classification mandates that most historical records must be automatically declassified at 25 years, unless they meet certain criteria. In my latest for MS NOW, I discuss why the promise of automatic declassification won’t be fulfilled, and what needs to be done to fix this transparency crisis.
Watch me explain why declassifying the 9/11 records is so important.
What I’m reading
After 9/11, documents suggest New Yorkers were misled about air quality
The Trump administration should follow the example of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who directed the city to release 170,000 pages of records showing New Yorkers weren’t being told the truth about the air quality in the city following the terrorist attacks. The disclosure of the records, which were only discovered last year, is the first of several planned by Mamdani to publicize what city officials knew about environmental hazards resulting from 9/11.
This state is spending more on lethal injections. A law tries to keep the details secret
A public records lawsuit in Georgia has won the release of records offering a disturbing glimpse into the state’s lethal injection process, including the rising costs of its execution program. It’s an important victory over the state’s Lethal Injection Secrecy Act — and a timely one, as Georgia has just scheduled an execution on Sept. 16, its first in two years.
Transparently yours,
Lauren Harper
Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation
