Pentagon intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they say are leaks of national security information.
Defense Department employees could be subject to polygraph tests in the Trump administration's latest such investigation.
A memo released late Friday by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's chief of staff cited “recent unauthorized disclosures” of information but provided no details about the alleged leaks.
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump denied reports that an adviser to Elon Musk would be told how the US would fight a hypothetical war with China.
“If, as a result of these efforts, information is obtained that identifies the person responsible for the unauthorized disclosure of information,” such information “will be forwarded to the appropriate crime-fighting agency for criminal prosecution,” the memo says.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this month pledged to step up lie detector testing of employees to identify those who might leak information about operations to the media.
The Justice Department on Friday announced an investigation into “selective leaks of inaccurate but nonetheless sensitive information” from intelligence agencies about the Trena de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang whose members are under threat of being eliminated in the United States by the Republican administration.
Leaks occur in every administration (and the source may be government officials) to test how a potential policy decision will be received.
Although polygraph tests are generally not admissible in court proceedings, they are often used by federal law enforcement agencies and to obtain security clearances for classified information.
In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that they were also inadmissible in military trials.
They are unacceptable because they are unreliable and often produce false results, said George Maschke, a former Army interrogator and reserve intelligence officer who later founded AntiPolygraph.org.
He himself failed the polygraph when he contacted the FBI.
But since the 1990s, they have been used periodically to intimidate and deter sources from talking to journalists, Mr. Maschke said.
A 1999 Pentagon report said the program was being expanded to include using polygraphs on military personnel “in the event of a leak of classified information to which they had access.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
