Mr Dahmer, who blamed “fake news” and “inaccurate reporting” for the controversies, claimed the Pentagon had provided three briefings to the Senate Armed Services committee on the recent withdrawal of troops from Romania.
That was news to Roger Wicker, the committee’s chairman, who said they had not received even one.
A Pentagon insider told The Telegraph that the “atmosphere of suspicion” had filtered down from the top of the department and upended any coherent decision-making process.
“Some of the decisions that have come down that don’t make any sense. We’ll be working on something… and then we get pulled to work on some weird exercise,” the source said, adding that morale had plummeted among officials.
“They can do all the lie detector tests they want, but in the end, the truth will come out,” said Mr Subramanyam, who has spoken to whistleblowers at the department.
“They’re so ashamed about what leaks from the Pentagon… they should just be more transparent in the first place.”
Defence department is ‘well-oiled machine’
A spokesman for the Pentagon said: “All of the fake rumours and false forecasting in your article is plain wrong, given by anonymous sources or those who have an agenda against Secretary Hegseth and President Trump.”
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman said: “Secretary of war Pete Hegseth has been one of the most effective leaders this Pentagon has seen in decades, and of course that makes his haters in Washington lose their minds.
“Under his leadership, the DOW (department of war) is a well-oiled machine, united under President Trump’s America First vision.”
Mr Hegseth is not the first Pentagon chief who has tried to prevent leaks, and he will be far from the first who has failed to do so.
Like many of his predecessors, the defence secretary has found that while armies will follow orders, government departments with millions of employees will not.
Decisions made in the Pentagon are life and death, and critics are concerned the department is under the control of an individual who seems more concerned with waging internal battles than the real wars taking place around the world.
The Pentagon has always resembled a fortress. But now, with a defence secretary who believes he’s under siege, it’s being treated like one too.
