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The Pentagon has pulled decades of classified documents from a secret computer system commonly used by defense officials and U.S. troops, after The Washington Post published a story detailing senior military officers' concerns about the Iran war.
Documents associated with the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB) were removed from an internal web portal on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), three people familiar with the matter said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified system.
It was not immediately clear if the documents remain otherwise available to U.S. personnel or how the reduction in access could complicate military planning. SIPRNet holds information that is labeled "secret," while top-secret information is held on more highly classified networks, where fewer people have access.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to discuss the change on Wednesday but did not dispute that it occurred.
"As we have previously stated, the Department of War does not publicly discuss internal operational deliberative processes, including the management, handling, or access protocols for the Secretary of War Orders Book (SWOB)," Parnell's statement said, using the administration's preferred name for the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's title.
"The success of our servicemembers is Secretary Hegseth's top priority, and for that reason, decisions regarding operational processes, force posture, and deliberative staffing are managed through appropriate security channels to ensure mission security and operational integrity," Parnell's statement added.
The change comes after the Trump administration has taken numerous other steps to thwart leaks to the media, including imposing polygraph tests on some personnel, issuing subpoenas to journalists and in one case searching the home of a Post journalist and seizing her electronic devices.
The SDOB details the location and availability of U.S. warships, military units, weapons systems and other resources, and provides top generals and admirals a forum in which they can disagree with President Donald Trump and Hegseth while still carrying out their orders. They do so by "non-concurring," a process by which they explain reservations they may have or the detrimental effects of orders on other military plans.
The SDOB, published twice per month, became the focus of intense discussion after The Post reported Sunday that several top generals and admirals cautioned Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere. They did so by non-concurring in the SDOB, people familiar with the document said.
Among those who raised reservations with a "non-concur" were Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the head of European Command; Gen. Francis Donovan, the head of Southern Command; Adm. Samuel Paparo, the head of Pacific Command; and Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, the people familiar with the discussion said.
Gen. Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, the chief of staff of the Air Force, and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the acting chief of staff of the Army, concurred with Hegseth's plan to extend the time of some of their units' deployments, but each emphasized that doing so would come with significant risk, these people said.
Parnell told The Post before publication Sunday that decisions about the scope and duration of deployments are made based on assessments of threats posed to the United States, the president's strategic priorities and the advice of top military leaders. He declined to address specifics, saying that the Pentagon "does not discuss internal operational processes."
After publication of The Post's report, Parnell claimed on social media that much of what The Post published was "inaccurate." He did not provide specifics and said that "non-concurs are standard."
"The Secretary sees them constantly," Parnell said. "That's how you run a real military. We are in great shape around the world."
For months, senior U.S. officials have increasingly raised concerns about the long-term impact of the war with Iran, which has stretched into its seventh month after Trump initially said it would take only a few weeks. The concerns include the massive expenditure of increasingly scarce munitions, such as Patriot missile interceptors and Tomahawk cruise missiles, and the strain placed on the Navy's fleet as it enforces a sea blockade that the Trump administration has imposed on Iran.
Purging the SDOB or moving it to systems with higher levels of classification will "dramatically reduce the number of people who have direct access to it," which can constrain urgent planning, said a former defense official who routinely reviewed those documents and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning.
Commanders and their staffers rely on access to the SDOB to make time-sensitive decisions and notifications, the former official said.
Sending aircraft and weapons from one command to another, for instance, requires urgent logistical work to reroute equipment and resources. Restricting access to relevant information, the former official said, will make that process slower and more difficult.
That shift, the former official said, does not make it impossible for those personnel to access strategic and operational documents, but it is now "certainly more difficult."
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