Top U.S. Commanders Leak Explosive Pentagon Documents

0:00Ben Meiselas:This was a massive leak, folks, and the Trump regime is losing it. The Secretary of Defense order book leaked to the Washington Post, and it is clear that our top generals and admirals have been warning Trump and Hegseth about this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran. In the Secretary of Defense order book, top military generals and admirals stated that they, quote, do not concur, end quote, with Hegseth and Trump's plans currently and going forward as it relates to this catastrophic and unlawful war. This was in the August Secretary of Defense order book, a highly classified document that the Washington Post got its hands on.

0:47Ben Meiselas:It's like the Pentagon Papers again, if you will. Now, Sean Parnell, one of the chief spokespeople over at the Defense Department put out the following message attacking the Washington Post and their reporters. Publishing highly classified assessments from the Secretary's Orders book is a crime, the Pentagon is saying. It's a betrayal of the force, and much of what they're publishing is inaccurate. Of course, we demand candid military advice. Non-concurs are standard. Really, you think non-concurs are standard when you have many of our top generals and admirals saying they do not concur with the overall strategy regarding the catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran?

1:36Ben Meiselas:I understand maybe some non-concurs on smaller or subsidiary issues, but on the overall planning of the war? Sure, Sean Parnell. He goes on to say non-concurs are standard. the secretary sees them constantly. Well, maybe if he's seeing them constantly, maybe that's not a good thing. He goes on to say, that's how you run a real military. We are in great shape around the world. This story isn't about readiness. It's TDS and PDS. They hate President Trump. They go Trump derangement syndrome and Secretary Hegseth, Pete Hegseth derangement syndrome, more than they love America. Really? Because it seems that our top generals and admirals are saying that this war is absolutely catastrophic for our country and for our service members.

2:29Ben Meiselas:Dan Lamouth from the Washington Post then responded to Sean Parnell at the Pentagon and said, fact check, independent journalism is not a crime. It's also especially important at a time when government officials are withholding key details and concerns about a war being fought on behalf of the American people with their taxpayer dollars. Lamouth also points out that you have, again, top admirals like Caudill, top generals like Gringovic, Donovan, and Poporo who have come out with this non-concur against Trump and Hegseth catastrophic war in Iran, the current plan and the future planning these top military leaders are against.

3:17Ben Meiselas:Notably, all of these top MAGA influencers started attacking Dan Lamouth and all of the Washington Post reporters who were also responsible for publishing the Secretary of Defense order book. But then there was a twist that I'm going to talk about in this video as well. Dan Lamouth and other reporters at the Washington Post were ready. You see, they were working on a story that showed how the Pentagon has been hiring all of these MAGA influencers as special government employees without disclosing it publicly. And these MAGA influencers have not been disclosing it publicly. And they've been hired to basically do the propaganda for the regime.

4:05Ben Meiselas:In other words, these MAGA influencers that you see all over X and social media, they are feds. They are basically the deep state. They are secretly special government employees. They're being paid by taxpayers apparently and they're spewing the regime propaganda and they're acting like they're journalists but they work as feds right now. And you can see some of these people here like Kurt Schickler and Cynical Publius and Rob Maness and this Data Republican account. I'm going to go over this in a moment, okay? We're going to tie this all together with a ribbon of transparency calling out these MAGA influencers.

4:52Ben Meiselas:But first, I want to give a hat tip to the Washington Post reporters, Alex Horton and Tara Kopp, for breaking the story about the Defense Secretary order book. Military leaders warned Hegseth against extending Iran war operations. A recent classified assessment advised that prolonged large-scale operations in the Middle East risk weakening U.S. capabilities elsewhere. Several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland, according to people familiar with a recent assessment prepared for the Pentagon chief.

5:42Ben Meiselas:The warnings, detailed for Hegseth by the heads of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America, appear in the August 14th edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, the SDOB. These people said they described the assessment to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because the document is classified. The SDOB typically produced twice monthly outlines the worldwide availability of U.S. warships, aircraft, personnel, and weapon systems. It reflects the president's priorities for the force, which are carried out by the defense secretary and includes insights from the military's top generals and admirals that inform the directives, the Pentagon issues.

6:37Ben Meiselas:And so there you had the top military generals and admirals warning about the catastrophic war and saying, we don't concur with the plans of Pete Hegseth. In addition, when you go through this SDOB. You can see Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Darrell Caudill. He says that he's deeply concerned about the lack of forecasted end date to operations against and around Iran. It's proved troublesome for efforts to sustain Iran-related operations that have now gone on for six months. Now, this also coincides with that powerful report by The Guardian, which we discussed, which talks about how the Navy has run out of money and it's so bad that people, service members, and contractors who work within the Navy and for the Navy and some of our sailors, they're not getting their payroll right now.

7:35Ben Meiselas:They're not getting their checks. Payroll money is being diverted to combat operations because the Navy has run out of money. That is bad, bad right there. So that brings me to the next point right here. These MAGA influencers who all at once started to swarm and attack the Washington Post, and they do this in general. They swarm and attack anybody who's critical of the Trump regime and who exposes what the Trump regime is doing. People like Data Republican right here. And Data a Republican, I'll tell you who she is in a moment, goes, for General's analysis is not the important point here. The article says that the information comes from the SDOB.

8:20Ben Meiselas:As the article explains, the SDOB is classified and lays out the worldwide availability of warships, aircrafts, weapons systems, personnel. That includes which leaders non-concurred, which you are amplifying. This is one of the most serious leaks I have ever seen, and you are using this to score partisan points against Hegseth. You and your military Twitter journalist sphere spent the whole week hammering a Doge-affiliated analyst for refusing to leak sensitive documents, accusing her of violating ethics. She's referring to herself as her, accusing her. So are you even writing this? I've been a Magic Spoon fan for a while, and now they basically figured out how to take that same idea and turn it into a snack that you could bring anywhere their magic spoon treats genuinely taste like you're having dessert but you're getting 12 grams of protein 7 grams of fiber zero grams of added sugar and just two to three grams of net carbs they're crispy airy certified gluten-free and they come in flavors like marshmallow chocolate peanut butter and double chocolate these are perfect to throw in your bag keep in the car or grab between meetings when you want something sweet that's also fueling and of course, there's the Magic Spoon cereal.

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10:23Ben Meiselas:Well, here is what we have learned, folks. Dan LaMoth was ready. Exclusive. The Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify the viewpoints of Pete Hegseth. Now, this follows the reporting about the individual I just showed you, Data Republican. Her real name is Jenica Pounds, and she was offered a scoop from the Undersecretary of State, Sarah B. Rogers. Pounds said she went into this to collaborate on Cuba to provide information to support the regime wanting to invade Cuba.

11:09Ben Meiselas:But then Pounds panicked because she believed that the undersecretary of state, Sarah Rogers, was trying to entrap her by giving her classified information that she would not be allowed to report on. And so then this Jessica Pounds, this Data Republicans account, called out Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers and said that she thought she was being framed, to which the Undersecretary of State, who reports directly to Rubio, says, LOL, these are my text messages and documents. The markings are FOIA redactions required even for voluntary disclosure. To prove this isn't a trap, I will happily disclose the documents myself.

11:55Ben Meiselas:So then the Data Republican account had to admit that she was a government employee. And she said, I began working as a special government employee for the Department of War in July to serve my country in a more hands-on way. My press credentials at the Pentagon expired in June. I did not seek the renewal of those credentials. I currently am not a member of the Pentagon press corps and no longer attend briefings or events as a journalist. So she's a Fed. And then it turns out that Kurt Schickler, the cynical Publius account, Rob Manus, these are also Feds as well, as Pedro Gonzalez says, the Pentagon is enlisting right-wing influencers who aren't disclosing their relationships with the federal government.

12:43Ben Meiselas:Some of them are media fixtures like Kurt Schickler, a senior town hall columnist. This is a massive scandal and it follows Jenica Pounds, data Republicans being outed as a Pentagon employee. And then you see some of these other people as well who are working for the government to spread this stuff and to attack people who are reporting accurately. But, you know, hat tip to Washington Post, they were prepared for that and then they called out all of those people for what they were doing. And this is how it was reported also. The Pentagon quietly placed several conservative military veterans with large social media followings into civilian government roles.

13:25Ben Meiselas:Among them, Rob Maness, Kurt Schichtler, and Thomas Anderson, that's that Publius account, all of them who have publicly defended Hegsip. Some of these influencers reportedly took part in the Pentagon's Senior Service College Task Force, which was created to examine military colleges for ideology described as toxic or woke. During a visit to the Army War College, these influencers showed up and they questioned students and professors about military leaders and course content. And this follows a West Point professor who just filed a lawsuit against West Point and against the Defense Department for firing him because he reported on climate change because the Trump regime doesn't want any reporting there.

14:20Ben Meiselas:Now, we've also been reporting here about the purge by Hegseth of top military officials. You know, everybody from Army Chief of Staff Randy George to General Donahue, who was one of the top commanders for the United States military in Europe. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C.Q. Brown Jr., was fired because he was black. And he was fired because, again, the Trump regime's not promoting black people. and women. And I had the opportunity to interview Senator Kelly, of course, combat veteran, flew 38 combat missions as an aviator, as a Navy aviator. And here's what he told me about the purge of top military officials.

15:10Ben Meiselas:Let's play it right over here. Good leadership can be contagious. The problem right now also is that bad leadership can be contagious as well. And we're starting to see some of that, that folks around Pete Hegseth and around the president start to try to emulate his behavior, which is not being straightforward, not being transparent, trying to avoid accountability at all costs. You know, they realize, I think most of them probably realize they made a mistake getting into a war with another country, with the Iranians, without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline and without a way out.

15:52And now they're stuck and they don't know what to do about it. And this president doesn't have answers. He has no idea what he's doing. Remember, this is a guy who truly believes, truly believes that he knows more than experienced admirals and generals about the military, about conflict, about national security, about combat operations. He does not. He actually thinks he knows more about, everything than everyone. And that's dangerous. And that's why we find ourselves in this spot, because he was the president of the United States. He took us to war and with no good reason at that moment to do it.

16:34Ben Meiselas:And so this has been a beat that we've been covering for a long time at the Midas Touch Network, the purge of our top military leaders and military leaders issuing these warnings. and now we're seeing a lot more of this come out there and you got to give credit where it's due. Great report by Washington Post here and in general, the defense reporters who have been banned from the Pentagon by Hegseth, they've been doing a great job doing lots of reporting here. Shout out to the reporters over at Stars and Stripes as well and shout out to the Midas Touch reporters who have been doing a great job covering this.

17:08Ben Meiselas:Aaron Parnas also affiliated with the Midas Touch and has his own independent meeting network. He's been doing great reporting also about the horrible conditions aboard the aircraft carriers and the military bases. To all the military families who watch this, and I know there are quite a few, I hear from you all the time. We're thinking about you. You are always in our hearts and in our minds, and we're thinking about you and your family members serving abroad. And we believe that it's one of the most patriotic things we can do is to bring attention to what's really happening out there. thanks for watching everybody hit subscribe let's get to 7 million subscribers appreciate you breaking news right now my brothers and i wrote a book it's called wtf america and well doesn't that just say it all it comes out officially this october but you can pre-order your copy today just scan the qr code or click the link in the description below

18:11Thank you.