The Washington Post did not expose a secret Pentagon influence factory. Dan Lamothe and Tara Copp manufactured a smear, wrapped leaked personnel data around a fabricated accusation, and then hid behind process language while thousands of people swallowed the lie.
I was named. So were retired US Army Colonels Kurt Schlichter and Thomas Anderson. The headline said the Pentagon “secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles.” The narrative said we were hired to amplify Pete Hegseth and attack critics. That accusation is false and a complete fabrication. It is defamatory. I have said so in public, in writing, and on camera. I will keep saying it.
We are retired colonels. Our oath did not expire when we retired.
On February 12, 2026, I published “It’s Time to Purge the Poison from All Professional Military Education.” I called for an audit of the war colleges and the removal of faculty who cannot put warfighting ahead of social engineering. Because of that article, the Department of War asked me to serve on a short-term task force studying those same colleges. I accepted. That is called answering the call. It is not a covert messaging contract.
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The work was the task force. Period. We set aside media personas and did the job as senior officers and experienced commanders. The report is with the Secretary. I will not preview it. I have never been paid by any government source for anything I write on X, in magazines, or say on air. Disclaimers have been on my sites for more than a decade. Anyone who claims otherwise is defaming me.
Lamothe later asked whether my remarks were personal or as a government employee, then announced he stood by reporting that we had undisclosed government roles. That is a dodge. The smear was not that a temporary task-force status existed. The smear was the innuendo that we were secretly hired to publish Pentagon propaganda. Read the comments under his story. That is what people took from it. He knows it.
So I asked him the questions that actually matter. He has not answered them.
On the smear about me and my colleagues: Dan: will you apologize for smearing us with the false accusation that we were hired by the Pentagon to spread its message?
