Pentagon polygraphed about 50 Joint Staff officers in August hunting leakers of munitions-shortage stories; no one failed

Roughly 50 members of the Joint Staff — the officers who work directly for the Joint Chiefs — were given lie-detector tests in August 2026 as part of a hunt for whoever told reporters that U.S. missile and interceptor stocks had been drained by the war with Iran. The group included senior officers and combatant commanders, a scale officials described as unprecedented. Nobody failed the questions about leaking to the press. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was not polygraphed. No official has explained the carve-out on the record. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has said only that the department takes leaks seriously. (TS: CBS News, Sept. 2026, citing a senior Pentagon official; the department has released no results of its own.) Still open. Whether the August 2026 sweep produced any suspect, and whether more rounds are coming. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has said only that the department takes leaks seriously.

What the leaked reporting claimed, and how Trump answered it:

• Interceptors left after the Iran war, per a CSIS estimate cited by CNN on July 29: fewer than 827 Patriot and fewer than 278 THAAD
• Army ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles: 'virtually all' expended, Reuters reported
• Trump, Friday, Aug. 7: denied any shortage and vowed to jail the leakers