Washington DC - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly insisting that Pentagon officials undergo random polygraph tests as part of his continuing war on leakers.

A proposal and documents obtained and reported on by the Washington Post on Wednesday reveal that thousands of uniformed and civilian Pentagon officials may be forced to sign nondisclosure agreements and take lie detector tests.

The move would be an escalation in Hegseth's attempts to crush internal dissent within the Department of Defense, now referred to by the Trump administration as the Department of War.

According to a draft memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, approximately 5,000 staff within the Office of the Defense Secretary and the Joint Staff would be prohibited from releasing any "non-public information without approval or through a defined process."

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Feinberg is also reportedly planning to create a program that would randomly subject employees to polygraph tests to root out leakers and get rid of officials who are disloyal to the Trump regime.

Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said that the Post's reporting is "untrue and irresponsible" but refused to comment on specific questions.

Hegseth has already attempted to subject DOD staff to polygraph tests, and began administering them as early back as April. In July, however, they were ordered by officials in the Trump administration to cease the tests.

The reports come days after Hegseth delivered an authoritarian speech to military leaders in which he rambled about grooming standards, attacked "fat troops," and touted his department's ability to kill people.

"We untie the hands of our war fighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country," Hegseth said.

"No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality, and authority for war fighters."