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The Pentagon press contract

A contract John Kiriakou says every news outlet covering the Pentagon was required to sign in mid-2026, undertaking to publish no information that had not been officially provided by the department. Almost nobody signed: by his count Newsmax, One America News, a Turkish paper, a Hungarian paper and a couple of bloggers.

The Pentagon press contract is an undertaking John Kiriakou says was put to every news outlet covering the Department of Defense a few weeks before late July 2026, and which he describes himself as appalled by.

The terms

Every outlet covering the Pentagon had to sign a contract saying that they would not publish any information that had not been officially given to them by the Pentagon.[1]

Kiriakou’s summary of the effect is that the only thing an outlet could publish would be propaganda personally vetted by the office of the Secretary of Defense — and that this makes investigative journalism illegal.[1]

The mechanism he identifies is the Espionage Act. The idea, as he puts it, is that if you publish something technically classified that would be espionage and you would be charged. His objection is constitutional: this is protected free press.[2]

Who signed

Almost nobody. By Kiriakou’s count the only organisations that said yes and actually signed were Newsmax, One America News, a Turkish newspaper he had never heard of, a Hungarian newspaper he had never heard of, and a couple of bloggers.[2]

The consequence he reports is a building without reporters: “otherwise, there’s no news coverage of the Pentagon right now, at least not at the Pentagon in the press office.”[3]

See also

References

  1. The JK Report, 2026-07-0310:55 on YouTube · Transcript
  2. The JK Report, 2026-07-0311:26 on YouTube · Transcript
  3. The JK Report, 2026-07-0311:56 on YouTube · Transcript

Sourced from John Kiriakou's on-record public statements. See his profile for the full body of his interviews, podcast appearances, and short-form video.