Social media exploded late last week regarding Elon Musk’s Friday visit to the Pentagon. A seemingly well-sourced New York Times story claimed that Musk would be briefed on the Department of Defense’s overarching war plan for China. It should go without saying that this is a highly classified and sensitive document. This news thus alarmed many, with former intelligence officers such as myself asking why Musk had any “need to know” such plans, given that he isn’t a national security official. Then there’s the concern that President Donald Trump later noted: Musk’s extensive commercial and financial ties to China. Those ties make him liable to blackmail or coercion.

The Trump administration fired back angrily, asserting that the Times‘s story was fake news and demanding any leakers be found. But if it was fake, how was it even a leak? Regardless, the Pentagon is now commencing that leak hunt, complete with lie-detector tests. One problem?