STEADY STATE FILES CRIMINAL REFERRAL OVER ALTERNED IRAN WAR CASUALTY COUNT

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 28, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Steady State, an organization of more than 430 former national security officials, today transmitted a formal criminal referral to the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General to investigate changes made to the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), the Department’s official public accounting of United States military casualties, and to preserve all related records. The referral was also sent to the Archivist of the United States.

Archived versions of the Pentagon’s own DCAS pages show the public toll at 18 killed and 482 wounded as of July 22, cut to 14 killed and 420 wounded on or about July 23 — one day after the four deaths were added to the public count, and one day after the fallen were honored at Dover Air Force Base. Days later, the four reappeared under a newly created category, “Overseas Operations,” with a start date of July 7 — the date the President reported to Congress as the start of military action against Iran.

The referral asks investigators to determine who made the changes, under what authority, and why July 7 was selected as the new category’s start date. It cites potential violations of federal records and false-statement laws. The Department has attributed the changes to “temporary data disruptions” and has said the new category reflects the conclusion of Operation Epic Fury.

Two groups of lawmakers have written to the Secretary of Defense demanding an accounting; both response deadlines passed without reply. Legislation introduced August 6 would bar resetting a war’s casualty count through the creation of new operational categories. The public count has continued to change: sixty wounded were added on August 19–20 without explanation.

The referral states that it “does not assert that any identified person has committed a crime and does not urge any particular prosecutorial outcome.” It asks the recipients “to determine, on the basis of a publicly reported record that on its face raises serious questions, whether federal casualty records … have been unlawfully altered,” and closes: “The integrity of federal casualty records — the records by which the United States accounts to its citizens for the human cost of its military operations — requires prompt examination.”

The full referral is available at LINK.

About The Steady State

The Steady State is an organization of more than 430 former national security professionals committed to defending American democracy from rising authoritarian threats. Its members include former ambassadors and senior State Department officials, senior CIA, Defense officials, FBI and DHS leaders, USAID and NSC staff, and senior congressional staff from both Republican and Democratic administrations.

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