Overview

• Google Maps data showed a spike in takeout requests at four pizza shops near the Pentagon around 7 p.m. ET on June 12, just hours before Israel’s airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
• The Pentagon Pizza Index traces back to the 1980s and has coincided with major U.S. operations, including the 1989 Panama invasion and 1991’s Desert Storm.
• The Department of Defense refuted the theory, highlighting its internal food concessions and disputing the reported surge timeline.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated that the U.S. had no role in the June 12 strikes and affirmed America’s focus on protecting its forces.
• Researchers caution that confirmation bias and scant data samples limit the index’s reliability as a form of open-source intelligence.