The dope - the real silly - is an officer (7)
I believe the answer is:
general
'an officer' is the definition.
(general is a kind of officer)
'the dope the real silly' is the wordplay.
'the dope' becomes 'gen' (both can mean information).
'silly' indicates an anagram.
'real' is an anagram of 'eral'.
'gen'+'eral'='GENERAL'
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for general that I've seen before include "Enlarge for senior army officer" , "Military commander" , "Catholic" , "Popular" , "Applying to all or most of a group" .)