The World

A.J. Rossmiller

Former Pentagon intelligence analyst A.J. Rossmiller talks about how office politics, disorganization and political meddling has undermined U.S. intelligence capabilities in the Iraq war.

Global Politics

Intelligence is an inexact science, of course, as the Pentagon has been quick to remind us. But if you ask my next guest, many of our intel failures in Iraq can be chalked up to something much more humdrum: office politics. A.J. Rossmiller worked as an Iraq analyst in the Defense Department starting in 2004, and later he did a six month rotation in Baghdad. Now he’s written a book about his Pentagon days called Still Broken: A Recruit’s Inside Account of Intelligence Failures, From Baghdad to the Pentagon.