Harper's interviews our AJ about his new Iraq book

From Harper's:

HARPER'S: You write in your book about political pressure on DIA analysts. How significant was such pressure?

AJ: It was a huge problem. In terms of accuracy of information going up the chain of command and in terms of morale, it was probably the most significant problem. We heard all the time that our reports were too pessimistic–”go back and change it.”...

Then the day before the election, a guy from the State Department came over, saying that we needed to report on how the secularists were making a big move. All the analysts said there was no evidence for that conclusion, but there was a ton of pressure from higher up to say so anyway. Repeatedly, we needed to tell people what they wanted to hear, even if what was predicted didn’t happen. And of course, after we were forced to say the secularists were surging, they got crushed.

You can check out, and buy, AJ's book on Amazon.