No more anonymity. Our "AJ in DC" comes out.

For over a year, I’ve written on AMERICAblog as "AJ in DC." My AMERICAblog bio gave some indication of my background, but I’ve maintained my anonymity fairly carefully for a variety of reasons. I recently decided this protection is no longer necessary.

So today it’s my pleasure to lose the cloak (if not the dagger): I’m A.J. Rossmiller.

Professionally I often go by Alex, but I’m among friends here, so A.J. it is. Last spring, I left the Defense Intelligence Agency (essentially the spy arm of the Department of Defense) where I was an Intelligence Officer for the Iraq office. I joined DIA wanting to contribute to the defense and security of my country, and I left convinced that the system -- and especially the Iraq office -- was politicized and manipulated to such a degree that we were doing more harm than good. When I resigned, I wanted to put to use my experience both in the field in Iraq and at the Pentagon to help advance reality-based security and foreign policies, and John was kind enough to offer me a place here to do just that.

In my establishment life, I’m a Fellow at the National Security Network, a fantastic organization run by Rand Beers, a former Marine and 35 year veteran of the civil service who resigned from the National Security Council just days before we invaded Iraq. I’ve kept a foot firmly in the blogger/activist world, of course, and some of you may have seen me on the foreign policy panel at YearlyKos last year -- where I made this opening statement, not revealing that I wrote for this site. More in the establishment vein, I’ve also done freelance pieces now and then.

I should also note that I’ve written a book –- a first-hand account of Iraq and the intelligence process (during the war, not before it) –- which will be published by Random House and is currently in the editing process. More on that in the coming months.

I have tremendous faith in (and affection for) public discourse, and I believe in the intelligence and goodness of people when they have the ability to see and evaluate the facts. It is in this spirit that I continue to study, discuss, and write about these issues, and I hope to continue as part of the AMERICAblog community for years to come. As always, I can be reached at AJamericablog (at) gmail.com, and I greatly appreciate your readership and support.

cheers,
A.J. Rossmiller