> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://johnwlittle.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Covert Contact 66: Intelligence Analysis: Feedback, Bias, and Other Challenges
- URL: https://johnwlittle.com/intelligence-analysis-feedback-bias-and-other-challenges/
- Published: 2017-03-10T12:45:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-18T08:45:49.000Z
- Description: Dean Baratta joined me to discuss public intelligence analysis, useful reader feedback, and practical ways analysts can recognize and limit bias.
- Author: John Little
- Tags: Covert Contact, Podcast, Interviews, Intelligence, Dean Baratta

[Dean Baratta](https://johnwlittle.com/tag/dean-baratta/), then chief of the Analysis Bureau at New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, joined me to discuss how intelligence is produced, shared, and understood. We explored his office’s approach to publishing unclassified analysis and why assessing threats to New Jersey requires attention to intent, capability, and local presence rather than global headlines alone.

Making that work public brings scrutiny, but it also gives analysts something they often struggle to obtain: useful feedback. Dean described how readers helped identify errors and sharpen assessments, and why seeing one report in isolation can leave a misleading impression of an organization’s priorities. We also discussed the distinction between informing policy and advocating for a particular decision.

The conversation turned to the biases analysts bring to their own work, including personal experiences and relationships with sources. Dean explained how open discussion, peer review, and sometimes assigning a subject to another analyst can help limit those influences before they shape the finished product.