A brave Marine colonel took on the Pentagon — and paid the price for it

This is an excerpt from Shyam Sankar and Madeline Hart’s forthcoming book Mobilize: How the Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III. Mobilize is available to order now.

Everything about how Marine Colonel Drew Cukor ran Project Maven, the Department of Defense’s upstart AI initiative, put a target on his back. He infuriated the acquisition community, which is a powerful enemy in the Pentagon. Ultimately, the firestorm of criticism triggered a series of unfounded but unrelenting...