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I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World By Trevor Paglen ( Melville House )
Release Date: 2008-01-28
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Product Description
They’re on the shoulder of all military personnel: patches that symbolize what a soldier’s unit does. But what happens if it’s top secret?
Shown here for the first time, these sixty patches reveal a secret world of military imagery and jargon, where classified projects are known by peculiar names (“Goat Suckers,” “None of Your Fucking Business,” “Tastes Like Chicken”) and illustrated with occult symbols and ridiculous cartoons. Although the actual projects represented here (such as the notorious Area 51) are classified, these patches—which are worn by military units working on classified missions—are precisely photographed, strangely hinting at a world about which little is known. By submitting hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, the author has also assembled an extensive and readable guide to the patches included here, making this volume one of the best available surveys of the military’s black world—a $27 billion industry that has quietly grown by almost 50 percent since 9/11. Trevor Paglen is a geographer by training, and an expert on clandestine military installations. He leads expeditions to the secret bases of the American West and is the author, with A.C. Thompson, of Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights, which The New York Times praised as “the real thing . . . and not on the evening news.”
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 A fascinating if eclectic book ( asr-cascadian )
In his Introduction, author Trevor Paglen explicitly disavows this as either "a book of military history" or "a comprehensive, historical, or even consistent examination of black world heraldry. Serious collectors of militaria and historians of all varieties," he continues, "may find this book to be maddeningly inconsistent, incomplete -- even random." Which pretty much deflates, I guess, my primary criticism of this book, that it is not as complete or as in-depth as I would have liked. But, he told me so.
What information the author does give us, though, is a very interesting peek into a world best known to many (most?) of us through speculative and science-fiction movies and TV shows like "The X Files." Analyzing unit patches to try to extract clues about planes and programs is an intriguing form of divination, and to the extent Paglen is able to do so, his conclusions seem sound enough to an amateur. Ultimately, I'm inclined to agree with the "frustrated" former black ops insider who describes these patches as "gang colors," but you have to take your intel where you can find it and "patch intel" seems as reliable a source as any.
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 This has become a classic in the Military Black World ( tdrss )
Mr. Paglen's book has been spotted in many offices that work with the projects within... or so I've been told. While the conjecture and interpretation may be a little hard to take for those "not in the know" it is amazing that he compiled this resource using open source materials. Instead of waiting until some of these projects are declassified (20 or 30 years hence) and finally explaining what a patch means, those within can just point to a picture in this book and give a knowing smile... for that Mr. Paglen deserves the thanks of the Black World community. NOYFB!
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I could rate this book but then I would have to disintegrate you
This was an interesting and fun book to read and share with my friends. It's probably not for the serious researcher of secret government programs, but for the rest of us I think the author has given a glimpse into a hidden world. I feel Trevor Paglen sums it up best in this disclaimer excerpt from the book:
"Instead, readers of this book will find a collection of images that are fragmentary, torn out of context, inconclusive, enigmatic, unreliable, quixotic, and deceptive. Readers will find, in other words, a glimpse into the black world itself."
Now don't take his words in a negative light. After reading this book and the detailed explanations of the pictures of patches included I don't think I will ever look at a patch in a simple, dismissive way again.
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 Unless your interested in Military patches this book is not for you
This book is a picture book of clandestine military patches and a short review of there meaning and location.It is interesting but lacks alot of story.
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Quck fun read ( novadupoglax )
Enjoyable look at the various military "skunkworks" projects that go on beneath the public surface. The explanations, especially translations from Latin, provided for each of the project or group patches are a bit variable. Some are fairly detailed (but almost always shorter than half a page), while some are very superficial at best. Book would have been even better if it dealt with similar now-declassified projects in the Army or Navy; they must exist. Virtually all the examples cited are from the Air Force. But overall an illuminating vignette about how people who work on these projects view themselves - usually in a humorous, irreverent manner.
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