Book Reviews
The Men Who Stare at Goats (book) and Crazy Rulers of the World (film)
By Jon Ronson (book & film)
Mar 24, 2007, 06:57
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The Men Who Stare at Goats
 Buy the book: USA / UK
In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back and fighting the War on Terror. 'The men who stare at goats' reveals extraordinary - and very nutty - national secrets at the core of George W Bush's War on Terror.
With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades, and sees how it is alive today within US Homeland Security and post-war Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the US Military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego? 'The men who stare at goats' answers these, and many more, questions.
Extracts
The road to Abu Ghraib
Guantánamo Serenade
Reviews
The New York Times, Janet Maslin
The Guardian, Albert Scardino
The Observer, Tim Adams
Sunday Business Post, Dublin, Nadine O'Regan
Western Mail, David Williamson
Daily Yominuri, James Hardy
Crazy Rulers of the World
 The Crazy Rulers of the World is the extraordinary, never before told story of what happened when chiefs of US intelligence, the army, and the government began believing in very strange things.
Three years in the making, Jon Ronson's Crazy Rulers of the World explores the apparent madness at the heart of US military intelligence.
With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Jon Ronson examines the extraordinary - and plain bizarre - national secrets at the core of George W Bush's war on terror.
 The three-part series begins with The Men Who Stare at Goats, which charts the history of a secret US Army unit founded in 1979 - the First Earth Battalion.
The programme uncovers the startling truth about this unit's involvement with paranormal activities that defy all known accepted military practice, including mind reading, out of body experiences and 'thought-death' experiments carried out on goats at Fort Bragg.
In programme two, Jon Ronson reveals how the New Age movement of the 1980s has influenced interrogation at Guantanamo Bay and in post-war Iraq.
The final episode looks into the military's involvement with remote viewing and mind control experiments.
EPISODES:
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Funny Torture
Psychic Footsoldiers
Related Texts
The road to Abu Ghraib
Guantánamo Serenade
Pictured top right: Col. John B. Alexander
Photo: © Robert M Knight
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