The Men Who Stare at Goats
By Jon Ronson
(Simon & Schuster, Paperback, 9781439181775, 272pp.)
Publication Date: October 13, 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback (April 4, 2006), Compact Disc (April 2006), Hardcover (April 5, 2005)
Categories: Topic - Political, Conspiracy & Scandal Investigations, Military - United States
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In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the U.S. Army. Defying all known accepted military practice -- and indeed, the laws of physics -- they believed that a soldier could adopt a 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.
With firsthand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades and shows how they are alive today within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in postwar Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners of war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 debleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces Command Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the U.S. 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.
Jon Ronson is a documentary filmmaker and the author of Them: Adventures with Extremists. He lives in London.
The Men Who Stare At Goats was in production before Jon Ronson could even finish the book the film is based on. And while the film-adaptation process was a wild, lonely ride for Ronson, he tells NPR's Robert Siegel that he learned a few good lessons from the experience. More at NPR.org
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The new George Clooney movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats, is filled with tough-to-believe notions. Here's one — the U.S. Army teaching one of its squads how to walk through walls. Or how about stopping the hearts of goats just by staring at them? Sounds crazy, but author Jon Ronson tells host Guy Raz that the Army really tried those techniques and others in the late '70s and early '80s. Ronson wrote the book that became the basis for the movie. More at NPR.org
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