Pentagon’s Black Ops Revealed Through Jacket Patches
Fascinating - and scary - piece in the International Herald Tribune about Trevor Paglen’s book I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World
Skulls. Black cats. A naked woman riding a killer whale. Grim reapers. Snakes. Swords. Occult symbols. A wizard with a staff that shoots lightning bolts. Moons. Stars. A dragon holding the earth in its claws.
No, this is not the fantasy world of a 12-year-old boy.
It is, according to a new book, part of the hidden reality behind the Pentagon’s classified, or “black,” budget that delivers billions of dollars to stealthy armies of high-tech warriors. The book offers a glimpse of this dark world through a revealing lens: patches, the kind worn on military uniforms.
“It’s a fresh approach to secret government,” Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said in an interview. “It shows that these secret programs have their own culture, vocabulary and even sense of humor.”
One patch shows a space alien with huge eyes holding a stealth bomber near its mouth. “To Serve Man” reads the text above, a reference to a classic episode of the “Twilight Zone” TV show in which man is the main course, not the customer. “Gustatus Similis Pullus,” reads the caption below, dog Latin for “Tastes Like Chicken.”
Military officials and experts said that the patches were real, if often unofficial, efforts at building team spirit…
What sparked his interest, Paglen recalled, were Vice President Dick Cheney’s remarks as the Pentagon and World Trade Center smoldered. He said the nation would engage its “dark side” to find the attackers and justice. “We’ve got to spend time in the shadows,” Cheney said. “It’s going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.”
And people still wonder if Cheney is Vader.
Paglen has managed to find 75 of these patches and trace the shadowy operations and organisations they refer to. Kevin Kelly has a page of some of the patches and Trevor Paglen’s own site has updates and additions.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Black Hawk (and knickers) Down On the BBC�s New…
- Black Flag Henry Rollins releases "Smile, You’r…
- History, schmistory
- Michael Buerk: a diversion
- Hatchet Job An old review I’ve just rediscovere…
