I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World
by Trevor Paglen

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World
List Price: $22.95
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Buy I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World at Amazon.com
(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Trevor Paglen
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-01-28
ISBN: 1933633328
Number of pages: 136
Publisher: Melville House

Book Reviews of I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World

Book Review: Amusing and entertaining little book
Summary: 5 Stars

If you are at all interested in the military, insignias, secret projects, or just good conversational pieces, buy this book. Then take it for what it's intended. The author doesn't promise a comprehensive or even consistent summary of military patches or black ops; he's picked some of the more interesting emblems and thrown a few program tidbits in where he could. It's surface level insight into the secret world of black ops, and if we all knew about it, it wouldn't be very secret or black, would it? The photos are great, the back stories are interesting, and we enjoyed it so much I'm buying more as gifts for my the history/military buffs in my family (i.e., all the guys.)

Summary of I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World

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.”

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Odd tales (both real and fiction)
Lost Girls ImageLost Girls
by Alan Moore, Melinda Gebbie
Top Shelf Productions; Published: 2006-08-30; Hardcover Comic; Book
Best price: $44.95
Price in other shops: $75.00
Our Gang ImageOur Gang
by Philip Roth
Vintage; Published: 2001-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops: $12.00
The Trial ImageThe Trial
by Franz Kafka
Schocken; Published: 1999-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.11
Price in other shops: $13.00
The Wanting Seed (Norton Paperback Fiction) ImageThe Wanting Seed (Norton Paperback Fiction)
by Anthony Burgess
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1996-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: $14.95
Crash: A Novel ImageCrash: A Novel
by J. G. Ballard
Picador; Published: 2001-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.22
Price in other shops: $13.00
The Ticket That Exploded (Burroughs, William S.) ImageThe Ticket That Exploded (Burroughs, William S.)
by William S. Burroughs
Grove Press; Published: 1994-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: $14.00
Valis ImageValis
by Philip K. Dick
Vintage; Published: 1991-07-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.29
Price in other shops: $12.95
The Baron in the Trees ImageThe Baron in the Trees
by Italo Calvino
Harvest Books; Published: 1977-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $13.00
Cosmicomics ImageCosmicomics
by Italo Calvino
Harvest Books; Published: 1976-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.08
Price in other shops: $14.00
Razor Wire Pubic Hair ImageRazor Wire Pubic Hair
by Carlton Mellick III
Eraserhead Press; Published: 2003-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.13
Price in other shops: $10.95
Similar Books and other products
The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century ImageThe Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
by Steve Coll
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.94
Price in other shops: $35.00
Transit Maps of the World ImageTransit Maps of the World
by Mark Ovenden
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops: $25.00
Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda ImageSpycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda
by Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger
Dutton Adult; Published: 2008-05-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.77
Price in other shops: $29.95
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols (Dictionary, Penguin) ImageThe Penguin Dictionary of Symbols (Dictionary, Penguin)
by Jean Chevalier, Alain Gheerbrant
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1997-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.28
Price in other shops: $23.00
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse ImageWastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
by Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, George R. R. Martin, Octavia E. Butler, Jonathan Lethem, Orson Scott Card, Gene Wolfe, Jack McDevitt, Tobias S. Buckell
Night Shade Books; Published: 2008-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.26
Price in other shops: $15.95
Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program ImageGhost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program
by Stephen Grey
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $25.95
Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA ImageDark Mission: The Secret History of NASA
by Richard C. Hoagland, Mike Bara
Feral House; Published: 2007-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.96
Price in other shops: $24.95
Far Out: 101 Strange Tales From Science's Outer Edge ImageFar Out: 101 Strange Tales From Science's Outer Edge
by Mark Pilkington
The Disinformation Company; Published: 2007-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.68
Price in other shops: $11.95
Top Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases and Other Places in the United States You're Not Supposed to Know About ImageTop Secret Tourism: Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases and Other Places in the United States You're Not Supposed to Know About
by Harry Helms
Feral House; Published: 2007-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.29
Price in other shops: $14.00
Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights ImageTorture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights
by Trevor Paglen, AC Thompson
Melville House; Published: 2006-09-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops: $23.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories