Military Patches You Should Not Be Seeing By circletimessquare in MLP Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 08:58:03 PM EST Tags: military patches, top secret (all tags)
	There's a guy named Trevor Paglen. His obsession is military patches, the kind you wear on your sleeve. Many military programs are top secret and only identifiable by two things: 1. An undescribed line item on a Department of Defense expense report. 2. A military patch. He has written a book entitled "I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me" (the emblem on a particular patch he has uncovered). The book is nothing but a giant compendium of some of the bizarre, strange, and often very funny top secret military patches the man has discovered: CIA paparazzo Trevor Paglen is a thorn in Uncle Sam's side. Known for snapping telephoto candids of CIA planes and Area 51, the artist also gathers "patch intel," which he's collected in this provocative book (main title: "I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me"). The fruit of several Freedom of Information Act requests, Paglen's book proves that classified black opps concoct esoteric team insignias just like other military divisions. The photo-driven work presents 75 de-classified patches with colorful eagles, skulls, swords, dragons, wizards and even aliens (!). Surveying iconography that was never intended for your eyes is both exhilarating and frustrating. Decoding them is often impossible, which only leads back to the obvious: How else are our tax dollars being spent in secret? Unlike grainy, questionable YouTube clips of UFOs, Big Foot and Loch Ness, in this case, seeing guarantees believing.

From Amazon.com: 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." The New York Times has a story (and especially check out the slide show linked therein): 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." Some of my favorites from wired.com... Just Plain Funny: Tastes Like Chicken Master Mushroom Big Bird No Fat Chicks Kenny's Mom No Morale Sexy Nurse Death Wears Bunny Slippers Blues Brothers By The Balls Oh Yeah!!! iNuke Burn Water Scary Implications: Mercenary Cryptic Alien Just Nuke 'Em Got Nukes? Cold Dead Hand When You Care Enough The Sixth Seal X-Wing Just Plain Honesty: Patience My Ass I'm Here To Help You Infidel Iwackis Iraqi Urban Renewal Submission from the comments, found on milspecmonkey.com: Pork Eating Crusader

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Pick You Favorite Patch: Tastes Like Chicken 7% Master Mushroom 3% Big Bird 0% Kenny's Mom 0% Sexy Nurse 7% Death Wears Bunny Slippers 25% Blues Brothers 0% By The Balls 0% Oh Yeah!!! 3% iNuke 7% Patience My Ass 7% I'm Here To Help You 21% Infidel 7% Iwackis 0% Iraqi Urban Renewal 10% Votes: 28 Results | Other Polls

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"I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me" top secret military patches the man has discovered From Amazon.com a story wired.com Tastes Like Chicken Master Mushroom Big Bird No Fat Chicks Kenny's Mom No Morale Sexy Nurse Death Wears Bunny Slippers Blues Brothers By The Balls Oh Yeah!!! iNuke Burn Water Mercenary Cryptic Alien Just Nuke 'Em Got Nukes? Cold Dead Hand When You Care Enough The Sixth Seal X-Wing Patience My Ass I'm Here To Help You Infidel Iwackis Iraqi Urban Renewal milspecmon key.com Pork Eating Crusader Also by circletimessquare