A tragic-comic non-fiction exploration of the U.S. military's experminetation with paranormal and supernatural warfare and interrogation.

This is the book.

Although Jon Ronson doesn't footnote his sources -- and it's difficult to prove whether or not he is at times embellishing -- other accounts have corroborated military and CIA projects to explore the paranormal as a battle ground and information producing technique.

One need only go back to the CIA "dabbling" with LSD in the '50s, resulting in a now-famous suicide death leap of an unknowing American, to grasp that Ronson is closer to the truth than you could imagine.

This is supernatural and psychological warfare that pushes the envelope of absurdity and farce, and we're paying for it.

Publisher's Weekly:

"This exploration of the U.S. military's flirtation with the supernatural is at once funny and tragic. It reads like fiction, with plenty of dialogue and descriptive detail, but as Ronson's investigation into the government's peculiar past doings creeps into the present-and into Iraq-it will raise goose bumps. As Ronson reveals, a secret wing of the U.S. military called First Earth Battalion was created in 1979 with the purpose of creating "Warrior Monks," soldiers capable of walking through walls, becoming invisible, reading minds and even killing a goat simply by staring at it. Some of the characters involved seem well-meaning enough, such as the hapless General Stubblebine, who is "confounded by his continual failure to walk through his wall." But Ronson (Them: Adventures with Extremists) soon learns that the Battalion's bizarre ideas inspired some alarming torture techniques being used in the present-day War on Terror. One technique involves subjecting prisoners to 24 hours of Barney the Purple Dinosaur's song, "I Love You," and another makes use of the Predator, a small, toy-like object designed by military martial arts master Pete Brusso that can inflict a large amount of pain in many different ways ("You can take eyeballs right out... with this bit," Brusso tells Ronson). Ronson approaches the material with an open mind and a delightfully dry sense of humor, which makes this an entertaining, if unsettling, read. Indeed, as the events recounted here grow ever more curious-and the individuals Ronson meets more disturbing-it's necessary to remind oneself of Ronson's opening words: "This is a true story.""

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