Customer Reviews

Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World

5 star:		(6)
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3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The U.S. National Security Act of 1947 established a national security structure which was felt to be necessary to protect the U.S. from what was perceived as serious threats from foreign and domestic enemies. Almost immediately a parallel structure, invisible to public, was created as a compliment to the public national security establishment. This parallel structure is what this absolutely fascinating book refers to as the "black world."

According to Trevor Paglen, a geographer by trade, this black world can bounded by adroit compilation of blank areas on official maps, deleted passages from official documents, and acute observations of restricted areas and activities. Well he has certainly done a very thorough job of it. He begins with the secret and unacknowledged government test sites scattered throughout the country, but especially in the South Western U.S. that actually employ an astonishingly large number military and civilian workers yet still are literarily off the map. He subsequently tackles such arcane topics as black operations, black funding, and a host of other unacknowledged, often denied, U.S. activities including questionable and even illegal programs and operations. Perhaps the most discouraging information he provides is how easily it is for officials of the black world to hoodwink congress and the media, both nominal guards against government excesses. Certainly the most astonishing thing he reveals is that the black world in total may employ as many as 4 million military and civilians who carry secret or higher clearances. The fact that this many people can be involved and yet so many black activities remain completely off the gird is pretty scary in itself.

This reviewer has tremendous respect for the academic discipline of geography. It combines some of the best features of social and physical science and perhaps is the most effective system for understanding the phenomenon of Globalization. Some 60 years ago one branch of geography that was called "cultural geography" sought to describe the relationship between societies and the environment in which they lived. The term may no longer be used, but Paglen is a cultural geographer in the best sense of the term.

Wheels within Wheels
An interesting historical review of the "Black" world of American intelligence operations. The title is a little misleading but considering the subject matter that seems rather appropriate. Mr. Paglen does an adequate job of historical documentation on all aspects of the secret and above secret "Black" world of alphabet soup intelligence agencies. At times he is rather pedantic in certain aspects of the intelligence world, like super secret intelligence satellites, while quickly glossing over more interesting operations like Iran-Contra and Groom Lake. His chapter on Federal Law and the evolution of today's massive intelligence gathering machine is very interesting and worthy of more examination. One of the most interesting little nuggets that Mr. Paglen highlighted was, "At this moment approximately four million (his italics) people in the United States hold security clearances to work on classified projects. By way of contrast, the federal government employs approximately 1.8 million civilians in the white world." Amazing. Since its very beginning as the "Black Chamber" in 1919, covert/clandestine/"Black" Operations has grown to such a monumental size that few in our government knows just how large the "organization" really is. Furthermore, money does not seem to be a problem as great amounts simply disappear into the secret black world of classified intelligence. To use the old cliché, "If I tell you then I'll have to kill you." How much? That's classified1
All in all a good, general, cursory examination of America's "Black" world of intelligence. Have your laptop ready so you can "Goggle" much of what Mr. Paglen writes for a more in-depth examination and see interesting pictures. A few more, actually a lot more, in text photos would have been nice. I was hoping for more new information, but sometimes a general review is good. Actually, not much new here at all, so beware if you're looking for more than a superficial glance. This is more of a historical review and I recommend waiting for the paperback. If you want depth in this subject then I recommend reading books by James Bamford or Nick Cook.

This book espouses the viewpoint that the large amount of money expended on "black" programs and activities, because it is not detailed in the budget, undermines the foundations of American democracy. That viewpoint is worth considering, whether one agrees with it or not, and Mr. Paglen offers much information to support his case. However, he overstates his case in various ways, distorts the interpretation of certain facts, and pastes together a collection of unrelated information and anecdotes. This leaves the book less convincing to a knowledgeable reader than it should be. None the less, it's worth reading.

As an example of the problems of the book I'll touch on the work at Groom Lake (Area 51), on the Nevada Test Range, operated as part of Nellis Air Force Base. Mr. Paglen asserts that the work at Groom Lake is so secret that not even the name "Groom Lake" can be used in publio. That may have been true many years ago, but isn't now. Indeed, a large amount of information about what goes on at the Area 51 test site is available on the Web, some of it thoughtfully provided by the United States Air Force. I spent a couple of hours browsing this material, and finally I got bored, having learned as much as I cared to know from text, photos, maps, etc. And I note one minor misrepresentation of fact in Mr. Paglen's material on Groom Lake. In two places he asserts that the Soviet aircraft used in Red Flag exercises were "stolen" from the Russians, but that's not how they were acquired. The US gov't got those from countries which had acquired them from the Soviet Union and then decided to use US equipment instead, and happily let us have their unwanted Soviet-built fighter aircraft.

Indeed, there is one truly "black" area at the Nevada Test Range: "Area 19". What goes on there (if anything) is not clear, although there is a lot of mythology about Area 19 on the Web. My personal guess is that Area 19 was intended and prepared for use in projects that never took place, and that the reason nothing can be seen there now is that there's nothing to see. But, of course, I may be wrong about that.

Now, having criticized Mr. Paglen's book, I'll soften my discussion by pointing out that in choosing his examples of "black" programs he faced a nearly insuperable obstacle. There are indeed some programs and activities of the US government that are truly "black", but you won't find references to those in the public domain, and no writer will get the time of day from the government in seeking to find out about them. Those might furnish better material for Mr. Paglen's thesis, but he can't learn about them. I've been on the fringes of a number of those during 50+ years of working off and on in and with the defense community, and took part in a few. The thing all the ones I'm aware of had in common is that they weren't secret to keep Congress or other appropriate people in the US from knowing about them; they were secret to conceal them from foreign military adversaries. None of them and none of their budgets, posed the slightest threat to American democracy. Indeed, all except one of the ones I worked with were so small they wouldn't have rated a line in the budget even if they had been unclassified; if something is big and sprawling, it's exceedingly difficult to keep its existence and reason for being from becoming known. In one case, we successfully concealed the existence of a good-sized overseas military installation for several years, to keep the Soviet Union from learning enough about it to attack it successfully, but even in that case the word got out after a while, and we were visited by a Congressional delegation; by now it's ancient history, long since abandoned and demolished, and one can learn a bit about it on the Web (although not much). There may be analogous "black" programs that could pose a threat to US democracy; I have never heard even a rumor of any such, but then I wouldn't have.

This book started out with a great first couple of chapters, but then began to ramble about from here to there and back again, with no real focus on the topic of the title. I thought the first two chapers were very well done, and that Mr. Paglen would have been much better off to have remained focused on discussing the Blank Spots he alludes to in the title. He instead moves on to discussions of spy satellites, and then becomes stuck on the topic of our current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. While those are great topics, it is not what the title led me to believe the book would be about, and I was disappointed to end up reading about it.

The one star reviews I've read for this book seem to be written by people who are on some sort of mission to uncover truly damning evidence against the US Government. They seem to be shocked, appalled that this book hasn't led to Congressional investigations.

This book does not deal in conspiracy theories.

It deals with what we actually "know" as observers of the black world. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is how the author details the enormous size (geographically, politically, socially, etc...) of the black world. As such, if conspiracy theories about little green men are your thing, then this book isn't for you. However, if you want a professional, academic analysis of what it is we don't know from a geographic perspective and the impact it has on our society, then you will probably find this book interesting and entertaining.

Trevor Paglen, Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World (Dutton, 2009)

The more I think about this book, especially in conjunction with Paglen's previous effort, Torture Taxi (which made my favorite reads of 2008 list), the more I think the guy just can't win. The niche he's carved out for himself is one that's destined to scare up dissatisfaction from both sides of this particular fence. The conspiracy theorists are going to hate Paglen's methods of research (which involve, you know, actual research rather than sitting around wearing tinfoil hats), while the skeptics are going to hate the subjects Paglen digs into, which are a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. In short, the guy's pretty much screwed. Which is a crime, because, like Torture Taxi, Blank Spots on the Map is a lovely little tourguide to parts of the map the United States government would prefer you didn't see. Which is all well and good, I guess, if you're down with the idea of "necessary state secrets" (and what a joke that idea is, and always has been), but consider this: Billions upon billions of your tax dollars are being funnelled down these black holes. Billions. Are you bugged about the vast amounts of money we ship to governments who don't need it every year? (Prime example: Israel.) That's chump change compared to what goes into Langley and just plain vanishes.

It's not like the skeptics can really keep their voices raised any more, either. Since the hijinks of September 11th, names like Guantanamo Bay, Groom Lake, and the Salt Pit have become cultural markers. There's no more plausible deniability. All Paglen is doing is outlining the geographies, making them easier for the public to see. He goes and looks. He goes and talks to the people that look. And he reports back. It's simple. It's the same formula he used in Torture Taxi (I can't remember whether it's explicitly stated, but I got the feeling that this book grew out of that one), and it works just as well here. There's a lot of black-ops history surrounding these sites, some of which (especially regarding Groom Lake) has recently been declassified. Did you know that? Of course not. Who's going to tell you? Trevor Paglen, that's who. And maybe Mike Gravel, if he drops another book any time soon. But don't expect to hear about it on CNN or Fox News. This is information you need to go searching for. Once you do, you may come upon Trevor Paglen, who's got it all wrapped up in a neat, readable little package.

To answer what seem to be some implied criticisms of the book, no, of course there are no answers here. Most of this stuff is still highly classified. What did you expect, the folks in Langley were just going to let Paglen drive up and give him a tour of a top-secret facility? (There's a great bit at the beginning about a guided tour of Groom Lake, however.) But you've always suspected it exists; stealth bombers and jump jets don't suddenly appear out of nowhere. All that can be done now is make the edges a bit clearer. That's what Trevor Paglen does, and he does it well. ****

(In the interests of full disclosure, yes, I know Trevor Paglen; I met him once about a decade ago while he was still in the band Noisegate.)

Having really enjoyed Paglen's previous 'picture book' on black aerospace programme patches, I bought this book eagerly awaiting more of the same entertaining mix of observation, original research and enlightened speculation. Sadly, I was disappointed.

Blank Spots On The Map is a confusing and seemingly random series of chapters that outlines America's multi-billion dollar black budget, and attempts to look at some of the programmes funded by this hidden pot of money. It also looks at the historical origins and influences that led to it.

Reading the introduction, my interest was peaked when the author told me that "not much serious literature about black sites" was available, and that it was time to put this right (in Paglen's lexicon, a "site" is the metaphorical footprint of a black programme = it does not refer exclusively to a physical entity). Since the truth is that *a lot* has been written about the black world and its many "sites", some of it by very talented and serious writers and researchers, I decided to give Paglen the benefit of the doubt and assumed that this book was going to cover a great deal of new territory that would put everyone else to shame.

I can only say that what followed was hugely disappointing, and this remained true to the end of the book.

One of the first chapters is about Paglen sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas, monitoring Janet flights headed to Groom Lake. I was quite excited to see what new information the author would divulge, but as it turned out he added *nothing* to this very well-known aspect of the black world. The chapter soon became an exercise in tedium as he regurgitated the same prose that has been written about Janet flights by a dozen other people before him. I don't know if his publisher paid for his trip to Vegas, but on the strength of what he wrote, I'd be asking for my money back. Similarly familiar chapters follow, and while there was one illuminating chapter on America's secret satellites and a man who toils to track them, the Vegas chapter acts as a warning: there is not much in this book that you won't find anywhere else. Not much, of course, except numerous tedious geography-based metaphors about black money and black programmes, none of which add anything to your understanding of the black world. Thankfully, even Paglen seems to have given up on metaphor and figurative speech by the second half of the book, and your normal reading experience can resume.

Curiously, Paglen goes to great lengths to decry a political system that allows the black world to exist. Yet not once does he really come out and denounce it; nor does he extol the benefits of some of the black programmes that made America a safer place to be during the Cold War and beyond. It is in this respect a book that is unashamedly one-sided to the point that you have to question why.

Yet the most maddening thing about this book is actually that the author appears to have deluded himself. The text totally undermines his assertion that there is little serious literature about the black world - BSOTM would not exist were it not for other serious literature on the subject! If proof were needed, you'd need only flip to the back of the book and peruse the 281 endnotes, the vast majority of which point to all the other works that Paglen was reliant upon to create his own book. And you have to laugh at the irony of it all when you realise that a book about deception references its own endnotes, but only in a manner that is so obscure that it is unlikely that you'd ever bother to read them (the endnotes are numbered at the back, but not within the text). Indeed, if you are not familiar with the other authors who have written about black programmes, you'll be forgiven for reading the entire book thinking that Paglen has done a pretty good job of getting some serious, original research done. I would say he does a good job of re-telling some stories and adding detail to others, but he falls far short of writing the exposé that was promised.

In my mind, there is also an unanswered question over the quality and depth of Paglen's research. In one chapter alone, he makes key omissions when discussing how black programmes can be hidden from view. In one example, he names a black programme (F-117) but completely fails to mention or acknowledge that key elements of it (basing it at Tonopah, as an example) were hidden from view by using another black programme (CONSTANT PEG), and that there is precedent for the military to use one black programme to hide another. Later in the same chapter, he talks about the declassification of HAVE BLUE, the predecessor to the F-117, as being unusual; it is clear that he has no idea that HAVE BLUE was declassified only because pictures of the aircraft were released into the public domain by accident, and this is a pretty basic omission for a self-proclaimed writer of serious copy. Similarly, beyond mentioning front companies, he makes no effort to really examine the actual mechanics of paying for the maintenance and logistical support required to run black programmes that have 'gone operational' - a very tangible and interesting facet of the story that is key to hiding such programmes - yet there is information out there on the subject had he looked hard enough for it.

Paglen goes on to speak about using Air Force biographies as a source of information on black programmes as though this idea is not only new (to the reader, at least), but also of his own devising. In reality, researchers have been using biographical data to provide insight into black programmes and operations for a long, long time. Combined with the 'serious' claim at the very beginning and the partially-obscured endnotes at the very end of the book, this claim really made me believe that Blank Spots On The Map lacks even a modicum of intellectual honesty. The realisation that Paglen appeared to be misrepresenting himself left me labouring to get to the end of the book.

In summary: if you have not read anything about the black world, then this book would be a good starting point since its greatest achievement is to pull together research from many different texts. If, on the other hand, you have read Emerson, Peebles, Wilcox, Sweetman or any other authors who have written with authority and (as time has shown) accuracy about such programmes, then this book will add very little to your library.

Finally, a message to his editor, if this book had one: you do not use a capital letter after a colon!

This is an interesting read. For those who already knew about some of these places it fills in a few facts.

Interesting book from a different perspective on government black sites. I found the process of information gathering and extrapolation to be fascinating.Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World

i thought that this was good quick read. i liked tat this was not a heavy conspiracy book but rather a brief history on where the black/covert world came from.