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

Trevor Paglen (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

As in his previous books, artist and geographer Paglen (Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights) explores the clandestine activities of the U.S. military and the CIA, giving readers a thorough and provocative tour of places that officially do not exist. Paglen has a brisk reporting style and is an engaging storyteller. His journey into what he calls the "black world" of classified locations—from research facilities to secret prisons—this time takes him across the country and around the world. The classified region he describes is shockingly vast, well funded, and not accountable for its activities. At times, Paglen has a subtle touch, allowing the facts he describes gradually to convince the reader of how essentially undemocratic all this secrecy is. Unfortunately, his approach at other times seems unnecessarily theatrical. For example, his description of camping out in a hotel room in Las Vegas to watch planes come and go comes off as a bit gimmicky. Such narrative is likely meant to make the book more readable, but the story Paglen is telling is gripping enough without any stunts. Highly recommended.—Rachel Bridgewater, Reed Coll., OR
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Trevor Paglen set out to map the darkest corners of the U. S. national security apparatus. He’s done that and more. The result is a fascinating, deeply troubling, and absolutely essential book.”
—Andrew J. Bacevich, professor in international relations at Boston University, retired colonel in the US Army, and author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

“Trevor Paglen gets into the black heart of America’s black sites. There is no better guide to this great American mystery. What goes on inside these bases will determine the future of warfare—and who we are—for the rest of the century.”
—Robert Baer, former case officer at the CIA and author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism

“Blank Spots is an important, well-researched, and insightful expose that opens a window into the black world of secret operations. Paglen’s conclusion that ‘our own history, in large part, has become a state secret’ is both a warning and a call to arms. It is time to heed the warning and take up arms.”
—John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman

“A chillingly literal tour de force. Paglen doesn’t so much fill in the blanks as trace their outlines and give their shifting shapes a density that says as much about the future of democracy as it does about the dismal confines of the black world.”
—Derek Gregory, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia

“Living among us is an entire shadow industry of secret careers, unmarked flights, and razor-wired compounds evoking stereotyped images of the Cold-War Soviet Union. In what is still the world's most open society, Paglen adroitly exposes this dark geography. His book is fascinating and necessary.”

—Laurence Smith, Professor of Geography, University of California Los Angeles

“Some of the worst crimes in the American landscape are hiding in plain sight, and nobody has ever pursued them more thoroughly or explained them more chillingly and engagingly than Trevor Paglen. What he is doing is important, fascinating, and groundbreaking.”
—Rebecca Solnit, National Book Critics Circle Award Winner and author of Wanderlust
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Dutton Adult (February 5, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0525951016
  • ISBN-13: 978-0525951018
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #300,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Trevor Paglen
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
other night sky, state secrets privilege, classified aircraft, black sites, black budget, black aircraft, intelligence budget, flight test center
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Air Force, United States, Groom Lake, Supreme Court, Manhattan Project, Special Forces, The Other Night Sky, Las Vegas, White House, Space Track, Black Chamber, Western Shoshone, Nonfunding the Black World, Guantánamo Bay, Plains of Death, Central America, National Reconnaissance Office, Nevada Test Site, World War, Salt Pit, Niels Bohr, Fiat Lux, Justice Department, Bird of Prey, Department of Defense
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Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World
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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars There was a man who wasn't there., March 15, 2009
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This review is from: Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World (Hardcover)
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.
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Wheels within Wheels, February 16, 2009
By Robert C. Olson (Vacaville, California USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World (Hardcover)
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.





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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Overstated, biased, a bit sloppy, but interesting, March 30, 2010
This review is from: Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World (Hardcover)
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what was billed
Thought the book was rather shallow with not much info on the location, versus a lot of historical perspective.
Published 1 month ago by Joseph C. Adams

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book That Every American Should Read
No one can argue that the U.S. Government doesn't need to keep secrets. Details of ongoing military operations, data that could harm the economy, and sensitive personal or medical... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Terry Sunday

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, answers a lot of questions
Along with his other book answers a lot of questions. This gives the history of how we got in this mess, and makes the "Bourne" movies very believable. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Ronald E. Griffey

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Black World" tool of "The Secret State"
This book is a good follow up to the authors work Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights about "Extraordinary rendition. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr.

2.0 out of 5 stars A Meandering, Deluded, Regurgitated Mess
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,... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Aviation Writer

4.0 out of 5 stars No Little Green Men?
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. Read more
Published 7 months ago by D. Foster

2.0 out of 5 stars No map, no editor, and no point
I wanted this book to be interesting and fill in those blank spots on the map. A million people doing classified work? Huge budgets for projects whose names are classified? Read more
Published 10 months ago by Michael A. Duvernois

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting premise, but falls short
I was very excited to read this book. I expected to receive a deeper understanding on the large number of secret military bases scattered throughout the world. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Sean

1.0 out of 5 stars From a weeping Democrat
---and only because there's nothing poorer than a one star rating. This guy is personally offended that the U.S. Read more
Published 14 months ago by R. Owens

3.0 out of 5 stars Would have been better with a more narrow focus
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. Read more
Published 14 months ago by C. Steinmann

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