<p><b>'Simultaneously frightening and hilarious' </b>- <i>The Times<br><br><b>The Men Who Stare at Goats</b></i><b> reveals the extraordinary &ndash; and completely nutty &ndash; national secrets at the core of Bush&rsquo;s government. Often funny, sometimes chilling and with first-hand access to the leading players, Jon Ronson&rsquo;s <i>Sunday Times</i> bestseller is a story so unbelievable it has to be true.</b><br><br>In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice &ndash; and indeed, the laws of physics &ndash; they believed that a soldier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them.<br><br>Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren&rsquo;t joking. What&rsquo;s more, in the early 2000s, they&rsquo;re back and fighting George W. Bush&rsquo;s War on Terror. But why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to the Barney the Purple Dinosaur show? Why have one hundred de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? And how was the US military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego?<br><br><b>Now a feature film starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor.</b><br><br><b>Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.</b></p>