A thee part series written by directed by journalist Jon Ronson as he gains unprecedented access to the power base behind the Bush administration, and explores the motivation and ideology which motivates the US defense establishment. Written and directed by Jon Ronson, THE CRAZY RULERS OF THE WORLD explores the craziness at the very heart of the US Military, Intelligence and Government communities. Ronson’s highly acclaimed last series, ‘The Secret Rulers of the World’, examined the paranoia at the fringes of Bill Clinton’s America. In his latest series, for the first time ever, high-level members of the US power elite reveal extraordinary – and very nutty – national secrets at the core of George W Bush’s War on Terror. It begins like this In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice – and indeed, the laws of physics – they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, they’re back and helping to fight the War on Terror.
THE CRAZY RULERS OF THE WORLD is a hilarious and eye-opening exploration of American Military and Intelligence paranoia. The series looks at the irrationality at the centre of George W Bush’s America. With first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades, and sees how it is alive today within US Homeland Security and post-war Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the US Military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego?
THE CRAZY RULERS OF THE WORLD answers these, and many more, questions. Jon Ronson has written a book THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS to accompany the series, which will be published by Picador in November.
