theskeptic's Journal: black hawk down

For a while I have wondered "What was the black hawk down all about?"
In late 2001 or early 2002 I acquired a 216x160(170MB) theatre rip from one of the irc networks. Saved it to a cd. Saw it once before coming to India. The movie was quite interesting even though I couldn't get clear audio and the video during the battle scenes were a little blurred..
Saw the movie from the cd again in 2003 but still couldn't the gist of it.
Yesterday night, the movie was airing on hbo. I saw 10-15 min of it and then it occured to me that I should get details on what it was all about. I have read reviews of the movie and partly of what happened but 4 paras is too little.

What do you get when you type "black hawk down" in google? The fifth result is what you should read. Philadephia Inquirer has a 22 chapter online account(later compiled into a book) from Mark Bowden. But the web feature has got additional videos, photos and audio and a 20 round Q&A with Bowden.

I looked for additional information from newspapers that they published in 93, washpost has a section.

update- The book 3 times as more detailed than the online series.