Customer Reviews

Top Secret / Majic

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Since Stanton Friedman is not only a nuclear physicist but is probably the most well-known personality in the the UFO field, it behooves us to pay attention to what he has to say about the subject of UFOs.

I have read his captivating and intriguing book TOP SECRET/MAJIC three times and recommend it highly for those interested in the most famous UFO case of all time -- Roswell.

The Roswell case is vitally important because if it happened, and I believe it did, this means at least one alien craft crashed on this planet and was recovered along with bodies. Those looking for proof regarding the existence of UFOs will find perhaps the most significant pieces of it here in this book.

By reading this book it will become evident to you that the powers that be consider Roswell to be one of the most, if not the most, highly classified matter of our time.

In my view, this book is a necessary read for the serious seeker of truth regarding the UFO phenomena.

And I wouldn't pay too much attention to those reviews you see that are critical of this book/author where said person did not include their name. If the critical person didn't have the courage to put their name on their own opinion then we have to wonder why.

Although the evidence for MAJIC and its original membership is reasonably certain, the prevailing notion is that the leaked documents themselves were forgeries. Friedman's meticulous analysis has changed my mind on this issue. It is well written, logically consistent and contains details on the lives of the 12 MAJIC members not available anywhere else. The only flaw, and a minor one, is that he still clings to the 2 July date for the crash (based on Brozel's questionable testimony), instead of the 4th (based on everyone elses)

But finding it is the real story. Nuclear scientist Stanton Friedman offers armchair UFO enthusiasts and debunkers an amazing view inside the world of UFO committees and conferences, hoaxed pictures and documents, the government's many records archives, unexplained UFO sightings, and the difficulties of obtaining information through the so-called "Freedom of Information Act". Although Friedman plainly states his pro-UFO sentiments, he nevertheless takes a scientific approach to analyzing the alleged MJ-12 government documents, code-named "MAJIC", anonymously leaked to fellow researchers Bill Moore and Jaime Shandera. After endless hours of archival research, dozens of dead-ended requests, interviews with relatives of deceased government officials, and his own attempts to prove the documents false through massive fact gathering, Friedman's inarguable conclusions add a startling and new dimension to what actually happened near Roswell in 1947, and bring to light the subsequent government and military activity designed to keep it secret. His dogged empirical analyses of each document is a fascinating detective story, one that will easily hold the attention of any reader interested in sifting through rumor, gossip, innuendo, and disinformation to reach a logical conclusion of fact.

Most of this book concern's Friedman's focussed efforts to confirm the validity of a 1952 document from the Majestic-12 investigative panel. He takes the reader along with him as he tries, sometimes successfully, but more often not, to navigate the bureaucratic maze that has been assembled to hide UFO and ET information from the public. But his failures are also successes, in a way, showing that the US government has much to hide! Since recent indications suggest that Mars is inhabited by sentient beings, I found it interesting that the Majestic-12 panel was suggesting this, among themselves, even back in 1952. Besides this primary, narrow focus, Friedman gives his considered opinion on matters such as Bob Lazar, and on the alien autopsy film(s), with enough evidence and conviction that I am reconsidering my own earlier assessment. I recommend this book as one of the most solidly written, most thoroughly researched books in the UFO genre.

I bought this book believing that the MJ documents were absolutely forgeries, but Friedman's meticulous research is impeccable and his position is very solid. This book reinforces Friedman's position as one of the most credible UFO researchers today.

A controversy rages about the authenticity of the documents upon which this book is based. It is a controversy which must exist because of the nature of the subject matter. These documents were provided anonymously, and supposedly give evidence for the existence of a highly secret council within our government whose main purpose was to control public knowledge about UFOs.

Secret government agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaisance Office, and many others, are not solely engaged in intelligence gathering. They are also involved in information management. For that reason alone, one cannot unquestioningly accept the main thesis of this book. The possibility remains that the whole set of documents, or a major portion of them, were deliberately forged and given out as disinformation to create controversy and dissention among the ranks of UFO investigators.

In spite of all the doubts about whether this book speaks the truth in every detail, in general terms there is a great deal of truth to the message given. Stanton Friedman has the credentials, the knowledge, and the investigative ability to do as thorough a job as anyone could have done with this subject. He also does an excellent job of presenting the material in an informative and entertaining manner.

This book is definitely worth reading, but for most people, an additional education on the history of UFOs is necessary to provide the right mental framework for this book. This education is obtained by a reading some of the best serious literature on UFOs. To read this book without having that context is hard to imagine.

Tom Bowden,
Oregon State Director,
Mutual UFO Network

If you're into the whole UFO phenomenon thing (especially the alleged crash near Roswell, NM in 1947) you have heard of Stanton Friedman. If not, then just know that he's a major player in the field of UFO research who specializes in the Roswell incident. A lot of controversy surrounds the goings on at Roswell New Mexico in 1947 and, so too, a lot of controversy surrounds Friedman. Whether you love him or hate him you do have to admit that he is dedicated (he's been doing this for over 30 years of his life) and this book really shows the level of his commitment to this subject.

Basically this book is about whether or not a super-secret government committee, called Majestic 12 or MJ-12 ( made up of 12 military, political and scientific golden boys of their time) was formed in 1947 to study, collect and keep hushed up any and all things extraterrestrial. In other words, a government conspiracy to cover up the most important event in human history: the fact that we re not alone in the universe. The implied secondary goal of the book is that by way of proving that MJ-12 does or did exist then the Roswell incident (as Friedman belives it) must then be true as well.

The book's premise reads like an X-Files plot: A humble UFO researcher, seeking the truth about what's out there, one day receives a mysterious package in the mail with no return address that contains a roll of undeveloped film. Upon examination it turns out to be pictures of pages of alleged super-secret government documents about the formation of a powerful government "Dream Team" to investigate and control the wreckage and occupants of UFO(s) recovered in New Mexico in the summer of 1947. This film was no doubt sent by some government insider at great personal risk to his or herself given the ultra-sensitive nature of the contents but... can these documents be real?

Friedman then takes the reader step by painstaking step through his journey to determine whether or not these documents are the "real McCoy" or whether they are part of some clever hoax. His approach, as well as his tenacity, are impressive (if tedious) but, in relation to what he is proposing, it is necessary for him to present it this way to remove as much doubt as possible from the reader's mind that he's not either deluded or jumping to conclusions.

After much impressive analysis and sleuthing on Friedman's part the end result is still that, despite his educated opinion that they are indeed genuine, there is no way to prove beyond all doubt that these documents are real; they probably are real but they might be fake, too. If they are a hoax then someone has gone to a tremendous amount of trouble to play their little joke because these documents do seem real. In the end it's left up to the reader to decide whether to believe it or not based on his findings.

My only beef with this whole thing is that Friedman makes his living writing books and giving lectures on the Roswell incident and, as such, he has a self-interested stake in keeping the Roswell alien connection alive; so I cannot help but wonder if he's truly being objective (his critics certainly do not think so). But, then, would any of us support a theory that would only damage if not destroy our livelihood if proven true?

By all means do read this book but also read, "Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe" by Karl T. Pflock. Pflock is Friedman's latest nemesis and has an equally methodical style but he says Roswell was not about "flying saucers" at all and has some darn convincing arguments. The two books provide an excellent brain banquet to nourish your own personal quest to determine what happened in the desert that night in 1947 and what it means to us all.

I rated this book as a four stars ONLY because I wanted more specific meat about UFO's. What this book does do is methodically investigates the MJ-12 documents. And does so over a period of years. well researched and thought out, if you still think that UFO's are nonsense after reading this book, then nothing will convince you. Great stuff inside. A must for researchers and truth seekers everywhere.

Stanton Friedman: One of the very few scientists ufologists who make sense.
He researches the topic.
He provides uncontested data.
He defied the arrogant scientists.
He studied the phenomena as an honest scientist.
He spent 30 years investigation Ufos.
He knows!
He knows!
His books are the very core of Ufology.
He is the ONE!

S. Mahdi, Cairo, Egypt.

I was always somewhat skeptical regarding the MJ12 documents until I read this book. Stanton Friedman spent eleven years researching his conclusions, and countless hours in fifteen different archives, including the Truman and Eisenhower Archives and the National Archives. He has made numerous declassification requests under the FOIA, scanning the "finders guides" for any telling entries. He describes the Kafkaesque procedures within the maze of officialdom that have sometimes kept him waiting years for responses. Friedman is in absolutely no doubt that a secret as large as this "Cosmic Watergate" could easily have been kept by the military and the MJ Committee which was formed under President Truman by a special classified executive order on 24th September 1947 on the recommendation of Dr. Vannevar Bush and Secretary James Forrestal. Besides these two the other ten members were a mixture of trusted scientists and military men. The MJ12 documents comprising the Majestic 12 Briefing Document, the Cutler Twining Memo, and the Special Operations Manual, deal with the current state of knowledge (1953-4) concerning EBE's (Extra Terrestrial Biological Entities), their craft, and procedures for removing them secretly to secure facilities. The documents support the conviction of Friedman that an extra- terrestrial vehicle crashed at Corona, outside of Roswell. Having had experience as a nuclear physicist on the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program at General Electric, Friedman believes that alien technology has indeed been fed into the military/industrial complex via the Pentagon's Foreign Technology Division; he cites the transistor as an example.

Friedman compares the "Above Top Secret" Majestic operation to the WW2 Manhattan Project which employed over 50 000 people, and also the Allied German and Japanese code breaking effort during WW2. Both of these operations were successfully concealed for years despite their enormous scale. He asserts that there must be a mass of other MJ12 documents in existence, to process the information that has been gleaned from the ET. craft. Friedman speculates that some of this technology would take hundreds of years to reproduce on Earth. Imagine taking a digital watch back in time to 1940, and asking scientists to copy it! Perhaps we are only now beginning to reap the rewards from these crashed ET. vehicles. If their propulsion systems are now understood, this information could cause the collapse of the fossil fuel industries! There must be so much more to discover!