TOP SECRET/MAJIC

Rating:
Summary: Anatomy of a Controversy
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: The Truth is Indeed Out There ...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: On the balance of probabilities etc.
Review: Entertainment or statement of fact? How should anyone consider the "facts" when all you are presented with are witness testimonies and NO HARD EVIDENCE. I have seen Major Marcel's videotaped account of the debris site, and I personally found it compelling. I've also read (and re-read) Friedman's book and found it to be thoroughly enjoyable in the same sense one would find a detective story to be similarly intriguing. But one must be true to his or her own sense of the plausible and it is in this spirit that I feel we must look for the "approximate" solution. Friedman's book, in many parts, contains several comments which, in my opinion, require further elaboration and even correction. However my first objection is that any book purporting to be based on fact should not contain an introduction by a writer of ufo abduction lore. Especially in a book about ufo crashes. Second, Friedman is correct in his dismissal of most academic reports about interstellar travel since they use yesteryear's technology to extrapolate likely future developments. However on page 34 his statement that doubling the speed of a "moon rocket" coasting towards the moon will shorten the travel time by a factor of twenty, is just wrong. (Since travel time is proportional to distance and inversely so to speed, a doubling of speed only gets you there twice as fast). I'll give Friedman the benefit of the doubt (this is most likely a misquotation). However on page 20 Friedman admits that Jaime Shandera was to be the director of a movie about ufo's proposed circa 1980. A movie in which Friedman was to act as a technical consultant. By 1984 (when he allegedly received the MJ documents) Shandera clearly had four years in which to think up a script! I am certain that Mr. Shandera holds a crucial key to the MJ story, perhaps it's time for Mr. Friedman to press Mr. Shandera for a full disclosure. To his credit Mr. Friedman, on page 67, asks the question "...So couldn't we have just made up the documents ourselves?" I personally don't believe a scientist would make up such a story solely in order to benefit financially from it at the risk of being discredited by his peers. I think the truth lies with Shandera and Moore. At this point it is customary to quote William of Occam's "razor" so that the most likely conclusion could be reached. However Occam's razor is neither a physical nor a logical principle and so in all honesty cannot be used to decide an outcome with any certainty. I do have further comments but I will leave the readers to consider the evidence for themselves.

From a sympathetic skeptic.

Rating:
Summary: Freaky deaky man...
Review: First of all, I bought TOP SECRET/ MAJIC on July 4th in Roswell, NM from ufologist Stanton Friedman. So I walked into reading this book after having met the author (who freaked me out like an evil bearded Smurf). Mr. Friedman completes a nearly flawless, although sometimes strained, point by point case to prove that the MJ-12 documents are real. I left the book feeling convinced of the documents authenticity, but a little suspect about some of the motives behind Friedman's logic.

For example, Dr. Vannevar Bush (chairman of the National Defense Research Commission and Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II & a NACA chairman) was a known UFO debunker throughout his life, and is one of the 12 people listed within the MJ-12 documents. The logic that Friedman uses to convince readers that Bush was a UFO conspirator is often charged with overly negative emotion due to their adversarial relationship.

Despite several such overly demonstrative flaws in the action of his rhetoric, all in all it was a pretty good read.....

Rating:
Summary: Freaky deaky man...
Review: First of all, I bought TOP SECRET/ MAJIC on July 4th in Roswell, NM from ufologist Stanton Friedman. So I walked into reading this book after having met the author (who freaked me out like an evil bearded Smurf). Mr. Friedman completes a nearly flawless, although sometimes strained, point by point case to prove that the MJ-12 documents are real. I left the book feeling convinced of the documents authenticity, but a little suspect about some of the motives behind Friedman's logic.

For example, Dr. Vannevar Bush (chairman of the National Defense Research Commission and Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II & a NACA chairman) was a known UFO debunker throughout his life, and is one of the 12 people listed within the MJ-12 documents. The logic that Friedman uses to convince readers that Bush was a UFO conspirator is often charged with overly negative emotion due to their adversarial relationship.

Despite several such overly demonstrative flaws in the action of his rhetoric, all in all it was a pretty good read.....

Rating:
Summary: Monica Lewinski had Top Secret Clearance, too.
Review: From all the available evidence it is apparent to me that the U.S. Government does not have an active, organized effort to either investigate or conceal the existence of aliens visiting Earth. Most of those who say this either have no first hand knowledge or are individuals who are known crackpots who've made numerous claims over the years, usually with escalating irrationality. Take the case of the Disclosure Project. They have a former intelligence officer who says in a strange incident his team witnessed a craft with occupants one time and someone got shot with a beam. His background and his character check out. He's probably telling the truth. Disclosure Project then uses a known crackpot with longtime involvement in various saucer groups, who keeps changing his story over and over, to "corroborate" the other guy's story and to further add that the U.S. Navy has an active saucer recovery unit. See how that works? The legitimate ones are being grouped in with the lunatics, co-opted if you will by the conspiracy nuts. None of the legitimate, rational eyewitnesses are saying they've been personally involved in a cover-up.

With the Majestic/MAJIC story, we are finding the use of real documents unrelated to UFO's being grouped in with hoax documents. The manual for the recovery of UFO's and all documents that mention Majestic 12 are forgeries. The FOIA connecting documents which are being used to verify these hoax documents either have no connections to Majestic 12/MAJIC or have absolutely nothing to do with UFO's at all. The primary document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act being used to validate the aforementioned hoax documents is an Emergency War Plan pertaining to nuclear war. These evolving war plans were given codenames over the years such as Halfmoon, Fleetwood, Trojan, Offtackle, Masthead, and Majestic. While in the beginning they were mostly target packages, they became increasingly complex to the point of including psychological warfare, communications, and logistics planning. This document is real, but it has absolutely nothing to do with aliens.

The other frequently mentioned authentic document is the Cutler-Twining memo, which simply mentions a National Security Council Special Studies Project by the name of MJ-12...nothing more. So let me repeat myself: There is not a single authentic document in existence that can connect the terms Majestic or MJ-12 to UFO's and aliens. There are some non-UFO FOIA documents that use variants of these terms. There are some historical FOIA documents that show the government puzzled as to what is flying around. And there are a bunch of forgeries that attempt to connect the two. And MAJI is simply an acronym for Major Agency for Joint Intelligence, commonly referring to international intelligence cooperation and liaison, such as between the U.S. and Canada. The only other term that comes close would be MAJCOM, which appears on certain early Project Bluebook documents. However, this is simply an abbreviation of Major Command, often used when putting a notation at the bottom of a document such as "Forward Copy to MAJCOM-2", a designation for a specific military command. Friedman's got nothing but a bunch of forged documents and crackpot witnesses to support his theories, and this is from an abductee!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I am writing this review to counter Reticuli's overwhelmingly negative picture. First off, I find that he would dismiss the large body of evidence for a coverup simply stunning. His rationale appears to be that because some phonies have made rather wild allegations (ie: Bill Cooper and Bob Lazar) there isn't a coverup! Stanton Friedman has never supported these people and is in fact quite a vocal debunker of these fantasies. There are many perfectly credible witnesses for a coverup; Majors, Sergeants, Generals, etc.

Reticuli does not mention the Eisenhower Briefing Document once (the focus of this book), dismisses SOM 1-01 as a forgery without offering any arguments (regardless of it's authenticity or lack thereof, the book does not make a position on it either way), and spends most of his time debunking connections with documents which are not mentioned once in the book, with the exception of the Cutler-Twining memo. I can't help but wonder if Reticuli didn't just visit the Wood's website (since he seems to be taking issue with their content) and decided to write from ignorance and smear by association.

Friedman's book is a profoundly important work that has not been debunked since it's publications. I recommend it to anyone with an open mind.

Rating:
Summary: A thorough investigation of an important document
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: My point on Top Secret/ Majic
Review: Top Secret/Majic

What I liked about Top Secret/Majic was, that it was what I expected to read. I wanted the facts, but in a story like form. That is what I got, facts laid out in a timeline, with specifics along the way. When I started reading the book, I realized that it was going along pretty good (on the way I wanted). Now what I didn't like was, that you had to have patience for the book to kick in, "You know." You also kind of had to have a good vocabulary. But mostly I didn't like it because, it was slow getting to the point, "To me," and because it didn't start like I wanted it to be. Which is from the beginning, get to the point, explain your point, have facts, "True ones." The quote that I picked was, "I have been a consultant to that activity with Top Secret clearance and have also had some association with the CIA." That quote was said by Donald Menzel or Dr. Menzel to Kennedy.

The Theme that I thought up is, due to the data that has been proven by scientists around the world, there is a very good chance that there is extraterrestrial life in our universe. Now let me tell you how I got that. First I thought the guy was a nuclear physicist. So I knew the guy was smart and that I could count on his information. Second I knew that the twelve Majestic (Majic) were studying about UFOs. It was secret though. Why twelve you might ask, well six are civilians and six are military personnel. For the military part of Majestic, there were two from the air force, two from the navy, and two from the army. For the civilians part, probably scientists. One of them was Dr. Menzel. Now, the guy that wrote this book said that Dr. Menzel was a guy that says lies. Because a document that Stanton read written by Dr. Menzel was a hoax. Also the government had to put a twenty-six year cover up. About the crash around Roswel, where the military found and took a spaceship. There were also several bodies that were also taken.

I would recommend this book to people that are really interested in UFOs and in extraterrestrial life. Also, not to be mean or anything, but also to geeks and nerds. For me, reading this book was a waste of my time. It was ok, but not good in my standards. Over all I would give this book a three out of five. Don't take my word for it, read the book for yourself. Then you rate it. If you read this book, I hope you like it.

BY:
Sergio