Above Top Secret: Worldwide UFO Cover-up [Hardcover]

Mr Good utilizes his massive network of contacts within the military and intelligence communities and amongst other researchers to produce a thoroughgoing analysis of the Ufo question.

Decades of enquiries have preceeeded this work. Mr Good examines all the documents revealed by the Freedom of Information Act, that have a bearing on the problem. The CIA, the NSA, the DIA and the AFOSI, all claim in their documents and memoranda that Ufos have no defence implications and are not a threat to national security, however as Benjamin Chidlaw the former Commanding General of Air Defense Command said in 1953; "We have stacks of reports of flying saucers. We take them seriously when you consider we have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them." (p265) Mr Good has a detailed knowledge of the intelligence community both in Britain and the States, the book is peppered with acronyms and the nomenclature of their various branches.

There are many ways in which Ufos threaten the existence of nations, their governments and military/ industrial institutions. Mr Good has analysed the problem well. Firstly there is the question of "the other side" obtaining and then employing flying saucer technology giving them a huge economic and military advantage. Then there is the possible mistaking of "extra- terrestrial" Ufos for enemy aircraft or vice versa. In both scenarios a nation might inadvertantly start World War Three.

Mr. Good establishes the fundamental importance of Ufos and their catalytic potential. One is left wondering after all the sightings and radar jamming assosciated with Ufos at nuclear installations and air force bases, whether the phenomena were really the cause of the Cold War's end. Mr Good enumerates many incidents during the Cold War which required co- operation between the various intelligence agencies, and a global cover- up of the facts concerning the military's vulnerability.

Mr. Good knows of forty cases of Ufo retrievals. In the US. there are secret projects established to analyse and understand these "extra- terrestrial" technologies, he says that alien bodies have also been recovered. I believe that humanity is now ready for the shockwaves that could follow the revelation of the "extra- terrestrial" prescence. As Mr. Good remarks at the end of the book, the constant threat of nuclear annihilation was/is a far more traumatic experience. The greedy exploitation of fossil fuels, the cause of so much war and bloodshed could be brought to an end. As human technology advaces, it will become impossible to tell terrestrial technology from extra- terrestrial, we cannot allow this fantastic opportunity to pass us by, all of humanity must benefit from the aid of "extra- terrestrials"

This is a book which I love, have read many times and often come back to. The reason I feel this is such a good book is the unbiased way Timothy Good presents page after page of sightings which are backed up by witness testimony. Often the witnesses are top ranking military, RAF, navy, commercial pilots or trained observers with nothing to gain from publicity. I would challenge anyone to read this book and not come away believing that: a)something unusual and not imaginary is going on in our skies. b)The governments of the world are suppressing information on these events. I have never been one to jump to the conclusion that these phenomena have an extra-terrestrial origin because we can not rule out the fact that they originate here on earth (there have been many reports of UFOs entering and exiting the sea) or another dimension. For me Timothy Good is "the" UFO author. (See also Beyond Top Secret)

Timothy Good's iconic 1987 book "Above Top Secret: the worldwide UFO Cover-up" is a classic of the genre and one of a very small number of books on the subject to break through into the mainstream. It became a global best-seller in the late 1980s and gained widespread coverage in the international mass media. After more than 20 years this book remains substantial and relevant, an object lesson in how to investigate the subject thoroughly and report facts clearly and concisely whilst avoiding undue speculation or extravagant claims.

The book's title comes from the results of the author's research into the black world of intelligence agencies in the USA, the UK and other nations, including the Soviet Union (still very much intact in the 1980s). In the rising hierarchy of secrecy, "Confidential" is succeeded by "Secret" and then "Top Secret". Then there are the "Above Top Secret" files, whose existence is not admitted, where access is on a strictly need-to-know basis and which are always exempt from FOIA disclosure on grounds of "National Security" because they're not even supposed to exist. It is at this level, Good discovered, that the UFO/ET issue is managed by governments and their security services: in the USA the subject has always, since the 1950s, been classified higher than the hydrogen bomb. From his original 1987 book title, "Above Top Secret" entered the language and has been co-opted by conspiracists of every hue and persuasion - but you heard it here first.

The author focuses on hundreds of encounter reports from witnesses of the highest credibility: military and civilian pilots, radar operators and other senior military and intelligence-world personnel, and on FOIA-released documents (most reproduced in full) attesting to the reality of the phenomenon and to frequent military encounters with UFOs. The focus is truly global with whole chapters on credible UFO reports from Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil, The USSR, China, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain. There are whole chapters on how the DIA, the CIA and NASA manage the UFO "problem" and a final chapter on alleged ET-technology crash-retrievals.

If the book can be faulted at all, it is only in that large numbers of incidents forensically reported and catalogued page after page makes for a sometimes dry narrative and requires effort and persistence from the reader. The author sticks to the facts and avoids undue speculation or florid language. It's useful to regard this book as an essential work of reference rather than lightweight, page-turning recreational reading.

The case builds from compelling to conclusive: on finishing the book the reader will understand why, subsequent to its publication, Tim Good was invited to The Pentagon to discuss the UFO issue, asked to work as a paid consultant for several US Congressional investigations and became the first western Ufologist to be interviewed on Russian TV following the collapse of the soviet regime in 1989. He also enjoyed the confidence of many highly placed individuals in the world's defence establishments and cultivated many contacts inside the intelligence services.

ATS was such a big seller that it saw several editions in both hardcover and paperback, in many languages. Get hold of one of the hardcover printings if you can: they all contain the original photographs and in addition to the 440-pages of text, 100+ pages of appendices of mainly FOIA-released documents are included in full.

ATS was updated, expanded and re-published as "Beyond Top Secret" in 1996 and, after complete revision with a lot of new material, as "Need to Know" in 2006. These books are essential reading for anyone interested in the UFO issue and in particular the world-wide governmental cover-up of the subject.

Such an influential and important book, which has stood the test of time so well and introduced so many to the seriousness of the subject matter, must be awarded five stars.