Book review--"Above Top Secret"

ABOVE TOP SECRET: The World-Wide UFO Cover-Up

by Timothy Good

Paperback: 592 pages 

Publisher: Quill (September 1989)

ISBN-10: 0688092020

This is a definitive work for anyone interested in the field of Ufology and one massive tome of a book that took me the better part of the summer to read.  That is because Good does something in it that few UFO books before had done: provide evidence.  Nearly one-third of the book is declassified documentation obtained through FOIA requests and citations to publications and interviews that an industrious researcher may go and check for themselves.  Because it is so research-based, the text is rather dry and makes for tedious reading at times.  Readers looking for rollicking UFO tales of the kind found in The Weekly World News will no doubt be disappointed and I don't think that is such a bad thing.  Good moves from nation to nation, including the US, Canada, Britain and much of Europe, devoting a healthy number of pages to how each government acquires its intelligence and then demonstrates how that has been applied to the UFO phenomenon.  Gradually, the case for a cover-up grows stronger as does the sensible rationale to have one in the first place.

This is not to say that Good doesn't include his share of "an anonymous source has told me that..." instances of hearsay.  Such things are unavoidable when dealing with the subject of UFOs, otherwise there would be no "conspiracy."  Not only that, but Good's stance can hardly be called a neutral one.  His drive to conclusively prove a UFO cover-up comes through loud and clear.  For instance, Good includes this correspondence he had with former NASA astronaut, Scott Carpenter (p. 381).  Carpenter said to Good: "...your continuing implication that I am lying and/or withholding truths from you.  Your blindly stubborn belief in Flying Saucers makes interesting talk for a while, but your inability to rationally consider any thought that runs counter to yours makes further discussion of no interest--indeed unpleasant in prospect--to me."

Regardless of his insistent fervor, Good did provide a much-needed publication to the UFO field by virtue of the included documentation alone.  Given the book's publication date, it obviously does not include more recent developments or progressive speculations, but I was glad to read in the closing pages that Good entertains the possibility that UFOs come perhaps not from outer space, but other dimensions.  

For anyone wanting or needing a baseline knowledge of the modern UFO mythos, this is essential reading.

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