UFOs and over 950,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Like New See details
$14.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Kindle Edition
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a $3.00 Amazon Gift Card
UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record
 
 
Start reading UFOs on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don�t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record [Hardcover]

Leslie Kean (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)

List Price: $25.99
Price: $16.68 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $9.31 (36%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Friday, August 5? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Hardcover $16.68  
Paperback $8.92  
MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged $21.86  
Unknown Binding $59.99  
Audible Audio Edition, Unabridged $19.95 or Free with Audible 30-day free trial
Sell Back Your Copy for $3.00
Receive a $3.00 Amazon.com Gift Card for selling back this book. See other eligible items in our Book Trade-In Program. Restrictions Apply
Used Price$8.80
Buyback Price$3.00
Price after
Buyback
$5.80

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Messages: The World's Most Documented Extraterrestrial Contact Story $11.53

UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record + Messages: The World's Most Documented Extraterrestrial Contact Story


Editorial Reviews

Review

"At last, a serious and thoughtful book about this controversial subject. Skeptics and true believers will find a treasure trove of insightful and eye opening information. This book is bound to set the gold standard for UFO research."                    
—Michio Kaku, Ph.D. Author of Physics of the Impossible and host of Sci Fi Science on the Science Channel

“I was astonished by the care and precision of Leslie Kean’s research in this terrific book.  Her analysis is carefully reasoned and to the point; her craftsmanship in organization and writing are superb.    Her expose' raises important questions: Why does the US government create public distrust by neglecting this important topic? Why do its agencies avoid investigating cases of interference with flight operations and instead issue absurd cover-up stories?  This book is ultimately an appeal to all scholars for an "extraordinary investigation of an extraordinary phenomenon.” 
—Rudy Schild, Ph.D., Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
 
“Like me, Leslie Kean is an agnostic on the issue of UFOs.  Her book is a fine piece of journalism - not about beliefs, but about facts.  Kean presents the most accurate, most credible reports on UFO's you will ever find.  She has fought long and hard to discover the facts and let the chips fall where they mayShe may not have the final smoking gun, but I smell the gunpowder.”
—Miles O'Brien, former CNN space/science correspondent
 
“I find explanations offered by UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists to be implausible, but I also have little patience with "deniers" who ridicule credible reports.  Leslie Kean has found a thoughtful path between extreme views, documenting the UFO mystery with intelligence and insight. She makes a strong case for U.S. participation in official, international UFO investigations and for public dissemination of the results.  The fascinating first-hand accounts make this a thought-provoking book, even for those of us who don’t know much about UFOs.”    
—Neal Lane, Ph.D., Rice University; former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
 
“If you don't know much about UFOs, you must read this book. If you think that UFO reports are nonsense, this book will disabuse you of that notion. Leslie Kean's UFOs informs readers at every level of knowledge and belief.  It could, and should, become the "tipping point" that leads to public acceptance of the reality of UFOs and all of its implications.”
—Don Donderi, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, McGill University (Ret.)
 
“In an area of study where there aren’t many, this is a serious book.  It is credible, clear, and compelling, without any farfetched jumps in logic and assumption.  Its credibility begins on the first page with John Podesta and continues with case studies of extraordinary quality to the very end.  Leslie Kean not only makes the case for, but calls for, a whole new concrete and realistic perspective on UFOs that has more honesty and integrity than any other that I have read.  This is a book for anyone with an open mind.” 
—John L. Petersen, Founder & President of The Arlington Institute
 
“In these pages we are confronted head-on by the UFO phenomenon as revealed firsthand by highly credible government officials and military aviation experts. Their credibility and integrity cannot be questioned, and their firsthand observations cannot be ignored.  Leslie Kean provides a challenging analysis and she writes with penetrating depth and insight. The revelations in this book constitute a watershed event in lifting the taboo against rational discourse about this controversial subject.”
—Harold E. Puthoff, Ph.D., Director of The Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin
 
“When I started reading Leslie Kean’s UFOs, I found it very difficult to stop. This is an unprecedented assessment of what may be the greatest challenge ever presented to mankind. In an outstanding piece of investigative journalism, Kean provides a well-written and convincing appeal for change in dealing with a phenomenon that can no longer be ignored.”  
—Jean-Claude Ribes, Ph.D., Paris Observatory (Ret.)
 
“For anyone who questions why - after more than fifty  years of denial, ridicule, and dismissal - many scientists, academics, political figures, and military personnel still insist that the subject of UFOs should be taken seriously, this book provides the answer.  Leslie Kean offers compelling documentation that physical objects, with flight characteristics not yet achievable by known technology, are being routinely reported in our skies.  They represent a mystery that needs to be solved.” 
—Stuart Appelle, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Science and Mathematics, State University of New York, Brockport

"Leslie Kean’s astonishing book is the finest piece of investigative journalism ever written on this subject.  She has an incomparable ability to ‘give voice’ to a constituency of exceptionally qualified and unbiased first-hand observers. They are not from the fringe, not groupies, and not delusional.  Rather, they are high-level military, intelligence, aerospace, and government officials who speak with authority while providing reports that document actual, physical craft. Kean’s book represents the first important step toward a new U.S. government openness about UFOs.  It brings forward a reality otherwise buried for far too long inside official mystery, and elevates the discourse above that of small-minded public discussions."
—Christopher C. Green, MD, Ph.D., Harper University Hospital, Wayne State University School of Medicine 

Product Description

An Air Force major is ordered to approach a brilliant UFO in his Phantom jet over Tehran. He repeatedly attempts to engage and fire on unusual objects heading right toward his aircraft, but his missile control is locked and disabled. Witnessed from the ground, this dogfight becomes the subject of a secret report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
 
In Belgium, an Air Force colonel investigates a series of widespread sightings of unidentified triangular objects, and he sends F-16s to attempt a closer look. Many hundreds of eyewitnesses, including on-duty police officers, file reports, and a spectacular photograph of an unidentifiable craft is retrieved and analyzed.
 
Here at home, a retired chief of the FAA’s Accidents and Investigations Division reveals the agency’s response to a thirty-minute encounter between an aircraft and a gigantic UFO over Alaska, which occurred during his watch and is documented on radar.
 
Now all three of these distinguished men have written breathtaking, firsthand accounts about these extraordinary incidents. They are joined by Air Force generals and a host of high-level sources—including Fife Symington III, former governor of Arizona, and Nick Pope, former head of the British Defence Ministry’s UFO Investigative Unit—who have agreed to write their own detailed, personal stories about UFO encounters and investigations for the first time.
 
They are coming forward now because of Leslie Kean, an investigative reporter who has spent the last ten years studying the still unexplained UFO phenomenon. Kean reviewed hundreds of government documents, aviation reports, radar data, and case studies with corroborating physical evidence. She carefully examined scientifically analyzed photographs and interviewed dozens of high-level officials and aviation witnesses from around the world. With the support of former White House chief of staff John Podesta, Kean draws on her research to separate fact from fiction and to lift the veil on decades of U.S. government misinformation. Throughout, she presents irrefutable evidence that unknown flying objects—metallic, luminous, and seemingly able to maneuver in ways that defy the laws of physics—actually exist.
 
No one yet knows what these objects are, even though they affect aviation safety and possibly national security. The phenomenon has been officially acknowledged by numerous foreign governments. For these reasons and many others, Kean concludes that the UFO problem must be more widely recognized and ultimately solved through an unbiased scientific investigation. The material presented throughout this landmark book is sobering, unflinching, and undeniably awe-inspiring, and moves us toward a goal of properly addressing this worldwide mystery.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (August 10, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307716848
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307716842
  • Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #44,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leslie Kean
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Leslie Kean Page

 

Customer Reviews

104 Reviews
5 star:
 (68)
4 star:
 (13)
3 star:
 (13)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (104 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 145 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Could Leslie Kean's outstanding book be a game-changer?, August 15, 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record (Hardcover)

Leslie Kean is an independent investigative journalist known for pioneering human rights work in Burma. As Director of the Coalition for Freedom of Information, between 2005 and 2009 she fought and won a FOIA federal lawsuit against NASA to release "lost" records on the 1965 Kecksburg PA incident. She is patient, persistent, tenacious and skeptical. Her new book, ten years in the making and two years in the writing, has received open endorsement from so many leading politicians and scientists that it just might be a game-changer.

The intended audience is not the committed reader steeped in the lore of UFOs or discussions of the ETH and competing origin-hypotheses. Plenty of books explore these subjects and their readership is, against the mainstream, pitifully small and marginalised. Such works, however well-researched, are often self-published or condemned to share shelf-space with political CTs, channelling and new-age mush, undeservedly consigned to the ghetto of the kooky, ridiculed fringe.

Readers familiar with the works of Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallee, Tim Good, Jerry Clark, Stan Friedman, Richard Dolan and writers of similar calibre will find little new here, though they will find a few interesting nuggets. They are already persuaded of the evidence, and not the target audience for this book. These writers, collectively, have never effected political attitude-change: the contributors to this book are such serious, credible, high-profile people they just might.

Kean's target audience is professional academia, those involved in politics and the media, the skeptically-minded scientist with little familiarity with the subject matter due to its long contamination with fringe elements, and the concerned, civic-minded man or woman in the street who has never read a book on the issue and knows little of the powerful evidence for the existence of persistent strange aerial phenomena. The book is carefully crafted to bring the subject out of the UFO conference fringe and place it firmly centre-stage into the political and academic mainstream where it belongs; to make it a respectable and important subject for discussion. The argument is: These are responsible officials going on the record, and here is serious evidence of something real. You are irresponsible if you ignore this subject, or allow it to continue to be marginalised.

To this end, the book's tone is deliberately sceptical. The tag-line "Generals, Pilots and Government Officials go on the Record" describes exactly the content: only incontestable cases with multiple official witnesses plus supporting evidence have been chosen for inclusion. The author worked for years to contact and gain the confidence of these military pilots and high-profile government officials and to bring them together at the National Press Club in DC in November 2007. High priority is given to cases involving air force encounters; documented, confirmed, official. The contributors are truly international, confirming the global reach of the phenomenon.

This cautious tone, the international perspective and the author's avoidance of contamination by book jacket-cover endorsement from anyone associated with the "UFO community" sets this book apart from other work on the subject. This will be extremely difficult for a debunker to deal with, and that is the intention. Journalistic standards are high, so there are no "anonymous whistleblowers", no ID kept secret, nothing flaky or un-checkable. These establishment people have gone ON THE RECORD, and write in total around half the content of the 302 pages of the book. Introducing the section written by Nick Pope, Kean writes: "He is yet another example of the many officials and military officers who, as they became acquainted with UFO investigations by accident, flexed their skeptical muscles only to find themselves absorbed by the unexpected power of the evidence they had initially expected to disprove." The accumulated evidence presented is virtually un-debunkable.

Kean contrasts the relatively open way the UFO subject has been managed in recent decades by nations such as France, Belgium, the UK, Brazil, Peru and others, with the history of stonewalling and ridicule from all government and military bodies in the USA. Since the closing of Blue Book, the phenomenon no longer officially exists in the USA even though pilots, operators of military facilities and ordinary folk encounter it all the time. It's an Orwellian environment. What is to be done?

In the third and final section of the book, the author explores the nature of UFO secrecy in the US. She sticks to the facts as known and documented, and acknowledges the unsupported speculations frequently put out by various people in the UFO field about the cover-up inhibit understanding of the issue and serve to marginalise the subject. Her reasoning is logical, thorough and grounded.

In Chapter 26, "Engaging the US Government," Kean lays out the reasoned objective sought by the CFI:

"The coalition is asking for responsible action on the part of the United States concerning UFOs. We make this request not as an accusation of wrongdoing in the past, but as an invitation to join an international, cooperative venture under way now...we are seeking the creation of a small government agency to investigate UFO incidents, and to act as a focal point for action at home and for research worldwide."

Her objective is to bring about legitimization of the subject, so that scientific interest might be encouraged and government grants enable scientists in the academic, research and aviation fields to pursue serious study free of ridicule. She is not impotently shouting for "Disclosure" whilst remaining forever shut outside. She, and the impressive contributors to this book, ask for official recognition of the UFO issue as real, and for the establishment of a small agency to co-ordinate international study as a first step. No assumptions about the origin of the phenomenon are made: just that it exists, and needs to be acknowledged as real. It's a reasoned, achievable objective, unarguable in the face of the unassailable evidence presented here. That's why this book might be the catalyst for permanent recognition of legitimacy: in other words, a game-changer.

The production quality of the book is first class and the writing from all contributors literate, straightforward and completely free of typos. It has a logical structure, is an easy and absorbing read containing nothing extraneous, concerned with the facts and testimonies. It builds a compelling argument. If you haven't read it yet, maybe you should.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Leslie Kean Answers Jim Oberg, September 7, 2010
By 
Y. Sweningsen "vimanaboy" (Forestville, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record (Hardcover)
This rebuttal to Oberg's piece, an expanded version of his "review" here, was posted to MSNBC:

By Leslie Kean
Special to [...]

When I wrote my book about officially documented UFO reports, I fully expected the skeptics to react. That's why I was careful to focus only on the very best evidence from the most credible sources in "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record." Since 95 percent of all sightings are eventually identified, the book is concerned only with the remaining 5 percent -- those UFO events that have been thoroughly investigated, involve multiple witnesses and ample data, but still cannot be explained.

That didn't stop James Oberg, a space analyst for NBC News, from complaining that the book was based on a "questionable foundation."

In the biographical note appended to his commentary, he notes that he spent 22 years at NASA's Mission Control and has written books about space policy and exploration. But he neglects to inform readers of something UFO researchers already know all too well: that he is a founding fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI, formerly CSICOP), a group whose aim is to debunk UFOs and any other unexplained phenomena that challenge our familiar ways of thinking.

For many years, Oberg, while retaining his stance as an objective student of the UFO phenomenon, has been a consistently vocal skeptic. His long list of articles dealing with UFOs date from the 1970s and are posted on his website under the heading "space folklore," which accurately sums up his attitude towards the subject. He may be qualified to serve as an unbiased, expert consultant on Russian or Chinese missile systems, but not on UFOs.

Story: UFO book based on questionable foundation: [...]

His objection to my many varied cases has to do with his notion that pilots are poor observers. To buttress this idea, he quotes J. Allen Hynek referring to questionable statistics compiled in the 1960s by Project Blue Book. He also cites Russian researchers describing two events in 1982 when pilot sightings were accurately identified as "military balloons" after the fact.

This is not surprising, since the vast majority of sightings can be explained, and this kind of identification is made all the time. However, such solved sightings -- whether made by pilots or anyone else -- have absolutely nothing to do with the cases presented in my book.

I wonder if Oberg gave "UFOs" a careful read. He spent many paragraphs quoting me concerning a report on aviation cases by French researcher Dominique Weinstein. The problem is, those are not my quotes. The chapter from which he extracted them was written by Jean-Jacques Velasco, head of the French government`s UFO agency for over 20 years, as is obvious in his byline and narrative about French research.

Oberg gleefully proclaims that I have "faithfully vouched for" the cases in Weinstein's list, but actually, I have respectfully allowed Velasco to write his own chapter. (About half the chapters in my book were written by highly credentialed authorities and expert witnesses.) If Oberg wants to discuss the Weinstein study, he'll have to contact Velasco.

Oberg's fixation on the question of the reliability of pilots as witnesses is not raised by the generals and aviation experts I have interviewed -- officials who have studied pilot cases and interviewed pilot witnesses for decades. As described in "UFOs," French Air Force Maj. Gen. Denis Letty initiated an extensive study of UFO data because competent pilots he knew personally were confronted by the phenomenon. Chilean Gen. Ricardo Bermudez was instrumental in the founding of his country`s official UFO investigative agency in 1997 because of inexplicable sightings involving pilots.

Richard Haines, who has written more than 70 papers in leading scientific journals and published more than 25 U.S. government reports for NASA, was formerly chief of the space agency's Space Human Factors Office and served for 21 years as a retired senior aerospace scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. Having studied pilot sightings and related aviation safety issues for more than 30 years, and having personally interviewed hundreds of pilots during that time, Haines has concluded that pilots are indeed excellent witnesses, given their thorough training, expertise and hours of flying time.

Haines is now chief scientist for the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena [...]. Sadly, most pilots never report their sightings, as he points out in "UFOs."

Most importantly, the aerial cases documented in "UFOs" -- and many more on the record elsewhere -- involve multiple factors such as:

*Sightings of long duration, allowing for accurate voice transmissions and the refinement of the initial identification.
*Multiple witnesses -- co-pilot, crew, passengers, other aircraft in different locations, and occasionally observers from the ground.
*Onboard radar and ground radar recording the presence of a physical object, often corresponding exactly to the visual sighting.
*Direct physical effects on the aircraft, such as equipment malfunction.

As an example, Brig. Gen. Jose Periera of Brazil, commander of air force operations until 2005, reports on an "array of UFOs" observed over his country in 1986. Two pilots chased one of the objects for 30 minutes. Numerous other pilots saw the objects. Radar recorded them. Six jets were scrambled from two Brazilian air force bases to pursue them. Some of the pilots made visual contact corresponding to radar registrations. Both military and commercial pilots were involved. Onboard as well as ground radar systems confirmed the presence of the objects.

"We have the correlation of independent readings from different sources," Periera writes. "These data have nothing to do with human eyes. When, along with the radar, a pilot`s pair of eyes sees that same thing, and then another pilot`s, and so on, the incident has real credibility and stands on a solid foundation."

In 2007, airline captain Ray Bowyer saw two gigantic, bright yellow objects suspended over the English Channel, which he observed carefully for 15 minutes. His passengers saw them, another pilot on a second aircraft was also a witness, and an object was registered on radar.

In 1986, three Japan Airlines pilots watched a series of UFOs for 30 minutes, communicating with air traffic control while radar operators picked up the objects in corresponding locations.

I could go on with many more examples, presented in detail in the book.

Oberg says pilots may misinterpret visual phenomena when forced to make a split-second diagnosis before taking immediate action -- very rare cases, I would assume -- and no one would disagree with that. But, just as was the case with the solved Russian sightings I discussed earlier, this is entirely beside the point with respect to my book, because the cases presented do not involve such a scenario.

In addition, "UFOs: General, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record" presents many other cases that do not involve pilots at all -- but often military personnel and police officers -- including:

*The famous 1980 incident near RAF Bentwaters in Britain, involving the landing of a UFO and objects sending beams of light to the ground.
*The 1981 "Trans-en-Provence" landing case in France, investigated by the official French agency GEPAN.
*Belgian Maj. Gen. Wilfried De Brouwer`s report on the wave of sightings in Belgium in 1989-90, which includes a spectacular photograph.
*The 1993 "Cosford Incident" involving a UFO over two Air Force bases in Britain, investigated by the Ministry of Defense.
*The 1997 Phoenix Lights incident that former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington described.

These are just a few of a host of cases with abundant data that don't rely on pilot observations -- and which are still unsolved. It`s the aggregate of cases, the accumulation of evidence and the long-running but unsuccessful attempts of qualified experts to resolve them that establishes the reality of a yet-unexplained physical phenomenon with extraordinary capabilities.

Oberg says that "if investigators are unable to find the explanation for a particular UFO case, that doesn't constitute proof that the case is unexplainable." Fair enough. Perhaps there is some prosaic explanation still to be discovered. There`s always that possibility, no matter how small.

But we remain in a state of ignorance concerning UFOs, leaving us with the conclusion presented in the book: We need a systematic, scientific investigation of the skies that actively looks for these mysterious and elusive objects. In the meantime, all I ask is that devout skeptics like Oberg read the entire book before raising objections that actually have no bearing on the matter at hand.



Investigative journalist Leslie Kean is the author of the New York Times bestseller "UFOs: General, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record" (Harmony/Crown). Her work has appeared in many publications including The Nation, International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe. She is also the co-author of "Burma's Revolution of the Spirit" and co-founder of the Coalition for Freedom of Information.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The most shocking book I have ever read, September 1, 2010
By 
Marrena Lindberg (West Roxbury, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record (Hardcover)
I read this book yesterday. I am in the target demographic--like most Americans, of course I thought UFO's were strictly in the realm of science fiction. This book has upended everything I thought I knew about the real world. The research is impeccable, the witnesses are more than trustworthy--this book is shocking and will completely change the perspective of anyone who reads it, except for those who already are true believers.

With my own scientific background I am intensely curious to learn more about the bloodwork done on the Peruvian fighter pilot. But even without knowing more, this book has utterly changed me.

I sincerely hope this book becomes a bestseller, because the public, particularly the American public, has a right to know these facts.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(50)
(13)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Kindle edition file size discrepancy 1 Sep 16, 2010
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject