Aliens are big in America. Whether they've arrived via rocket, flying saucer, or plain old teleportation, they've been invading, infiltrating, or inspiring us for decades, and they've fascinated moviegoers and television watchers for more than fifty years. About half of us believe that aliens really exist, and millions are convinced they've visited Earth. For twenty-five years, SETI has been looking for the proof, and as the program's senior astronomer, Seth Shostak explains in this engrossing book, it's entirely possible that before long conclusive evidence will be found. His informative, entertaining report offers an insider's view of what we might realistically expect to discover light-years away among the stars. Neither humanoids nor monsters, says Shostak; in fact, biological intelligence is probably just a precursor to machine beings, enormously advanced artificial sentients whose capabilities and accomplishments may have developed over billions of years and far exceed our own. As he explores what, if anything, they would tell us and what their existence would portend for humankind and the cosmos, he introduces a colorful cast of characters and provides a vivid, state-of-the-art account of the past, present, and future of our search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

It should be no surprise that the various highly classified Operation Majestic 12 (or Majic-12 or MJ-12) documents have been attacked since their existence was first made public.Equally unsurprising is the fact that a number of phony or hoax or fraudulent MJ-12 documents have been released as well.But if the original documents, such as the Eisenhower Briefing Document of November 18, 1952, the Truman-Forrestal Memo of Sept. 24, 1947, and the Cutler Twining Memo of July 14, 1954 (found in July, 1985, in Box 189 of Entry 267 of Record Group 341 at the National Archives by Jaime Shandera and William Moore) are genuine, then the consequences are enormous: aliens are visiting Earth, the government has recovered at least one crashed saucer and several alien bodies,and a very significant group of outstanding American scientists and military leaders has collected, reviewed, evaluated, and kept secret all kinds of information about the visitors. Under such a scenario, mankind is NOT alone, and the government has covered up the biggest story of the millennium and perhaps history in general.Ten years after the 1984 receipt of a roll of exposed 35mm film by Jaime Shandera at his Burbank, California home, and his efforts with William Moore and Stanton Friedman to evaluate them, a new roll of film showed up in the mailbox of aviation and science writer (and longtime ufologist) Don Berliner.This contained many pages of SOM 1-01: Majestic 12 Group SPECIAL OPERATIONS MANUAL: "Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal." Ufologists and UFO buffs alike owe it to themselves to look seriously at the material gathered here by Friedman, and decide for themselves whether or not we need to continue pushing for Disclosure and the truth.