Area 51 Exists, Declassified CIA Documents State

[mr.d]

Area 51 Exists, Declassified CIA Documents State

 

 

 

LAS VEGAS, AUGUST 17,2013(AP) ------- UFO buffs and believers in alien encounters are celebrating the CIA's clearest acknowledgement yet of the existence of Area 51, the top-secret Cold War test site that has been the subject of elaborate conspiracy theories for decades.

The recently declassified documents have set the tinfoil-hat crowd abuzz, though there's no mention in the papers of UFO crashes, black-eyed extraterrestrials or staged moon landings.

Audrey Hewins, an Oxford, Maine, woman who runs a support group for people like her who believe they have been contacted by extraterrestrials, said she suspects the CIA is moving closer to disclosing there are space aliens on Earth.

"I'm thinking that they're probably testing the waters now to see how mad people get about the big lie and cover-up," she said.

For a long time, U.S. government officials hesitated to acknowledge even the existence of Area 51.

The CIA history released Thursday not only refers to Area 51 by name and describes some of the aviation activities that took place there, but locates the Air Force base on a map, along the dry Groom Lake bed.

 

It also talks about some cool planes, though none of them are saucer-shaped.

George Washington University's National Security Archive used a public records request to obtain the CIA history of one of Area 51's most secret Cold War projects, the U-2 spy plane program.

National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson first reviewed the history in 2002, but all mentions of the country's most mysterious military base had been redacted. So he requested the history again in 2005, hoping for more information. Sure enough, he received a version a few weeks ago with the mentions of Area 51 restored.

The report is unlikely to stop the conspiracy theorists. The 407-page document still contains many redactions, and who's to say those missing sections don't involve little green men?

It's not the first time the government has acknowledged the existence of the super-secret, 8,000-square-mile installation. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush referred to the "location near Groom Lake" in insisting on continued secrecy, and other government references date to the 1960s.

But Richelson, as well as those who are convinced "the truth is out there," are taking the document as a sign of loosening secrecy about the government's activities in the Nevada desert.

The site is known as Area 51 among UFO aficionados because that was the base's designation on old Nevada test site maps. The CIA history reveals that officials renamed it "Paradise Ranch" to try to lure skilled workers, who can still be seen over Las Vegas flying to and from the site on unmarked planes.

Beginning with the U-2 in the 1950s, the base has been the testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the SR-71 Blackbird, F-117A stealth fighter and B-2 stealth bomber. Some believe the base's Strangelovian hangars also contain alien vehicles, evidence from the "Roswell incident"

[beenthere]

LOL.I'd like to be a fly on the wall of one of those support group meetings.

[Guest Roger Natti]

I'm still waiting for the AF to release info on the next super-secret aircraft, code name Aurora.  Believe it's pulse-jet driven and makes a donut-shaped contrail.

[Ignatius]

Hail, after a weekend at the Polish Festival, with all the cabbage, beer and some baked beans tossed in for good measure, I'm sure I'll be pulse-jet driven and could easily leave a donut-shaped contrail.

[Jmbeck]

Of course it EXISTS... just like DuBois exists... Brookville exists... etc... but what is there is the big question.

[Ignatius]

Just what our "resident zombie hunter" would be interested in!  But I would bet you have already scoped out the place, haven't you??????

[Guest Roger Natti]

Of course it EXISTS... just like DuBois exists... Brookville exists... etc... but what is there is the big question.

Now?  Probably nothing much.  I remember seeing a TV show indicating that all the neat stuff done previously in Area 51 in Nevada was moved to a remote site in Utah.  By the way, the show also gave the genesis of the term "Area 51."  Apparently, it comes from a mapping survey/expedition from the early days of America wherein the cartographer drew a grid of a large area of the western states and the secret site just happened to fall within the grid numbered 51 on that old map.

[Ridge Rider]

Freedom Of Information Act.

Public records.

Didn't the O Administration make a promise to the American public for more transparency in government?