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| National Security Archive |
The CIA has finally acknowledged the existence of Area 51 in newly declassified documents detailing the area in the Nevada desert.
These newly declassified documents, obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive contain hundreds of pages that describe the genesis of the Nevada site that was home to the government's spy plane program for decades. The documents do not, however, mention aliens (surprise, surprise - see my comments below-LVH).
The Las Vegas Sun reports that the first military planes arrived at Area 51 on July 25, 1955, and the first taxi trials began two days later. The first test flight occurred on Aug. 4, 1955, according to the history.
“It marks an end of official secrecy about the facts of Area 51,” National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson told the Las Vegas Sun. “It opens up the possibility that future accounts of this and other aerial projects will be less redacted, more fully explained in terms of their presence in Area 51.”
Officials have already acknowledged in passing the existence of the facility in central Nevada where the government is believed to test intelligence tools and weapons. Many of the government and contractor employees working there several years ago were exposed to some experimental chemistry while burning secret materials. They sued the government for medical liability and the government was forced to acknowledge the site in court documents.
Several years ago I wrote a feature article in Monitoring Times (Phantoms in the Desert - July 1997) that included frequencies, call signs etc. In my wrap up I concluded that there were no little green men or space ships out in Area 51. In the final analysis it was just a test site for advanced military airborne technologies.
Boy, did I catch some flack about that article from the "tin foil hat" crowd. One individual wrote to me that "within three months of his letter 'they' would expose me as a government stooge that I was obviously because of my MT article." I never have figured out who the "we" were.
So I guess that "tin foil hat" crowd still will not be convinced with this CIA release either, but that is just the nature of the beast. BTW I'm still waiting to be exposed as a government stooge and I'm so disappointing that still has not happened.
You can download you own copy of the CIA U2 history (all 407 pages) from the George Washington University website.