The existence of Area 51, the US airbase rumoured to house UFOs,
along with details of some of the strange activities that went on
there have been officially acknowledged in newly released CIA
documents.
WASHINGTON — Its existence has been a badly kept secret for
decades and it has fuelled the imaginations of conspiracy theorists
and UFO hunters around the world.
Now the existence of Area 51 has been officially acknowledged by
the Central Intelligence Agency and its exact location revealed in
Nevada.
Documents released by the CIA also reveal that there really have
been some strange occurrences at the secret airbase – however, they
are not quite as exciting as UFO hunters would like, reported the
Daily Telegraph.
Among the jobs that staff at the site had to perform during the
1960s was a routine of vacuuming the runway to allow experimental
aircraft to take off without damaging their engines.
Previously the US government has provided minimal information
about Area 51 and most mentions of it are redacted in documents
that are declassified.
Official maps usually only show a disused mine at the site or a
large area of restricted airspace, however it does feature on
Google Maps and in satellite images.
However, in a set of documents released to a researcher studying
the history of the U-2 spy plane program, the secret base is
officially revealed.
A line drawn map contained within the reports show the location
of Area 51 and Groom Lake, the salt flat the base is built upon, in
relation to the Mojave Desert.
They also provide details on how the site was first established
as part of a wider Atomic Energy Commission test site.
However, the documents make no mention of UFOs nor the secret
weapons that many believe are being developed there.
Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow at the George Washington
University’s National Security Archive who obtained the records,
said the new documents seemed to suggest the CIA were becoming less
secretive about Area 51’s existence.
The documents were released in response to a Freedom of
Information Request made in 2005. An earlier 2002 request resulted
in documents that were heavily redacted.
In a blog posted on the research organisation’s website, Mr
Richelson said: “What the CIA released in response to a 2005
Freedom of Information Act request is a substantially less redacted
version of a history of two key aerial reconnaissance programs.
“The latest release is notable for the significant amount of
newly declassified material with respect to the U-2 — with regard
to names of pilots, codenames and cryptonyms, locations, funding
and cover arrangements, electronic countermeasures equipment,
organisation, cooperation with foreign governments, and operations,
particularly in Asia.”
The mentions of Area 51 were contained in documents detailing
the history of the U-2 and Oxcart spy plane programs were written
in 1992 by Gregory Pedlow and Donald Welzenbach, who were
historians at the CIA.
A heavily redacted version of the history was published in 1998
with a more detailed version released under the Freedom of
Information Act in 2002.
The latest version to be released shows that Area 51 is
mentioned on at least 12 pages, including a map.
One of the first mentions describe how two senior project staff
on the U-2 had been flying over Nevada when they spotted an old
airstrip near Groom Lake.
It describes how the facility had been used during World War Two
as an aerial gunnery for the Army Air Corp pilots.
President Dwight Eisenhower later approved “this strip of
wasteland, known by its map designation as Area 51, to the Atomic
Energy Commissions Nevada test site and training range.
It also states that to make the facility more attractive to
workers there, it was named Paradise Ranch, or sometimes the
Ranch.
A poor quality photograph of “The Ranch” is also included.
The documents also mention how a Military Air Transport Service
flight crashed in 1955 at Area 51 killing 14 people.
They also provide detailed history about tests and missions of
the U-2 plane from Area 51, along with information about the
aircrafts use in other parts of the world.
Radar tests of what would later become the SR71 Blackbird were
also carried out with a mock up of the plane placed on top of tall
pylons.
Area 51 was later upgraded to assist testing of this aircraft
under the Oxcart program.
Road signs had to be removed, road banks were levelled and trees
trimmed to help transport the plane safely – possibly providing an
explanation for some of the phenomena attributed to UFOs in the
area.
There are some amusing mentions of life at the secret US base.
During testing of Oxcart in 1963, Area 51 personnel had to “sweep
and vacuum the runway” before the aircraft took off to prevent
damage to the engine.
There are, however, some mentions of Area 51 that remain blanked
out and this will doubtless provide more than enough fuel to
conspiracy theorists. AGENCIES