CIA Officially acknowledges Area 51 Existence
Area 51 officially acknowledged, mapped in newly released documents
By Laura Koran, CNN
updated 12:45 PM EDT, Fri August 16, 2013
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Area 51 revealed
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The CIA officially acknowledges Area 51, long a fixation for conspiracy theorists, in documents
- The area, 125 northwest of Las Vegas, was a testing ground for Cold War aerial surveillance
- Document release could be just the beginning of Area 51 information, expert says
(CNN) -- Area 51 has long been a topic of fascination for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts, but newly released CIA documents officially acknowledge the site and suggest that the area served a far less remarkable purpose than many had supposed.
According to these reports, which include a map of the base's location in Nevada, Area 51 was merely a testing site for the government's U-2 and OXCART aerial surveillance programs. The U-2 program conducted surveillance around the world, including over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Area 51, about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is synonymous in popular culture with government secrecy, and many have theorized that it holds the answer to one of the greatest questions plaguing mankind: Are we really alone in the universe?
But the newly released documents make no mention of alien autopsy rooms or spaceship parking lots.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpgUFO spotted hovering over pool
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpgFBI memo details flying saucers, aliens
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpgUFO welcome center waits for green guys
This information will be disappointing to some, who have come to view the area has been a mecca of sorts for alien encounters.
For these true believers, the existence of alien spacecraft at Area 51, and the government's attempts to cover up their trace, is irrefutable and has been since reports of Unidentified Flying Objects -- or UFOs -- began to emerge from the Nevada desert in the middle part of the 20th century.
The map and other documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives, in 2005.
Richelson submitted the request as part of his continuing study of aerial surveillance programs and told CNN that he was not given an explanation of why the new documents were less redacted than previous versions declassified by the agency.
He points out, however, that the location of Area 51 was not a particularly well-kept secret. Its location appears in books on aerial surveillance and is widely referenced in popular culture.
In fact, the map that was released in the CIA documents mirrors the one that appears after a simple Google Maps search for "Area 51."
Area 51 has also been referenced in government documents in the past, though this newest release is the first that acknowledges its existence and location in a purposeful way.
Richelson told CNN he believes this could signal a dramatic change in the government's willingness to declassify information about the famed base, meaning even more information could come out about Area 51 in the future.
The release of these reports seem to put the theories about aliens and flying saucers to rest for the time being, although they may not be enough to silence the true believers.
At least they still have Roswell, right?
Re: CIA Officially acknowledges Area 51 Existence
CIA acknowledges existence of Area 51; Adam Baldwin, others pile on the snark
Posted at 1:24 pm on August 16, 2013 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments
Tweet
The "Area 51" leak is a False Flag!
—
Adam Baldwin (@AdamBaldwin)
August 16, 2013
Actor Adam Baldwin snarked that Area 51 is a “false flag,” but tweeters reminded those who might not remember that Baldwin has been there:
Baldwin was informed of a dirty little secret about Area 51:
Get the full story in the upcoming film, “Sensitivity Training of the First Kind.”
Others joined the Area 51 discussion:
Aliens are such hipsters, they are planning to stop going to Area 51 now that everybody knows about it.—
HAL 9000 (@HAL9000_)
August 16, 2013
The CIA’s acknowledgement of the existence of Area 51 is an encouraging sign that the truth about the NSA could also be made public—in a matter of time:
CIA admits Area 51 exists. So if you want to know for sure if the government is spying on us, just wait about 50 years.—
CC:Indecision (@indecision)
August 16, 2013
Re: CIA Officially acknowledges Area 51 Existence
Reality Check
American Patriot's Reality Check
CIA: The mysterious Area 51 exists!
Like we can’t look at satellite photos ourselves… Pffftttt!
New document shows the CIA is becoming less secretive about Area 51′s existence.
After years of government denials, the CIA is acknowledging in newly declassified documents the existence of Area 51, the mysterious site in central Nevada that has spawned top-secret tools, weapons and not a few UFO conspiracies.
George Washington University’s National Security Archive obtained a CIA history of the U-2 spy plane program through a public records request and released it Thursday.
National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson reviewed the history in 2002, but all mentions of Area 51 had been redacted.
READ: The newly declassified CIA documents
Richelson says he requested the history again in 2005 and received a version a few weeks ago with mentions of Area 51 restored.
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.
Richelson believes the new document shows the CIA is becoming less secretive about Area 51′s existence, if not about what goes at the location 90 miles north of Las Vegas.
The references are found in a CIA history of the U-2 reconnaissance program written in 1992.
The history even recalls the first time CIA project director Richard Bissell and Air Force officer Col. Osmund Ritlandt spotted the site, which was then an old airstrip by the salt flat named Groom Lake.
They viewed it from aboard a small Beechcraft plane piloted by Tony LeVier, Lockheed’s chief test pilot.
Excerpt:
They spotted what appeared to be an airstrip by a salt flat known as Groom Lake, near the northeast corner of the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) Nevada Proving Ground.
After debating about landing on the old airstrip, LeVier set the plane down on the lakebed, and all four walked over to examine the strip. The facility had been used during World War II as an aerial gunnery range for Army Air Corps pilots. From the air the strip appeared to be paved, but on closer inspection it turned out to have originally been fashioned from compacted earth that had turned into ankle-deep dust after more than a decade of disuse.
If LeVier had attempted to land on the airstrip, the plane would probably have nosed over when the wheels sank into the loose soil, killing or injuring all of the key figures in the U-2 project.
The document says the group agreed that the location “would make an ideal site for testing the U-2 and training its pilots,” according to the history.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...1-cia/2663829/
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August 16, 2013 - Posted by American Patriot | The Throes of Tyranny | Area 51, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Groom Lake, National Security Archive, Nevada, Nevada National Security Site
Re: CIA Officially acknowledges Area 51 Existence
Area 51's existence confirmed by CIA as hotbed for … aerial government testing
Conspiracy theorists likely to be disappointed as CIA declassifies documents for the notorious UFO-sighting locale
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...rea-51-010.jpg A sign greets southern Nevada travelers to what has become known as the Extraterrestrial Highway. Photograph: Ed Darack/Science Faction/Corb
It turns out that the cultural repository for American alien conspiracies has a much more mundane history. Area 51, the secret government space in the Mojave desert, was used to test aerial programs.
While government officials have mentioned the base in passing over the years, a newly declassified history provides the first official acknowledgement that Area 51 exists and provides new details on what the space has been used for – and it is not what conspiracy theorists want to hear.
According to the seven-chapter history, Area 51 was used as an aerial testing ground for US government projects. The released documents specifically refer to the U-2 and Oxcart aerial surveillance programs.
"High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side effect – a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)," according to the documents, which became public through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by George Washington University's National Security Archive.
The documents, first published in 1992 and posted online on Thursday, attributed these UFO "sightings" to the U-2s ability to fly above 60,000ft – which was considered too high for manned flight by the general public at the time.
"U-2 and later Oxcart flights accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s," according to the documents.
The U-2 reconnaissance aircraft has been used to conduct surveillance since the 1950s and was used extensively to surveil the Soviet Union, China and Cuba in the cold war.
Area 51's location has also been easy to find with a quick internet search, but a map in the documents confirms that the longtime center of government-alien conspiracy theories is located in the Mojave desert, about 100 miles outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
Government staffers and Lockheed Martin employees discovered the site while flying over Nevada and determined the area would be a good place to test aircraft.
"President Eisenhower also approved the addition of this strip of wasteland, known by its map designation as Area 51, to the Nevada test site," according to the documents.
"The outlines of Area 51 are shown on current unclassified maps as a small rectangular area adjoining the northeast corner of the much larger Nevada test site."
To make the hot, isolated expanse more attractive to workers, Lockheed Martin engineer Kelly Johnson called the area Paradise Ranch, which eventually became just the Ranch.
Jeffrey T Richelson, of the archives, was able to review the documents in 2002, but mentions of Area 51 were redacted at the time. He submitted a request for the history, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: the U-2 and Oxcart Programs, again in 2005 to continue his research on aerial surveillance programs.
Re: CIA Officially acknowledges Area 51 Existence
Interesting...
Scrap NASA while turn parts of it over to Russia.
Gut the Military while allowing the sequester to erode other facets of our defenses including our border security.
While declassifying more sensitive military secrets.
Re: CIA Officially acknowledges Area 51 Existence
Yeah, I have to wonder why this is suddenly released. Having had some ... ummm... knowledge of the place in the past... well, anyway, you know.
Wag the dog I think.
Get attention elsewhere. Off Egypt. Off NSA. Off IRS. Off something else about to happen... who knows? (Or maybe it already happened and they think that the "conspiracy theorists" will wake up and keep busying saying "I told you so" to the point of blocking all other information on the internet? LOL)
