CIA acknowledges its mysterious Area 51 test site for first time

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

National security scholars at George Washington University have some good news and bad news for UFO buffs - the U.S. government has finally confirmed the existence of Area 51 in Nevada, but it makes no mention of little green men or alien spaceships.

The government acknowledged the existence of the mysterious aviation test site known as Area 51, a remote installation about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in a newly declassified CIA history of its U-2 spy plane program.

After decades of extreme secrecy surrounding the site, stoking conspiracy theories about UFOs and experiments on alien spacecraft, the CIA lifted its veil on Area 51 in response to a public records request from George Washington University scholars in Washington, D.C.

Publicly released online on Thursday by the university's National Security Archive, the 400-page CIA history contains the first deliberate official references to Area 51, also known as Groom Lake, as a site developed by the intelligence agency in the 1950s to test fly the high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance plane.

<snip>

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/17/us-usa-area51-cia-idINBRE97G01120130817

[Iliyah]

1. YES, for information, please!

[bananas]

2. Government officially acknowledges existence of Area 51, but not the UFOs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/government-officially-acknowledges-existence-of-area-51-but-not-the-ufos/2013/08/16/ca4feaec-06be-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html

Government officially acknowledges existence of Area 51, but not the UFOs

By Richard Leiby, Friday, August 16, 4:48 PM

<snip>

For reasons unknown, the government finally has admitted that Area 51 — the Shangri-La of alien hunters and a sturdy trope of ­science-fiction movies — is a real place in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

<snip>

The military, which runs the base, always denied that Area 51 was called by its famous moniker, preferring a designation connected to the Groom Lake salt flat, a landing strip for the U-2 and other stealth aircraft.

“Your honor, there is no name,” an Air Force attorney told a federal judge in 1995. “There is no name for the operating location near Groom Lake.”

The hearing was part of an environmental poisoning case brought by Area 51 workers who said that they had been sickened by exposure to toxic chemicals — including anti-radar coatings and other classified materials — burned in open pits on the base.

<snip>

[NYC_SKP]

3. I hope that they might reopen the open-pit burning case or at least treat those affected.

That was a disappointment.

[bananas]

4. CIA finally acknowledges Area 51's existence

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57598965/cia-finally-acknowledges-area-51s-existence/

August 16, 2013 7:15 PM

CIA finally acknowledges Area 51's existence

(CBS News) The CIA does not give up secrets easily, but it gave up a big one this week.

The spy agency acknowledged there IS an Area 51 in the Nevada desert. It did not say whether the test site houses space aliens or flying saucers -- that decades-old debate will continue. No president since the Cold War would confirm Area 51's existence. It took repeated requests from George Washington University to get the CIA to do it.

<snip>

"I'm not holding my breath waiting for my invite to go to a media tour," said Bill Sweetman of Aviation Week. He has spent much of his career spying on Area 51 to find out what new aircraft -- like the F-117, the world's first stealth fighter -- were being tested there.

Back in 1985, when CBS News hired a small plane to go looking for the F-117, an Air Force jet suddenly came up to chase us away. But that was nearly 30 years ago.

"I'd be really interested to know what they were spending billions of dollars on at that base for the last 30 years," said Sweetman.

<snip>

[YOHABLO]

5. Information that it exists? We knew that .. no news here.

[Marie Marie]

6. They wanted to tell us more but

the Aliens won't let them.

[Scootaloo]

7. They're not aliens, they're EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL BEINGS!

[freshwest]

11. Oh, hell yeah! Them and the Reptilian Shapeshifters rule us all! QE2 is a Dragon!

Last edited Sat Aug 17, 2013, 12:36 AM - Edit history (1)

[Scootaloo]

16. "Shaftshifters"?

[freshwest]

17. Oops! Didn't spellcheck! Thanks, Takei! *steals*

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. ...

[Rozlee]

19. Ah, Art Bell.

Pickled aliens in vats at Area 51 and always a new conspiracy theory or spooky goings-on. I had a night charge nurse that would have our radio tuned into him and she and one of the interns would listen to him and believe all his shit. People with masters degrees and an MD, for gawd's sake!

[Quantess]

21. Are you sure they didn't just listen to Art Bell because his show is entertaining?

A listener can find the program interesting without believing it...

[Rozlee]

41. Not our charge nurse.

She used to pay a mint to have past life regressions done and had folders of her past lives. I know a great deal of the world believes in reincarnation, but hypnosis is notorious for causing memory confusion and subconscious confabulation that can lead to False Memory Syndrome. I find stories about Big Foot hunting and stuff like that interesting, but I worried about a woman that attributed all her illnesses and problems in this life to payback for something she'd done in a previous one.

[Quantess]

46. One thing about people's "past lives" I have noticed...

How come they were never a peasant in a past life? People always claim to be powerful historical figures in a previous life.
People like to imagine they were one of the pharaohs, but nobody ever says they were one of the slaves who helped build the pyramids.
People fancy themselves to be the young Tsarina Anastasia from the Russian revolution, but for some reason nobody ever claims to be one of the servants.

[Rozlee]

48. Well, our charge nurse did say she was a humble lady-in-waiting

to Anne Boleyn. And she had to escape from court because she caught Henry's eye after Anne's execution. But, historical scholars always scoff at those kind of stories because when those under hypnosis are asked what kind of food they ate or utensils they used, they come up with stuff that wasn't even known in the Old World back then like potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts and the use of certain utensils like forks. Hypnosis is too suggestive and opens the door to confabulation. That's why kids accuse their parents of having been satanists and made human sacrifices in their living rooms.

[Scootaloo]

22. Well, there's a difference between "BELIEVE-believe" and "believe for fun."

I don't believe in little grey men tipping cows and abducting Christopher Walken for dance parties...

Doesn't mean there haven't been occasions where I suspend disbelief to enjoy Coast to Coast AM or something.

[freshwest]

27. Wasn't that scary? But he called back and confessed that was fake, months later:

Art Bell pushed the Y2K panic. I knew formerly sane people who went around the bend over it. This is a good read, and details what was going on then. The connection with RWRs and RWNJs has deeper roots than some think:

http://www.sweetliberty.org/garynorth.htm

Alex Jones pushed the panic of Y2K as well. Save yourself the mind rotting stuff, go to the 9:00 mark. A speaker talks against him, then Jones pushes panic on the last day of the year, 1999 with false stories:

About extra dimensional entities. David Icke started a lot of it in the early nineties. He says are not bound by time and space. They are spirits without bodies and are influencing all of our minds. Just like some old religious stuff, angels and demons.

Worried about NSA? Meh, small potatoes. These guys have had us under their control forever!!!111!!!



We've been in a meltdown from the media for about a generation now. Who needs Hollywood?

Damn, I hope they're wrong about this. Kinda. It would sure be different, if true.

:rofl;

[Scootaloo]

29. I know all of this, quite well

I spent 1999 - 2011 hanging out on a wild heap of crazy known as "Above Top Secret" (I finally got banned for talking shit about ROn Paul during the GOP Primaries). So... Yeah, I've heard it all. and much, much much more besides.

The frantic caller did end up in a nicely eerie Tool piece, "Faap de Oiad" though.

[freshwest]

12. Of course not! And all the Presidents are Aliens, too. Had you heard? I have details. OTOH,

the only reason the CIA would tell the media is that they've got their plans all settled.

I read an excellent piece of woo of how the wars in the Middle East aren't about oil, they're about aliens fighting for who is going to rule Earth!



Right now, the ETs are engaging in galactic warfare! One wrong step and they may vaporize the whole planet!



It's all about us! I feel so very special to be living in this time now. Sorta...

[Marie Marie]

13. Those ET's better hope they don't run into that kitty in your picture above.

He'll put a stop to their nonsense - fast! Kitty's don't play that...

[freshwest]

18. No, he doesn't! And he has friends!

Hope everything's good in your world. Thanks for the laugh.

[jtuck004]

8. So I wonder what new secret location they moved all the spaceship junk

and aliens in their stasis pods to?

Just kept it quiet for a few years, now big revelation. All a big cover...

"See, nothing up our sleeves..."

[strg8]

9. plant 42

[DeSwiss]

10. K&R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. I can see the CIA saying it's perfect to let the rumors fly....

Then the USA can scare the crap out of some third world despot by letting him believe we can zap him with a ray gun.

[Peace Patriot]

20. Well, that's no fun!

I wonder if they learned their lesson about the human mind and free people hating secrets, and thus picking at secrets, and digging into secrets, and becoming obsessed with secrets, as happened with "Area 51"--and that's why there were all kinds of leaks about drones and drone warfare, and now vast, VAST NSA spying. If they just do it out in the open--or let leaks/disclosures happen--they both enforce the lesson that "we the people" are helpless to prevent anything they're doing--war, torture, mindbloggling theft, ripping up the Constitution, rigging our elections--and "inoculate" us to their increasingly bold lawlessness.

I do get the feeling that there is a very sophisticated, very directed propaganda machine playing us like a piano. The creators of "The Matrix" probably had it right. "Men In Black" also comes to mind. The latter, because it's SO FUNNY (Gawd, I laughed! Still chuckle thinking of scenes in that movie), is probably the closest to the truth. There IS an alternative reality operating behind our S.W.A.T. team society, but it ain't after aliens; it's after medical marijuana dispensers (heh-heh)...cuz their poaching on Big Pharma's territory. And it's after Julian Assange and Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden for "going off the reservation" (leaking too much!). And it's after Guatemalans for wanting to pick our strawberries. Etc.

Or it could be after aliens. Wouldn't surprise me if they're spending billions and billions and billions of secret dollars on aliens of the E.T. kind. Doesn't matter if they exist or not. (--though they've sure spent a lot of our tax dollars on saying they don't).

HEY, I just hit on the new military/police-state boondoggle, for when Big Pharma/Big Ag/Big Chem finally comes forth with their Big Plan for legalization. They could say there are aliens, that aliens are real, that they're here and that they're disguised as black and brown people or whoever they decide to throw in the slammer. Ha! I was wondering what they were gonna do with all the cops and prison guards and court recorders and armaments and all the expensive folderol of the police state, when the Big Guys move in on formerly illicit herbal, recreational and/or addictive drugs. Lot of unemployed police type people. Aliens! Yes!

[penndragon69]

23. Of course they do..

because all the "Interesting Tech" has already been moved to another
Black Site.

All that's left are empty hangers and toxic burn pits.

[global1]

24. CIA Acknowleges Existence Of Area 51 Because They Moved Everything To Area 52......nt

[awoke_in_2003]

25. Yep...

when they retired the SR-71 the first thing I thought was that I would like to see what they have now.

[Lint Head]

26. Why now? Is it to change the conversation? Is it to communicate something like...

'Of course the federal government keeps secrets but it's for the good of the people. The NSA is secret. So what's everybody so worked up about?'

By the way. The U2 flew too high for the naked eye to see and identify as a UFO.

[darkangel218]

28. +1

Absolutely correct.

[burnodo]

32. Eh...probably declassified because they do nothing of importance there

anymore

[BadgerKid]

37. NSA mind trick...

Let's keep the folks distracted from "real" issues, e.g.,

[Lint Head]

40. +1000

[DeSwiss]

42. ''Always follow the money.'' - Deep Throat :-| n/t

[devils chaplain]

47. "We fly our drones in plain sight now, so why bother hiding?" n/t

[tofuandbeer]

30. I believe there's intelligent life outside of our planet (I hope so, after re-editing my post) :P

and also I believe the claim that spy planes were what was behind Area 51 for all those years...for the most part—I'm sure there is more to it, but I don't believe it was extraterrestrial related.

[blkmusclmachine]

31. But, what have they been up to the last 30-odd years there???

Perfecting their Drone program, Dick Cheney's "bunker," etc. ...

[dipsydoodle]

33. Was there ever any doubt it was there ?

+10 years ago a US youngster used to come to dance classes here in the UK. She lived at one time in the Mohave desert with her parents and her father had worked at that base. I asked what they did there and she said she's asked her dad the same question. He'd simply replied "you don't want to know - its America's future"

[darkangel218]

34. Damn..

What does that mean??

[d_r]

35. he was just talking about the u2 jets

[darkangel218]

36. I dont believe you.

[d_r]

38. me either

where do you think they got the technology for those u2 planes?

[Pterodactyl]

39. They're just revealing Area 51 to distract us from Hangar 18.

[Rex]

45. I thought it was 13.

I thought Hanger 18 only existed in the alternate dimension?

[cbayer]

43. I drove the Extraterrestrial Highway through the "Area" this summer.

What a trip. There's a small bar and "motel" in Rachel along the highway and pretty much nothing else. The people that chose to stop there and the people that live there are really trippy.

A horrible place to stay, but worth it just to hang around the bar for an evening.

[Rex]

44. Impossible!

I was given an ironclad guarantee that place did not exist! CT haters you all owe me a bowl of soup!

The Man is hoping this puts Hanger 13 on the back burners. My tinfoil hat is not fooled.