Sept. 18 — For more than four decades, an unusual alliance of mainstream lawyers, conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts has tried to find out just what is going on at Groom Lake, Nev. — the top-security Air Force facility better known to fans of “The X-Files” as Area 51. Now they will have to wait at least another year after President Bush reissued an executive order Wednesday barring the disclosure of any information about the site.
IN THE CONTINUATION of a drama played out every Sept. 18 since 1995, Bush signed the order to make sure that lawyers pursuing hazardous-waste claims against the Environmental Protection Agency could not get their hands on classified information about the site, which lies in the middle of a remote stretch of desert 100 miles north of Las Vegas.
The government did not even acknowledge the existence of the site until the mid-1990s, when it had to begin responding to workers’ claims of injuries resulting from hazardous waste practices.
Even now, all the Air Force will say is that the area is used “for the testing of technologies and systems training for operations critical to the effectiveness of U.S. military forces and the security of the United States.” It insists that “specific activities and operations ... both past and present, remain classified and cannot be discussed.”
Although exasperated government lawyers say nothing nefarious is going on at Groom Lake, they have gone to herculean lengths to make sure no one knows what is going on at Groom Lake.
President Dwight Eisenhower began the process all the way back in 1955, when he issued an executive order restricting airspace over the site. Then, in 1995, President Bill Clinton raised the stakes by issuing an order clamping down on discussion or release of any information whatsoever.
That was about the time attorneys for former government workers began taking their rejected medical claims to court. Those lawyers believe the government is trying to keep the site secret to avoid having to admit it mishandled hazardous materials, exposing the workers to toxic fumes when it allegedly dumped poisonous resins into open pits and burned them in the 1970s and ’80s.
THE ULTIMATE COVER-UP?
There is another group, however, that thinks something else entirely is going on at Groom Lake — something spooky, something otherworldly.
Joo wan learn more, mang?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/809766.asp
IN THE CONTINUATION of a drama played out every Sept. 18 since 1995, Bush signed the order to make sure that lawyers pursuing hazardous-waste claims against the Environmental Protection Agency could not get their hands on classified information about the site, which lies in the middle of a remote stretch of desert 100 miles north of Las Vegas.
The government did not even acknowledge the existence of the site until the mid-1990s, when it had to begin responding to workers’ claims of injuries resulting from hazardous waste practices.
Even now, all the Air Force will say is that the area is used “for the testing of technologies and systems training for operations critical to the effectiveness of U.S. military forces and the security of the United States.” It insists that “specific activities and operations ... both past and present, remain classified and cannot be discussed.”
Although exasperated government lawyers say nothing nefarious is going on at Groom Lake, they have gone to herculean lengths to make sure no one knows what is going on at Groom Lake.
President Dwight Eisenhower began the process all the way back in 1955, when he issued an executive order restricting airspace over the site. Then, in 1995, President Bill Clinton raised the stakes by issuing an order clamping down on discussion or release of any information whatsoever.
That was about the time attorneys for former government workers began taking their rejected medical claims to court. Those lawyers believe the government is trying to keep the site secret to avoid having to admit it mishandled hazardous materials, exposing the workers to toxic fumes when it allegedly dumped poisonous resins into open pits and burned them in the 1970s and ’80s.
THE ULTIMATE COVER-UP?
There is another group, however, that thinks something else entirely is going on at Groom Lake — something spooky, something otherworldly.
Joo wan learn more, mang?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/809766.asp
hboy: