Area 51

Area 51 itself is an area the size of Switzerland within the United States complete with an airport, buildings and roads, but an area that until 1994 did not officially exist. The features referred to above did not appear on any map, nor could the traveller check it out for themselves as trespassers have been known to have been handcuffed, put in leg-irons and fined thousands of US dollars. Even the 'welcome' sign (above), some 13 miles from the actual base, warns trespassers that the use of "deadly force is authorised." Situated 80 miles outside Las Vegas, Area 51 is part of the Nellis Air Force Base. It was set up in 1954 by President Truman as a top secret location installation for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to develop spyplanes for the CIA and test other new generation post war aircraft. The base has a 26-mile exclusion zone around it.

The area has become synonymous with the alien phenomena, even appearing in the 1996 film Independence Day. In 1996 the Pentagon released an official statement in an attempt to quieten down speculation about the area: "There are a variety of activities some of which are classified throughout what is often called the Airforce's Dulles Range Complex. The range is used for the testing of technologies and systems and training for operations critical to the effectiveness of US military forces and security of the United States. There is an operating location near Groom Dry Lake. Some specific activities and operations conducted on the Dulles range both past and present remain classified and cannot be discussed (15)." But others wanted them to be discussed.

Russian satellite pictures of the area show only a few buildings, yet over twelve planeloads of workers arrive and leave there everyday from nearby McCarran Air Force Base, Las Vegas. There is simply no where above the ground to house these hundreds of workers; suggesting that much of the activity at Groom Lake takes place underground. Secrecy surrounding military establishments is only to be expected, but what makes Area 51 so famous, is the nature of the secret. For according to scientist Lazar (above), who worked there in the late 1980s, Area 51 is home to nine alien spacecraft and the bodies of dead which are maintained in the tanks pictured at the back of this still from a security video.

Lazar was a contract scientist who worked at the base for five months from December 1988. In May 1989 he went on US network television and alleged that the US government was investigating nine flying disks and was trying to back-engineer alien technology. It could be argued that the facility is not particularly secret when photographs can easily be taken of it, however the US Government has acquired all of the surrounding land and there is now no unrestricted view of the facility. Within days Lazar making his allegations, attempts were made on his life that he survived even though the allegations were made 'undercover'.

Not surprisingly all manner of claims and counterclaims have been made about Lazar and the credibility and authenticity of his allegations. Some claim that Lazar was recruited, made witness to UFO technology, allowed to release information, and then become subject of an official denial with most of his background erased from history (and certainly the part about his ever having worked on the base.) Unfortunately for the US authorities, they overlooked the fact that Lazar's employer - the US Department of Naval Intelligence - was detailed on his payslips indicating that he did work at the base as claimed (16).

Lazar's original allegations were made 'under-cover' however the attempts on his life persuaded him to reveal his true identity, believing that if the death threats were a government ploy, it would be unlikely that they would attempt to kill him again once his identity was in the public domain. Indeed he didn't die, but lost his second wife and was arrested in April 1990 for his business involvement in a Las Angeles brothel. Despite his somewhat dubious background and credentials there is, in fact, substantial evidence to support his allegations (17).

In 1994 a witness came forward who had worked with Otto Krause, another German scientist who had entered the US under Operation Paperclip and who was based at the nuclear test site in Nevada during 1961 and 1964. This witness stated "We got talking one night at a card game and I was telling Otto about growing up in Farmington and seeing those UFOs when I was a kid ... and he laughed and said 'Yeah', that he was at White Sands at that time. He had been assigned down there. Otto said that one had crashed in Roswell and one had crashed at Aztec. He said they were both brought to White Sands and put in a hanger there ... The aliens he never saw. He talked to people that had seen the bodies and evidently one [from the Roswell Incident] supposedly lived, and they took him to Area 51 (18)." Mike Hunt, who worked for the former Atomic Energy Commission (with whom Fred Crisman of Maury Island fame was offered employment), and held 'Q' clearance and an inter-agency top secret clearance, stated that he had observed a disc shaped UFO on the ground in Area 51 during the 1960s (19).