The internet has always succeeded in keeping us abreast of latest happenings around the world and that was the case of a Facebook event entitled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” that went viral. Even Twitter and Reddit went agog with the trend.
The Facebook event proposes that people should come out on September 20th to stage a joint invasion of the military base and finally “see them, aliens.” This to an extent may sound funny and a sort of joke but the way Americans have reacted shows that there is more than meets the eye about Area 51.
The apt question at this point is, what is Area 51?
As much as you may wish it to be a fairy tale, the interesting thing is that Area 51 actually exists and not just recently. For decades, the U.S. has been running a military installation that is located approximately 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Las Vegas.
People knew but nobody dared approach the site. It actually had been one of the worst-kept secrets on the planet.
Area 51, as it’s commonly known to UFO conspiracy theorists and aviation buffs who have been able to piece together the details of classified military spy plane prototypes, is a place whose existence the U.S. government long refused even to acknowledge.
The idea was initiated in the early 1950s and took off in 1955. It was, however, on August 2013, that the mystery over Area 51 finally started to come to light, even if it’s a bit.
Jeffrey T. Richelson, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based National Security Archive, a nonprofit think tank, obtained declassified documents about the development and use of the U-2 and OXCART surveillance aircraft in the 1950s and 1960s. The documents Jeffrey came up with gave insights on how Area 51 was singled out as a testing ground by the CIA, the U.S. Air Force, and defense contractor Lockheed because of its isolated location.
Why the Area 51 scenario should be frightening to you when you hear about it is that all along, the U.S. has been known as a liberal country, quite unlike what obtains in Russia, China, and possibly North Korea. If then such an operation could have gone on for decades without people knowing, how many Area 51s do we expect from Russia, China, and North Korea?
What do we expect to see in Iran and others like them? What could be the possible consequences to the world at large?
From the U.S. alone, this was what happened: In 1980, the government authorized a program to remove irradiated soil from around Groom Lake. This was confirmed by satellite photos showing crews who were removing massive amounts of dirt from the area.
Reports came from cities that surrounded Area 51 of increases in cancer rates. It got to the height were many sued the government though not all had favorable outcomes, claiming the tests caused them to get sick.
There was also this hazard report at Area 51 involving the disposal of classified technology and vehicles. In the 1980s, crews at Area 51 dug large, open pits and dumped toxic materials into them. They burned the materials using jet fuel and suffered exposure to chemicals and fumes.
According to a lawsuit filed against several government officials, the workers requested safety equipment such as breathing masks but were denied due to budgetary concerns despite the wealth of the U.S. They were not even allowed to bring their own equipment apart from some measly gloves, all in the name of security.
As evidence of how security conscious the U.S. government was about Area 51, an unclassified security manual was brought into evidence to prove that the government was aware of the dangers of handling hazardous waste and acted with negligence toward the employees at Area 51. The government, however, retroactively classified the security manual, and Judge Philip Pro didn’t allow it as evidence.
President Bill Clinton signed an executive order on September 1995 exempting Area 51 from the disclosure of the results of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigations of the site. The policy relieved the government of accountability to the people it represents.
There is this charade of allowing EPA to inspect Area 51 to ensure it meets environmental hazards requirements. What is the essence of such if at the end of it all the reports are classified and can’t be published?
Clinton’s executive order has ensured this. Any new U.S. president is expected to renew the order every year, and this still obtains as of 2013.
The whole point about this exposure is not to arbitrarily condemn the U.S. government. It’s just an eye-opener for you. Everybody is interested in Area 51, but what for?
The U.S. is assumed to play the police role in the world. How do you think this will be done effectively with this sort of record?
If such can be obtained in the U.S. with all the freedom people have to express themselves, what do you expect from countries where the degree of censorship is to the high heavens? Are we not virtually in the case of “every man for himself and God for all?”
This is an interesting read! Thank you for linking to Effective Inbound Marketing.
Thank you for finding time to read it.
Good article and right to the point. I don’t know if this is really the best place to ask but do you folks have any thoughts on where to employ some professional writers? Thanks in advance 🙂
Thank you, Alisha, for believing in us. We try to say it the way it should be. We have not started thinking about that for now but we intend to go for writers later.