National Security

George Washington University's National Security Archive obtained a CIA history of the U-2 spy plane, a high-altitude surveillance aircraft, through a freedom of information request, and released it Thursday.

National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson says he requested the information back in 2005 and received a version a few weeks ago.

According to the Archive’s website, the new information “is notable for the significant amount of newly declassified material with respect to the U-2 (spy plane project),” which provides the names of pilots, codenames and cryptonyms, as well as a map of the secret site where the jet was tested in the 1950s.

  RT

And that area, ladies and gentlemen? You guessed it: Area 51.

"It marks an end of official secrecy about the facts of Area 51," he told The Las Vegas Sun. "It opens up the possibility that future accounts of this and other aerial projects will be less redacted, more fully explained in terms of their presence in Area 51."

Well, that may be an overstatement.

But maybe a start. Attorney Jonathan Turley represented a group of people who had claims of damage from exposure to toxic materials on the base some years ago, and he couldn’t get anywhere with it, because the government would not even admit that the base existed, and he could not get any records – national security, you know.

One interesting item from the lawsuit that has since caused a big stir in Area 51 circles is the submission of an unclassified security manual into evidence. Turley argued that the manual not only proved the base existed, it also proved the government was aware of the dangers of handling hazardous waste and acted with negligence toward the employees at Area 51.

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The government retroactively classified the security manual, and Judge Philip Pro didn't allow it as evidence. You can still find the manual on the Internet. Some claim the manual to be a fake, though if this is the case it raises a question -- why would the government declare a fake document to be classified information?

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Today, Area 51 allows the EPA to inspect the facility to ensure it meets environmental requirements. However, all reports are classified and can't be published.

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President Clinton signed an Executive Order exempting Area 51 from environmental regulation in September, 1995. This order is the most formal acknowledgement of the existence of Area 51 by the government. The order referred to Area 51 as "the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada." Judge Pro eventually dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that investigation into the claims constituted a breach of national security. Turley argued that this set a dangerous precedent in that the government could now hide crimes through the excuse of national security. The policy relieves the government of accountability to the people it represents. Further litigation may follow, particularly now that a similar unclassified safety manual has been pulled from a Web site for Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

I wonder if Mr. Turley will get involved again.

And, by the way, that U-2 spy plane history has not been classified all these years so much to protect national security as to keep from publicly embarrassing Dwight Eisenhower - or in this case, the office of the presidency, since Dwight is probably well beyond public embarrassment.