Read mode : (24509 +) REPORT ON GROOM LAKE ABC World News Tonight April 19, 1994 Peter Jennings: Finally from us this evening, the road to Dreamland. And there really is such a place, though you are not supposed to know about it, and the U.S. Air Force is unhappy with us because we're going to tell you about it. The Dreamland we are talking about is actually an Air Force base in Nevada. The Russians know about it, so why not you? ABC's Jimmy Walker has the results of an ABC News investigation.... Jimmy Walker: We are one hundred miles from Las Vegas driving across the Nevada desert on public land. There is more here than meets the eye. A few feet off the dirt road, an electronic sensor is hidden in the sagebrush. Glenn Campbell: [Radio static in background.] The base control has relayed to the patrols that someone has crossed one of their sensors. That's us. Walker: So they now know... Campbell: They know we're here. They'll be here in about ten minutes. Walker: Sure enough, minutes later, a white Jeep goes by. Someone is very interested in who visits this particular piece of scrub. That someone is the U.S. Air Force. A helicopter flies out to investigate us. It comes from Groom Lake, one of the most closely guarded military facilities in the country. The secret air base which some people call Dreamland or others Watertown or still others Area 51 is located about twelve miles over in that direction. It's clearly visible but the government won't acknowledge that it even exists. And to photograph it would violate the Espionage Act. Military historians say the U-2 spy plane was tested at Groom Lake. More recently, the Stealth fighter. But the base does not appear on any map, and for the record, the Pentagon will only say that Groom Lake is part of the vast Nellis Range complex. Enter Glenn Campbell and Peter Merlin, members of a group that believes the Air Force has too many secrets and not enough accountability. Armed with lawn chairs and binoculars, they set up shop on public land overlooking the air base. And they're driving the Air Force crazy. Peter Merlin: There's some large hangers. One is quite enormous. And a control tower.... Walker: As a result of the prying eyes, the Air Force is trying to expropriate this hilltop and an adjoining one to add to the 4700 square miles it already controls, saying it's needed for safety reasons. Campbell: There was the suggestion that people sitting on this - ridge like we are doing might be hit by aircraft. Walker: The pending land grab has turned the hilltops into a tourist attraction, drawing even more attention to the base. Last month at a federal hearing in Las Vegas, officials got an earful. Angry Citizen at Hearing: The place is big enough already. How much expansion do they need? That place is safe. It's stupid. Another Citizen at Hearing: There have already been allegations that environmental crimes have been committed there. Now you're asking for 4000 more acres to hide behind. Walker: What's more, buy this model plane kit [Testor's "Thunder Dart"] and you get with it [on the] directions this 1988 photograph of the base taken by a Soviet satellite. The pentagon says it's okay to show you this picture. Campbell: The only people this base is being kept secret from are the American people, the people who pay for it. - Walker: Our story took an unexpected turn as we prepared to leave. We spotted a Sheriff's car heading our way. Deputy (at driver's window): We're investigating the possibility of a criminal offense. Walker: And what would that criminal offense be? Deputy: Sir, may I see your driver's license, please. Walker: They believed we were photographing the facility. They were wrong. We were detained, questioned and searched. Our camera, audio equipment and some video tapes were confiscated. The Air Force held the gear for five days before returning it. No charges were filed against us. And every work day, a fleet of privately owned unmarked airliners shuttle more than 1500 workers from Las Vegas to the base that doesn't exist. Campbell (looking through binoculars): Yup, secret base out there. Sure enough. Same secret base as yesterday. Walker: J ames Walker, ABC News, Lincoln County, Nevada. ##### --- GIGO+ sn 37 at nisc vsn 0.99w32 --- DLG Pro v1.0/PDQMail v2.53 * Origin: RealPix-THE Real Estate MLS BBS! 702-566-6840 (1:209/245) ----- THROW THE BUMS OUT ----- Speeches by Nevada "home-rule" activists greatly enlivened the Jan. 31 hearing. Seeing this land fight as a test case for their - new ideas, several speakers drove hundreds of miles from other parts of Nevada to be in attendance. When a leader of the movement, Dick Carver, finally had his chance to speak, he announced that five minutes were not enough, and that he would go on as long as necessary. When the five-minute tone was sounded, the BLM moderator tried to interrupt but was rebuked by the audience, who unanimously demanded that Carver be allowed to continue. Carver thus walked away with about 15 minutes of air time and gave everyone in the audience the warm satisfaction of having beaten BLM into submission at least on that issue. Readers who live outside the western U.S. may have never even heard of BLM, never mind grasping the boundless animosity it often enjoys among locals. The vast majority of land in Lincoln County is "public," that is, owned equally by all U.S. citizens, and is currently managed as a public trust by the federal government. A significant portion of the economic activities in the county have to go through the BLM. It leases grazing and mineral rights and enforces many despised environmental regulations, thus placing it in the role of evil landlord who everyone loves to hate. Local sentiments are elegantly expressed - by one resident's well-trained dog who stays, sits and lies down on command. The dog will also "kill" on command, but only on special key word. Give him a old shoe, say "BLM," and it's rendered to shreds instantly. The position of the revolutionaries is that the federal government has no right to manage public lands within the state --- GIGO+ sn 37 at nisc vsn 0.98w32 wFrom: psychospy@aol.com and that it does so only by default. The activists cite statutes dating back to Nevada's founding which they contend give the state the sole authority to manage public lands. BLM, they say, has no real delegated authority to do anything, and they are trying to prove this by a series of Freedom of Information requests. Whenever an interesting legal case comes up in which BLM is the enforcer, they demand that BLM turn over documents to prove that they indeed have that authority. According to the activists, BLM is inherently unable to supply those documents and thus can be forced to back down from whatever action they were attempting. We are pleased that the rebels have adopted the Groom land grab as a cause celebre. Without them, there might have been only half as many people at the Caliente hearing. At the same time, we are a little confused on what the end result of this rebellion is supposed to be, and we are mildly skeptical about whether it can succeed. The current anti-BLM movement reminds us of a number of radical females we have known who would just as soon eliminate the male gender altogether. On the surface, we can understand the sentiments. Males must account for 85% of the violent acts in this country and easily 99% of the female grief and pain. They're aggressive, suppressive, insensitive and demand too much. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. WHO NEEDS THEM ANYWAY? "Just say No," is the best solution. If you excise them definitively from your life then all your problems will be solved. Okay, so maybe that's a bad example. The point is, although such dramatic plans to "Throw the Bums Out" may seem solid in theory, they usually get tripped up somewhere in the implementation. We march into the battle with high idealistic hopes but a few years later usually find ourselves living with the bums anyway. Given this typical outcome, one wonders if it would be more productive to take a less combative approach that might be more likely to succeed in the long term. Instead of expending all our resources in an attempt to totally annihilate the enemy, we could take the time to understand him, learn his fears and vulnerabilities and the kind of leverage we have over him, then take him by the balls and turn him into our slave. No, wait, never mind. BAD example. ----- LAS VEGAS HEARING DATE SET ----- The Las Vegas hearing on the Groom land grab has been officially set for Weds., March 2, 1994 from 5-7 pm at the Cashman Field - House, rooms 203-204. (Cashman Field House is a stadium complex on Las Vegas Blvd. just north of Downtown.) This is the BIG ONE. (Caliente was only 4.0.) Everyone's invited! More info will be provided in Desert Rat #3, which will be issued at least a couple of weeks before then. ----- TRESPASSERS' TRIAL DELAYED ----- In Desert Rat #1, we reported the case of the seven Las Vegans who stumbled across the military border while visiting the Tikaboo Valley. Due to their lawyer's schedule conflicts, their trial, originally scheduled for Mar. 2, has been delayed to a later date. (We'll publish the date when we know it.) The location will be Alamo Justice Court in the County Annex Building in Alamo, 90 miles north of Las Vegas. Come one, come all! The change of date is providential because it means that the trial will not compete with the Las Vegas hearing. ----- AN AMBASSADORIAL VISIT ----- - On Jan. 28 at our psychospy headquarters in Rachel, we were pleased to receive a surprise visit from the Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II from the planet Draconis. He had taken human form, resembling to us a bearded Abe Lincoln or Amish farmer, and was driving a 10-year-old brown Monte Carlo. When he first appeared at our door, he was holding a small black book in front of him in both hands. In an impulsive attempt at humor, we blurted out, "Oh, a Bible salesman!" He smiled at that and showed us that it was only a notebook. The bible, it seems, was out in the car. Later, he went to fetch it and read to us some lengthy passages. Three aviation watchers from the Bay Area happened to be visiting our headquarters at the time, and we were all quite fascinated with the Ambassador. He was a "Being of Light," he said, although we touched him and found him to be quite solid. He was on a mission to promote the coming "Golden Age," when the aliens would be integrated into our society and we humans would evolve into a higher form. This transformation, he said, would take place within the next five years. - The Ambassador did not always know that he was a Draconian. He had thought he was an ordinary human for most of his time on earth until he began to experience some revelations in 1986. Even now, he has no direct memories of Draconis, although he is >> Message length exceeded, split by WILDMAIL! v3.11 << >> Continued in next message << certain that that is his origin. He said that another part of him was on Draconis even as he was speaking to us. He suspected that he was also simultaneously a Venusian and that part of his being was currently at home on Venus. He was proud of his role as Ambassador to Earth and was especially pleased to be officially recognized in that capacity by the State of Nevada. He gave us a xeroxed letter to prove his status. It was on official state letterhead from the Secretary of State in Carson City. The letter was dated March 31, 1993, and was signed by the secretary herself. It read: Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II The Embassy of Christ Dear Mr. Ambassador: Thank you for your invitation; however, I will not be able to be in California. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Cheryl A. Lau We wish the Ambassador the best of luck in his mission and urge the Federal government to accord him similar recognition. ----- RECENT ARTICLES ----- Following are recent articles on Groom Lake in the major media. Each article is available from psycho spy for 25c each (to cover copying and postage). -P 5/93: On-Site Inspection Agency: Fact Sheet on Open Skies Treaty [which allows foreign overflights of Groom Lake]. 9/93: Intl. Defense Review: "Groom Lake's secret revealed?" [Mothership theories, by Sweetman.] 10/19/93: L.V. Review-Journal: "State to examine Stealth base for toxic fumes." [Hazardous waste dump at Groom base.] 10/17/93: Salt Lake Tribune: "No peeking from peak: Air force wants to seize mountain to protect secret base." 10/18/93: Federal Register "Notice of proposed withdrawal and opportunity for public meeting." 10/21/93, Aerospace Daily: "Air Force tries to plug 37-year-old leak with Groom Lake Land Grab." 10/23/93, L.V. Review-Journal: "Air Force promises openness" [in open-pit burning case]. 10/23/93, Scripps Howard Service: "Mountain 'spying' upsets AF at secret Nevada base." 10/25/93, Defense Week: "Air Force land grab eclipses view of 'UFOs'." 10/29/93, Inside the Air Force: "USAF seeks to keep unwanted eyes from watching secret Nevada base." -Pause 11/1/83, Newsweek: "The Mystery at Groom Lake." 11/1/93, Testor Corp.: Announcement to dealers of June 94 release of Lazar saucer model. 11/1/93, Aviation Week: "No more peeks." [one paragraph] 11/5/93, CBS affiliates: Report on Testors Aurora & Mothership models. [transcript] 12/93, Intercepts Newsletter: "Dispatches from the front." [Road sensors found on public land] 11/6/93, L.V. Review-Journal: "State seeks evidence of burn pits" [at Groom base]. 12/5/93, L.V. Review-Journal: "'Spy' turns focus on buffer area." [Campbell] 12/5/93, L.V. Review-Journal: "Budget for hypersonic spy plane rivals Nevada Test Site." 12/7/93: L.V. Review-Journal: Editorial cartoon. [Prospector chased by security goons.] 12/27/93, High Country News: "How military secrecy zones out Nevada." [Oct. camp-out] 11/11/93, CBS Evening News: Report on Testors Aurora model and Groom Lake. [transcript] 12/28/93, Wall Street Journal: "'Earthlings Welcome' in tiny NV town where mysterious aircraft often fly overhead." 1/2/94, Washington Post: "The Pentagon's Secret Garden." [by Sweetman] 1/3/94, Aviation Week: Letter by John Andrews protesting land grab. 1/5/94, L.V. Review-Journal: "Seven people arrested in Groom Lake incident." [Trespassers] 1/29/94, L.V. Review-Journal: Editorial re: Lazar and Knapp [dismissive]. 1/30/94, L.V. Review-Journal: "Air Force buffer zone for Groom Lake base to be discussed." [Hearings] 2/94: Wired Magazine: "A Visit to Dreamland." [2-page photo of Groom base] ----- "PARANOID NEWS" LAUNCHED ----- Pleased with the instant success of The Groom Lake Desert Rat, psychospy has launched yet another free on-line newsletter--this one on an unrelated subject. THE PARANOID NEWS will explore psychospy's favorite mental disorder, paranoia, and show how it effects the thoughts and behavior of all of us. ----- "PARANOID NEWS" LAUNCHED ----- Pleased with the instant success of The Groom Lake Desert Rat, psychospy has launched yet another free on-line newsletter--this one on an unrelated subject. THE PARANOID NEWS will explore psychospy's favorite mental disorder, paranoia, and show how it effects the thoughts and behavior of all of us. -Pause- [C]ontinue, [N]onStop, [S]top? [ Paranoia is a fascinating mechanism by which a person tends to bring about the very thing he most fears. If he is terrified enough of failure, then he will often create it for himself by his own hand. Paranoia is more pervasive than we might suppose, and there is not one of us who isn't touched. Paranoia effects our every decision, especially our most important ones, so don't read this newsletter unless you are prepared to question your past choices or the wisdom of your current circumstances. This is not a pretty newsletter. There are a lot of icky things inside our minds, and THE PARANOID NEWS will delight in exposing them. Issue #1 will be available within the next few days. Email subscriptions are free of charge to internet users. Send your request to psychospy@aol.com. Hard copy subscriptions are available for $1.50 per issue, mailed anywhere in the world. ----- SUBSCRIPTION AND COPYWRITE INFO ----- (c) Glenn Campbell, 1994. (psychospy@aol.com) The entire contents of this on-line newsletter are copyrighted --- GIGO+ sn 37 at nisc vsn 0.98w32 From: psychospy@aol.com and may not be reproduced in any form without permission, EXCEPT FOR THE FOLLOWING: For six months following the date of publication, you may photocopy this text or send this document electronically to anyone who you think might be interested, provided you do it without charge. You may only copy or send this document in unaltered form and in its entirety, not as partial excerpts. After six months, no further reproduction of this document is allowed without permission. This newsletter is published on an irregular basis whenever conditions warrant. Email subscriptions are currently available free of charge to any internet user. To subscribe (or -P unsubscribe) to current and future editions of THE GROOM LAKE DESERT RAT, send a message to psychospy@aol.com. We will acknowledge your request within a few days; if you receive no reply it may indicate an addressing problem. In that case, call the human at 702-729-2648. Hard copy subscriptions to this >> Message length exceeded, split by WILDMAIL! v3.11 << >> Continued in next message << Read mode : (24511 +) >> Message length exceeded, split by WILDMAIL! v3.11 << >> Continued from previous message << newsletter are available for $1.50 per issue, ordered from the address below. (e.g. $15 for the next 10 issues, mailed anywhere in the world.) For a free catalog of documents and products relating to Groom Lake and government secrecy, send us your US mail address. An email version of the catalog is also available (no pictures, size 13K). Among the documents available is the "Area 51 Viewer's Guide," the definitive 110-page visitors and reference guide to the border and its lore. (Available for $15 plus $3.50 postage.) Also available is the popular Groom Lake cloth patch. ($8, plus $1 postage if ordered separately.) The US mail address for psychospy, Glenn Campbell, Secrecy Oversight Council, Area 51 Research Center, Groom Lake Desert Rat and countless other ephemeral entities is: HCR Box 38 Rachel, NV 89001 USA ##### --- GIGO+ sn 37 at nisc vsn 0.98w32 From: psychospy@aol.com --- DLG Pro v1.0/PDQMail v2.53 * Origin: RealPix-THE Real Estate MLS BBS! 702-566-6840 (1:209/245) Read mode : (24512 +) [Supplement to the Groom Lake Desert Rat] Title: GROOM LAKE TOXIC BURNING ALLEGED Subtitle: A former worker at the secret Air Force base says poisonous substances were routinely ignited. Las Vegas Review-Journal, Mar. 20, 1994, Page 1B. Illustration: Photo of "The B-2 Stealth bomber, one of the planes tested at the Groom Lake base." Map of buildings at the Groom Lake base, titled "Groomed for secrecy," with the following labeled: "Lockheed hangers," "burn pits," "Scoot-N-Hide shed," "Red Hat hangers," "Satellite dishes" and "Sam's Place bar and recreational complex." By Keith Rogers, Review-Journal Trucks hauling poisonous waste from California routinely arrived at the Air Force's secret Groom Lake base on Mondays and Wednesdays, said a former base worker who was employed there during the 1980s. There were always two Kenworth rigs, he said. They towed trailers with sealed cargo bays sometimes filled with 55-gallon drums of resins, solvents and hardening compounds--stuff he said Lockheed Corp. used to coat its radar-evading Stealth aircraft. At the base, 35 miles west of Alamo in Lincoln County, the trucks would roll past the dormitory complex where as many as 2,000 full- time residents lived, then down a road that parallels a taxiway that leads to Lockheed's hangers at the south end of the base. There, just west of the road and at the foot of Papoose Mountain, the trucks would back up to one of the 300-foot-long trenches. Workers would then roll the barrels into these pits where the drums and their classified contents would be doused with jet fuel and ignited. Like every activity at the base, the Air Force and the phantom trucking company, known only a NDB, operated with great latitude under the veil of secrecy, often in defiance of state and environmental laws at the time. -Pa The waste shipments were never accompanied with manifests, which are required by law in Nevada and California. And the trail of paperwork to the base, once known as Area 51, was covered by code words. Any reference to the base during the Stealth project was nonexistent in government correspondences, other than the name "Score Event," said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, but who provided a base manual, map and aerial photograph of the base that was taken in the mid-1980s by a government contractor. "They could have hauled in untold amounts of things," he said. "They would bring the stuff up from California at first twice a week, then once a week," he said. His story about waste disposal practices at the Groom Lake base confirms what other workers and former workers have said about the burn pits and the acrid fumes that wafted over the hangers and dormitories where people lived and worked. Nevada environmental officials are probing whether the burning was proper and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley is preparing legal action against the Air Force, accusing it of environmental crimes. Turley has said his growing list of clients includes people who were injured by the Air Force's actions. Nevada's only environmental official with a clearance to enter the base, Air Quality Bureau Chief Thomas Fronapfel, has visited the base twice since allegations about open-pit burning were made last year. He said he has "looked at most of the information" about waste burning practices at the base and has found that classified materials were burned, but they were mostly papers. Fronapfel and his boss, Environmental Protection Division Administrator Lew Dodgion are still trying to determine how they will report their findings and what action, if any, they will take. Dodgion has said, though, that the amount of information that state has compiled about waste disposal practices at the base is small compared to what his staff has not reviewed. Neither the Air Force, Lockheed nor NDB are licensed waste haulers in Nevada, according to the state's Motor Carrier Division in Carson City. NDB is not listed as a trucking firm in Nevada, California or in the National Directory of Addresses and Telephone Numbers. Allen Hirash, a spokesman for the California Department of Toxic Substance Control, said, however, that Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co., in Burbank, Calif., was a registered hazardous waste hauler from 1982 to 1991. Likewise, several Air Force bases in California once were registered to haul hazardous waste but the registrations have expired, the latest being the one for Beale Air Force Base. Its registration expired Jan. 31. When asked about its waste hauling practices from Lockheed's Advanced Development Co. in Palmdale, Calif., the so-called Skunk Works division that developed Stealth aircraft, company spokesman Jim Ragsdale issued a statement that he said "is all my management is willing to say on this topic." "Lockheed on occasions in the past has had requirements for removal of materials from our factory that our customer, the US Air Force, deemed to be classified materials. In those instances, Lockheed followed instructions from its customer as to how the materials were to be transported away from the factory location," the statement says. "When the materials were trucked away, the destination of the trucks and the eventual disposition of the classified materials were determined by the Air Force," Ragsdale's statement says. Air Force officials in Las Vegas and at the Pentagon did not respond last week to questions about Lockheed's statement. But in a telephone interview Thursday, Rep. Jim Bilbray, D-Nev., a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said he has asked the Air Force to give him a "full, detailed briefing on any burning activities in its Nellis Range Complex, which maps show include the Groom Lake base. "They may not be willing to come forward and admit to violations that they don't think took place," Bilbray said, noting that while he can't acknowledge the base's existence he said he has "deep reaching ability to peer in." >> Message length exceeded, split by WILDMAIL! v3.11 << >> Continued in next message << Read mode : (24513 +) "What was done out there a few years ago, the institutional memory might not be there. Records might not exist," he said. Regardless of the secret nature of the Groom Lake base, Bilbray said if any environmental crimes took place, the people who suffered from them should be compensated. Bilbray confirmed that he has heard of the words, Score Event, in connection with the Nellis Air Force Range complex, but "I shouldn't get into it," he said. "When you cannot acknowledge that a facility exists, it makes it very difficult to talk about what goes on there," he said. What did go on at the Groom Lake base from 1980 through 1990 didn't come cheap, said the source who worked there during those years. The source said he saw charts that listed the base's budget at between $93 million and $115 million per month. That figure fits with the $1 billion to $1.5 billion annual budget that private military analysts have estimated based on projects at the base and daily flights to shuttle workers there. "I was staggered by the numbers," the source said. High-powered, telemetry satellite dishes at the base's north end serve a dual role for communicating and fogging film of any would- be photographers who were detected on nearby ridges, he said. A Scoot-N-Hide shed on one runway was used to keep secret advanced aircraft out of sight while foreign satellites orbited in view of the base. While the F-117A Stealth fighter jets and a prototype B-2 bomber were housed at one end of the base, the government's Red Hat teams--the foreign Technology Assessment Group from Edwards Air Force Base in California--kept its collection of advances Soviet MiG jets in hangers at the other end, the source said. In the time he worked there, the source said base personnel were involved in seven plane crashes that involved three F-117s, one A- 7 Navy chase plane and three Soviet MiGs, including one that landed in a woman's back yard in Rachel. At least five unmanned F-86s were shot down for any Army battlefield air defense system project. The crashes and missile exercises sometimes caused range fires that could have been avoided, he said. Sidebar: EXTRAVAGANT LIVING ON A SECRET BASE Just because the 2,000 or so civilian and military personnel working at Groom Lake were fighting the Cold War didn't mean they couldn't enjoy a cold one. A favorite watering hole was Building 170, the hanger-size centerpiece of the base's recreational complex. It is listed in one base directory as Sam's Place, a bar named after a Central Intelligence Agency official who once ran the base, said a source involved in base operations during the 1980s. Sam's Place was a dark, fully carpeted nightclub with large padded chairs and a bar ringed with stools that rivaled the largest ones in Las Vegas, the source said. The bar and many of the facilities probably still exist, he said. The club had four pool tables, dart boards and a big screen where pornographic movies were shown "until a few ladies on the base complained," he said. The recreational complex was complete with an eight-lane bowling alley, a heated indoor pool, four racquetball courts, a basketball gymnasium with a wooden floor, tennis courts, saunas and a snack bar. At one time, a golf course and lighted softball field existed. Supplies for the base were flown in from Hill Air Force Base in Utah aboard C-130s. "Sometimes people would chip in and buy big ice boxes of shrimp that were flown in specially to the base from Florida in 20 to 30 big Styrofoam coolers," he said. The planes stopped at the base only long enough to offload the shrimp, he said. Some colonels, he said, "had very extravagant tastes," including one who had grapefruit flown in from Israel at $25 a piece and --- GIGO+ sn 37 at nisc vsn 0.98w32 From: psychospy@aol.com requested deliveries of canned tuna from South America that he - estimates cost the government $26 per can. In the dining hall, prime rib was offered every Wednesday afternoon and New York steaks were often on the lunch menu. "They used to serve frog legs, king crab and filet mignon at no charge," he said. "They drank bottled water to the tune of $50,000 a month," he said, comparing the lifestyles of some base inhabitants to high rollers in Las Vegas at the government's expense." ##### --- GIGO+ sn 37 at nisc vsn 0.98w32 --- DLG Pro v1.0/PDQMail v2.53 * Origin: RealPix-THE Real Estate MLS BBS! 702-566-6840 (1:209/245) Read mode : (24514 +)