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Area 51 No Longer (Officially) a Secret
schnell writes "The first-ever declassified story of Area 51's origin is now available, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act filed years ago by George Washington University's National Security Archive. The (only lightly redacted) document is actually primarily a history of the U-2 and A-12 ("Oxcart") spy plane programs from the Cold War, but is remarkable for being the first-ever official unclassified acknowledgment of Area 51's purpose and its role in the program. Interesting tidbits include that the U-2 program was kicked off with a CIA check mailed personally to Lockheed Skunk Works chief Kelly Johnson for $1.25M; a U-2 was launched off an aircraft carrier to spy on French nuclear tests; and the U-2 delivery program itself was actually done under budget, a rarity for secret government programs then or now."
The entire thing must be completely fake.
I refuse to acknowledge as possible the finalization of a secret government program under budget.
> "The (only lightly redacted)documentis actually primarily a history of
> the U-2 and A-12 ("Oxcart") spy plane programs from the Cold War,"
Of course it's only lightly redacted -- they made the whole thing up. Light redaction is how we know they're lying. Give it up feds! >:-(
Give us the LGM BEM SAUCERS NAO!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
And what has it been doing for the last 20 years? then again i didnt RTFA
If you look at the aircraft that came out of the skunk works you'll know what I mean. He and his organization came up with the P-38, the U-2, the C-130, and the SR-71; to name only a few achievements. It makes most people in tech look like little kiddies playing in a sandbox.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
so the national geographic channel documentary from a few years ago with interviews of several guys that worked there, and plenty of original fotage was just something I dreamt?
So where is the part about the captured Space Aliens and their ship?
Ok, this makes more sense. On the radio this morning, they were going on like this was the first official acknowledgement of its existence, which I could have sworn has been acknowledged for many years now. But if this is the first official acknowledgement of its purpose, then yeah, that is new.
None of those "revelations" are news.
The check being mailed to Kelly Johnson he mentioned in his biography.
The U-2 launch off an aircraft carrier was public info too, as the pilot got a medal for that.
The U-2 coming in under budget, likewise, not news.
i believe they are forgetting to mention all the aliens theyve been testing on and keeping secret from us
Prot from K-PAX contacted me trying to understand why our goverment makes up stories about Area-51. I explained best I could how when people report UFO's they are usually not taken serious. Prot informed me that K-PAXians think our goverments story about Area-51 is so funny that it became the top billing on their comedy shows.
You mean that Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction was fiction? Shocking. Does that mean we really did land on the Moon?
Also, Ben Rich (Kelly Johnson's successor) wrote this up in his book Skunk Works. He didn't mention "Area 51" by name, but some of its other nicknames such as "Dreamland" or "Paradise Ranch" were mentioned.
I think the most impressive thing about the Blackbirds were that they were designed in an era when computers were quite primitive and engineers usually used slide rules.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
I highly recommend the memoir, "Skunkworks" by Ben Rich, who was Kelly Johnson's successor. He tells a great story of the building of the U-2 program, and also later projects including the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 stealth fighter. Amazing stories.
According to Ben Rich, it was Dick Chaney who ultimately got the SR-71 canceled, and instructed them to destroy all the plans, tooling, and parts for building the aircraft. Ostensibly this was to prevent any other nation from ever learning its secrets. And all this was because Chaney's cronies owned companies who made spy satellites. Even though a lot of analysts argued we still needed aircraft for some surveillance, they decided to go with satellites. Which of course other nations know where they are and when they go overhead. And since then the U-2 has still flown because there are missions that only an aircraft can perform.
Even as recent as the gulf war (yes I'm old enough to consider 1991 as recent) these aging spy planes were pressed into action because they were all we had, and they performed their task very well. Have to admire how well the military does being yanked around so much by politics (and of course they dish the politics right back... sequester and all that). But with all the abuses revealed of late by Private Manning, perhaps it's only fitting that the military is in decline, along with the nation, and has had its toys taken away.
The "U-2 launched from aircraft carrier" factoid isn't a new one; that's one's been declassified for years (with pictures).
As for programs coming in under-budget... I attribute that more to Kelly Johnson's personal integrity than anything else.
As for what's happened since... Just remember Eisenhower's Farewall Address warnings about the MIC - perpetual projects to fight ethereal enemies ("Terror" is not a nation-state, organized malitia, and/or other "special-interest group") was/ continues to be inevitable. Too many jobs, fortunes, and re-election capsigns - not necessarily in that order - depend upon such.
is it me or is FOIA kinda toothless these days? the oxcart and have blue shit has been a discovery channel/history channel show fodder for almost a decade. most everything in the release is common knowledge to anyone with access to wikipedia. FOIA was designed to start answering questions like who visited the whitehouse while George Bush was president, how does the domestic spy program work, and did we seriously commit war crimes in iraq.
instead its been so neutered, ignored and redacted at every level of government its basically a rubber stamp for any agency seeking to claim legitimacy in their clandestine day to day operations. the NYPD ignored for 2 years their FOIA for stop and frisk, and administrations routinely claim state secrets or executive privilege when they hear a question they dont like.
People like Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Julian Asssange are today the only means by which we request the freedom of information from our government, elected by and for the people. sideshows like this are to ensuring accountability in the government as the scopes monkey trial was to ensuring credibility to evolution.
Good people go to bed earlier.
He would have told the French we were spying on their nuclear tests.
you have to be a US citizen work at Groom Lake. duh!
mfwright@batnet.com
While everyone else is making jokes about aliens and the budget, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what it would take to launch a U2 (103-ft wingspan) from a carrier. Besides the width, I didn't think it was optimized for short takesoffs, and it looks like the wings would snap off if you launched it with a catapult.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
and the U-2 delivery program itself was actually done under budget, a rarity for secret government programs then or now."
All of this stuff is obfuscated.
I guess all those documents from two years ago don't count, then?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389591/A-sneak-peek-inside-Area-51-Declassified-documents-offer-rare-glimpse-secretive-site-Earth.html
It's still a coverup. The are hiding alien weather balloons.
The DoD just finished moving the UFOs to another location.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
the SR-71 is probably the most beautiful plane ever to have flown.
The SR-71 is undeniably a gorgeous plane and I agree that the P-38 is striking as well. But for my money I love the look of the YF-23 if we are talking about jets and the P-51 Mustang if we are talking about prop planes. Just my own preferences of course. I like the U2 just because it is SO simple in design. Basically a powered glider. Simple, elegant and still functional to this day.
All the aliens must have died. No need to keep it secret anymore... :(
I don't know about you, but I miss them already...
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It is the Bermuda-Triangle of the USA.
The Earth travelled through a black-hole and it is there in mini-version :)
Anyone who enters there will be sucked into a pin-sized earth that is covered by a ball of string like in the Sam and Max Hit the Road.
Nothing ever in the government is underbudget. Something fishy is there... Aliens at least...