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."

Comments

False documents

[Thanshin]

The entire thing must be completely fake.

I refuse to acknowledge as possible the finalization of a secret government program under budget.

Re:False documents

[MickyTheIdiot]

Art Bell says it's fake. Why would I not believe him.

(this post itself is fake)

Re:False documents

[ackthpt]

Let's not forget that they crashed one in Russia.

It was shot down, and the Russian's had proof .. they paraded the pilot out after all the denials and he said "In Soviet Russia denials shout U2!"

Re:False documents

[Sockatume]

Of course, that was all part of the plan. The alien rumours were a start, but by creating a project that genuinely came in under budget - completely impossible, but irrefutable because it was true - they ensured that nobody would ever believe anything that was said about Area 51.

Re:False documents

[jellomizer]

Nah the key words were "only lightly redacted"

so This project was Under [strike]the the oversight of our alien overloads, who financed it by extracting gold from asteroids, in exchange for our compliance which helped hide our[/strike] Budget

Re:Space Aliens

[Urkki]

So where is the part about the captured Space Aliens and their ship?

Lightly redacted.

Re:forgetting something

[dkleinsc]

Oh, the aliens aren't *that* secret: They have a large office building and a place where they meet in Washington DC with a really nice rotunda. There are tours and everything!

Wait, what?

[chinton]

You mean that Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction was fiction? Shocking. Does that mean we really did land on the Moon?

of course there are no aliens

[k6mfw]

you have to be a US citizen work at Groom Lake. duh!