Monday, December 22, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

UPDATE: Materials taken in FBI search returned to man with interest in Area 51

A Rachel man with an interest in the military installation known as Area 51 has been given back all the materials taken from his home in a June FBI search.

"I got my stuff back about a month ago," said Chuck Clark, who has lived in the tiny Lincoln County community for 10 years.

"I think both the FBI and I came away with a few lessons learned," he said. "I'll be a little more restrictive on some of my activities, and they know now I'm no tremendous threat."

Clark, 57, said all of the material taken from his residence while he was in Denver was returned, and that the FBI acted professionally. But he questioned whether the taxpayer money spent on the search was worth it.

"I said that if they had knocked on my door I would have given them copies of what I had and answered any questions," he said.

Clark got into trouble with the FBI when he began researching motion-detection sensors that are buried on public land along trails miles away from the restricted area around the classified installation near the dry lake bed of Groom Lake, 90 miles north of Las Vegas.

In June, Clark said he dug the sensors up, photographed them and put them back in the ground.

At the time, Clark said: "I resent the fact they put them on public land. All I did is document them ... to make an issue of putting them outside of restricted land."

Clark said the investigation is close to an end, and that he will agree not to further disturb the sensor equipment.

"It's in the final stages of being resolved," he said.

The FBI referred a call to the U.S. attorney's office, which declined comment.

Clark said it was definitely his interest in the motion sensors that led to the search warrant being executed.

"But they took a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with that," he said. "I think it was a fishing expedition."

Clark said the FBI would prefer he curtail his visits near the base. Still, he said, the agency acknowledged to him that his activities are legal.

Clark said the search brought more publicity than the FBI wanted or was necessary.

"I was pretty much finished with the sensors anyway," he said.

Clark said his primary interest in Area 51 is to get some accounting from the federal government on the amount of money being spent on the classified research going on there.

"I understand the need for secrecy for the projects," he said. "But don't tell us the base isn't there. They could give us some broad number once a year on the amount of money that's going down the tubes out there."

Clark, the author of the "Area 51 & S-4 Handbook," said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have given federal officials the excuse they need to investigate people like himself.

"They are using terrorism to justify a lot of stepping on our rights," he said. "But they understand now I'm not out to overthrow the government."

An annual presidential directive issued by President Bush and former President Clinton keeps government information about the Groom Lake installation classified. Government officials will not say what activities are conducted there but the Groom Lake facility has been widely reported to be where high-tech U.S. aircraft are tested against foreign radar systems and planes. S-4 is located near the southern edge of Area 51.

SEAN WHALEY

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