Thursday, September 18, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Document extends
secrecy on Area 51
Memo signed by Bush keeps lid on activities
By SAMANTHA YOUNG
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Invoking national security, President Bush has renewed an exemption allowing the Air Force to keep mum about its operations at Groom Lake in Nevada.
Bush signed a memorandum on Tuesday declaring it of "paramount interest" to exempt the base, also known as Area 51, from disclosing classified information.
President Clinton first issued the exemption in 1995 in response to two lawsuits filed by injured workers in Nevada seeking information about the military's environmental practices at the site. It has been renewed yearly.
In renewing the order, Bush also cited the Nevada suits brought by injured workers and Helen Frost and Stella Kasza, widows of two men who worked at the military base.
In their 1994 lawsuits, Frost and Kasza alleged that their husbands were exposed to hazardous and toxic materials while working at Groom Lake, which sits along a dry lake bed in Lincoln County, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The area is in a no-fly zone and closed to the public.
Attorney Jonathan Turley, who represents the families, said the presidential directive keeps secret documents and testimony that he believes would link Area 51 to the men's deaths.
"It is baffling to see the government continue to cover up what went on at Area 51," said Turley, who is also a George Washington University law professor. "It is clear that there were criminal crimes and that government officials continue to resist any disclosure that would confirm such criminal content."
The one-page memo exempts the Air Force from following federal, state or local solid waste and hazardous waste laws if classified information would be disclosed.
The government has acknowledged the existence of the Groom Lake installation but has not disclosed what it does at the top-secret facility. Air Force spokesmen in Washington and Nevada could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"If history is any measure, the truth about what happened at Area 51 will be made public," Turley said. "Our hope is that widows of these men and the surviving workers will see it."
