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Groom Lake spotlight grows brighter

In this year of Bobbitt, Roseanne, Tonya and O.J., the news media have found an even more unlikely obsession near a parched lake bed, deep in the Southern Nevada desert -- Area 51.

Otherwise known as "Dreamland," "The Pig Farm" and "The Box," the military's secret Groom Lake air base in Lincoln County has been featured in countless tabloids, science and aviation magazines, daily newspapers, network nightly news shows, TV documentaries and even a live, two-hour Larry King television special that aired Saturday night.

Most of the stories present allegations of a cover-up, speculating on why, since 1954, all levels and branches of government systematically have refused toacknowledge the existence of a base whose hangars, barracks, antennae and runway have been observed from nearby ridges by thousands of curious gawkers.

Some reports stick with historic, bureaucratic or political angles.

Among those are accounts of the early days of spy plane and other high-tech

aviation testing, including the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117A stealth fighter.

More recently, former Area 51 workers have filed two lawsuits claiming they got sick after inhaling fumes from hazardous waste burned in open pits. Also making headlines has been the Air Force's controversial move to create a buffer zone around the base by grabbing 4,000 acres of prime vantage points on public land.

Other stories raise issues of accountability. Some critics argue the government may be sinking "black budget" billions into testing aircraft that need not remain secret in this post-Cold War era.

More often than not, however, the recent slew of reports has tended to ignore the less glamorous dry stuff and instead focus on the more sensational paranormal or supernatural questions surrounding Area 51.

On the assumption that pulp reels in higher ratings than straight-laced reports about classified military projects, most pieces have highlighted theories that the base is a secret testing facility for UFO exploration and hub of the government's involvement in extraterrestrial contact.

After all, stories on alien abductions, flying saucers and missing milk-carton children held hostage in underground cells make for much more colorful quotes than diatribes by skeptical aviation experts and stodgy government watchdogs.

Area 51-crazed media have discovered a star of sorts in physicist Bob Lazar, who claims to have worked at the base and seen nine alien craft impounded there. Lazar's credibility was shaken after questions arose about his educational background and after he pleaded guilty in 1990 to a prostitution-related charge.

In September, the now semireclusive Lazar again made headlines when the Testor Corp. released a plastic model UFO he designed as a likeness of one of the spaceships. The $25 kit instantly sold out at most Las Vegas hobby shops.

"We're getting tons of calls from people of all ages who've heard about it on TV and are dying to get their hands on it," said Pete Weckhorst, manager of HobbyTown USA, which has back-ordered several dozen of Lazar's kits.

"For the government to admit that they're hiding the aircraft Lazar designed, that would be our ultimate payoff," said Rob Morhaim, producer of "Patterns of Denial," an eight-minute segment on Area 51's alleged UFO link that aired Friday on "Sightings," a TV magazine on the paranormal.

Talkmeister King -- the most recent to jump on the Area 51 bandwagon by hosting a live Turner Network Television program Saturday about UFO sightings near the base -- further explained the allure of the subject.

"The fact is, a lot of people believe this flying saucer stuff. We want to get to the bottom of it," he said. "After all, it's kind of pompous to assume we're the only civilization around."

King, it should be noted, calls himself a "UFO skeptic" but says in 1972 he

experienced a close encounter while on a plane to Miami.

His two-hour show included taped interviews with astronomer Carl Sagan, former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater and "Star Trek" actor William Shatner -- who offered firsthand insights from his fictional space voyages on the USS Enterprise -- plus a live panel discussion that included several UFO theorists and Groom Lake gadfly and tour guide, Glenn Campbell.

King's caravan of pundits, producers, technicians and makeup artists rolled

into Rachel on Wednesday, bombarding the otherwise sleepy hamlet -- some 25 miles north of Groom Lake -- with six trailers, two satellite dishes and miles of cable.

"It's quite a scene. I don't think we've seen such commotion in, gee, I don't know how long," said Joe Travis, who plays a supporting role in the Area 51 saga as owner of Rachel's only roadhouse, Little A "Le" Inn, which has become over the years Nevada's most unlikely tourist destination.

Some weekenders who had hiked to a ridge overlooking Groom Lake had expected to find King and his crew there.

"They've been hyping this up for weeks, and aren't even where the action is. It's like doing coverage of Haiti from Florida," said Damon Lee of Las Vegas, likening the show to a "Dean Martin celebrity roast rather than a real look at what going on out there."

King's producers chose Rachel rather than points closer to Groom Lake to avoid problems that have hindered sightseers and news teams working near the base.

As recently as last week, two UFO hunters from Utah were charged with trespassing after wandering near the base's boundaries and avoiding signs reading "use of deadly force authorized." In three incidents since March, news crews from The New York Times, ABC News and Los Angeles' KNBC-TV working on public land adjacent to Area 51 had their film and videotape confiscated after base security suspected them of violating a federal law that restricts photographing the facility.

"The sense of paranoia in the military is nothing short of incredible. Any idiot would know that there's nothing on (the tapes) that violated any secrets," said Chuck Henry, the KNBC-TV reporter whose videotapes were seized in July. Hewas taping a segment that aimed to emphasize the irony of being able to see the base yet not photograph it.

Some say the media's difficulties covering Area 51 are part of the base's attraction.

"To me, the military compounds their own problems," King said. "It's the theater of the absurd. When they take tapes, they create their own Watergate and provoke the media to press the issue, asking, `What are you afraid to show us? What kind of spaceships are you hiding?"'

But other journalists believe some of their colleagues are missing the real

story.

"They dilute the story (by) dwelling on UFOs. It's frustrating that a very serious issue has become a hokey, tabloid kind of story," Henry said.

Grace Bukowski, the national military land and airspace program director for the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability -- a national military watchdog organization -- also has little patience for coverage of flying saucers at Area 51.

"The real story at Groom Range is whether the people of the United States have lost control over the Pentagon and its funding of `black' military projects," she said. "I think the answer is yes. They're taking billions of taxpayers' dollars and there's no accountability as far as I can see."

No one from the Pentagon to Nellis Air Force Base will officially discuss what's really going on at Area 51. As for UFO sightings near the base, Nellis personnel still adhere to the standard Air Force policy and suggest callers report their encounters to their local police.

"Obviously there are things up there and it turns out there are all kinds of reasons to explain them," said Nellis spokesman Maj. George Scilia. "But I'm not at liberty to discuss it, and to be honest, I don't know who is."