Secret Groom Lake base is no secret, according to a lawsuit

Keith Rogers
Review-Journal

While government attorneys continue to resist requests in court to name and identify an Air Force base in Lincoln County, papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court assert the base is no secret to the public.

The papers, which include 300 pages of exhibits in which the base is referred to as Groom Lake, Area 51 and Dreamland, were filed by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley in response to the government's refusal Jan. 19 to name the base, citing the military and states privilege.

Turley's motion and arguments to compel the government to disclose the base's name and existence, and arguments against the motion, presented by Department of Justice lawyer Richard Sarver, are expected to be heard during a teleconference on March 24 in Judge Philip Pro's courtroom.

Turley's filing on Friday asserts the base has been referred to in the Congressional Record, defense trade publications, a federal employees' publication, government contractor correspondences and a Department of Interior letter. Many newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasts in the United States and around the world have also referred to it.

Turley is representing former base workers in two lawsuits that focus on toxic exposure claims at the base.

Sarver represents Defense Secretary William Perry, Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall and National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, who are defendants in one of the lawsuits because they used secrecy to hide hazardous waste violations, Turley said.

Sarver is also representing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, who is named as a defendant in the other lawsuit that claims she failed to inspect the base for compliance with the federal hazardous waste laws.

The court has allowed the plaintiffs to use fictitious names to protect their identities because they fear reprisals by the government. Las Vegan Helen Frost, however, is named in the lawsuit that involves Perry. Frost's late husband, Robert, was a sheet metal worker for a government contractor at the base, 35 miles west of Alamo.

On Nov. 10, 15 days after the Air Force released a statement that says it has "an operating location near Groom Dry Lake," Sarver tried to use national security as a defense to prevent the lawsuits from proceeding. But, during that pretrial conference, he retreated from using the military and states secrets privilege because invoking it would have been premature since no evidence had been presented.

Asked Friday about reviving use of the privilege on Jan. 19 after he had withdrawn it once, Sarver said, "We never tried to do it. That was Turley's misunderstanding."

Turley's reaction Friday: "I'm astonished."

Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg tried to explain Sarver's comment, saying, "It has to do with sort of the legal term that I think meant a lot to Mr. Sarver that he may not have made clear to you in terms of distinction."

In other words, Brandenburg said, the privilege won't be revoked but would be reserved for later.