Nevada Air Base Plots a 2-Million-acre Land Grab
Earth Island Journal. Carson City, Nevada -- For two decades, UFOlogists have claimed that the notorious "Area 51" at the Nellis Air Force Base (AFB) Range was the abode of space aliens and flying saucers, but Nevada environmentalists know better. For 40 years, Area 51 (also known as "Dreamland", "The Ranch", "The Box" and the "Watertown Strip") has long been a covert Department of Defense (DoD) testing ground for top-secret hypersonic aircraft, including F-117A Stealth fighters, prototype B-2 bombers, $15 billion, Mach 8 Aurora, and the mysterious Black Manta (which is flown mainly at night reportedly at speeds of over 6000 mph).
The secret activities conducted at the Nellis AFB Range (which includes parts of the Nevada Test Site, the Tonopah Test Range, Groom Range and Area 51) have been estimated to cost taxpayers between $93-$115 million a month. The nonpartisan, Washington, DC-based Defense Budget Project estimates that $14.3 billion of the Pentagon's annual budget for research, development and procurement -- an amount equal to NASA's entire budget -- is
being funneled into secret "Black Project" activities.)
The Las Vegas Review Journal has reported that Area 51 is a high-rollers' heaven, complete with pool halls, heated indoor pools, tennis and racquetball courts, saunas and posh nightclubs. "Sam's Bar," a taxpayer-funded hang-out named after a CIA official, specializes in showing pornographic movies. If someone at Dreamland wants iceboxes full of shrimp and lobster, the Review Journal reported, a giant C-130 Hercules transport plane is dispatched to get it. Because of the threat of contaminated groundwater from the site's toxic spills, $50,000 worth of purified bottled water is also brought in annually.
Over the years, the US Air Force (USAF) has compiled a long record of abuse against the land of the Southwest. USAF planes deliberately torched 21,800 acres inside the Meadow Valley and Mormon Range wilderness study areas; attacks have been staged against the Desert Game Range in Nye County, Nevada; and USAF bombers have "accidentally" bombed the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge and Desert Game Range.
Since 1974, Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association (NORA) has warned that the DoD was trying to deploy the "Continental Operations Range" (COR), a huge electronic warfare system, despite it having been banned by Congress. The COR, which
encompasses Area 51, would require the annexation of millions of
acres of Bureau of Land Managment (BLM) lands.
In 1984, in a controversial move that alarmed environmentalists, the DoD seized 89,000 acres of public land in the Groom Range. Last year, NORA and the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability received tips that the USAF was planning a two-million-acre annexation of land north of the Groom Range and the Tonopah Test Range.
According to Michael DiGregorio, a Los Angeles-based investigative journalist the boundaries of the USAF's mammoth expansion plans would engulf seven Wilderness Study Areas, a prime Area of Critical Environmental Concern candidate at Lunar Crater, two wilderness areas in Humboldt National Forest and four Nevada Division of Wildlife refuges.
Confronted with leaks and disclosures that could no longer be stonewalled, the USAF finally admitted that it was seeking BLM lands at a "substantially larger acreage" than admitted by the DoD.
The USAF has also requested title to a 3972-acre slice of BLM land adjacent to the Groom Grange, contending that public access compromises the secret aircraft testing inside Area 51.
The Review Journal has reported that Area 51's toxic wastes have been burned in open pits in ditches near Papoose Mountain in the Groom Range by a DoD hauling outfit called "NDB" (which stands for "None of your Damn Business"). The 55-gallon drums burned in these trenches reportedly contained dioxin, flammable liquids and toxic wastes from Stealth aircraft coatings.
In July, George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley of the Environmental Crimes Project filed suit against the USAF for violations of environmental laws, charging that at least one death has resulted from exposure to toxic fumes from the open burn pits. The lawsuit, which has been joined by the Project on Government Oversight, lists 39 former Area 51 workers who are prepared to testify. Representative James Bilbray (D-Las Vegas) -- who, as a congressmember, cannot even admit that Area 51 exists -- stated on March 20 that he has asked the USAF for a "full, detailed briefing" on any toxic activities at Nellis AFB Range.
What You Can Do
Challenge the secret government's "Black Budget" operations. Call on Congressman Ron Dellums (D-CA), chair of the House Armed Services Committee to conduct a complete investigation of the Pentagon's secret air base.
Excerpted from The NORA Newsletter PO Box 1245 Carson City, NV 89702-1245 (702) 883-1169.
Summer 94 Vol. 9 Issue 3 p23