"Area 51, The Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base" by journalist Annie Jacobsen (PART 1) How does such a thing come to pass? In 2007 I was at a Christmas Eve dinner when an 88-year-old scientist named Edward Lovick leaned over and said to me, “Have I got a good story for you.” As a national security reporter, I hear this line frequently—my work depends on it—but what Lovick told me ranked among the most tantalizing things I’d heard in a long time. Until then, I was under the impression that Lovick had spent his life designing airplane parts. Over dinner I learned that he was actually a physicist and that he’d played a major role in the development of stealth technology for the CIA. The reason Lovick could suddenly divulge information that had been kept secret for 50 years was that the CIA had just declassified it. When I learned much of Lovick’s secret work took place at Area 51, also called Groom Lake, I smiled. So, the place was real after all. I wrote to the assistant secretary of defense requesting an official tour of the Groom Lake Area; Lovick also told me that the CIA had given up control of the place in the 1970s. My request was formally denied, on Department of Defense letterhead, but oddly with the words “the Groom Lake Area” separated out in quotes attributed to me, so as to make clear the Pentagon’s official position regarding their Nevada base: that locale may be part of your lexicon, they seemed to be saying, but it’s most definitely not officially part of ours. When I learned that the name Area 51 was still classified, that the government has never officially admitted that Area 51 exists, I sought to learn why.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 05:26:35 +0000
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