(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); After years of government denials, the CIA is officially acknowledging in newly declassified documents the existence of Area 51, the mysterious site in central Nevada that has spawned top-secret tools, weapons and not a few UFO conspiracies.

George Washington University's National Security Archive obtained a CIA history of the U-2 spy plane program through a public records request and released it Thursday.

National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson reviewed the history in 2002, but all mentions of Area 51 had been redacted.

Richelson says he requested the history again in 2005 and received a version a few weeks ago with mentions of Area 51 restored.

Officials have already acknowledged in passing the existence of the facility in central Nevada where the government is believed to test intelligence tools and weapons.

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Richelson believes the new document shows the CIA is becoming less secretive about Area 51's existence, if not about what goes at the location 90 miles north of Las Vegas.

He said that releasing information on the site "is clearly a conscious decision to acknowledge the name, the location rather than play pretend about the secrecy," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

The references are found in a CIA history of the U-2 reconnaissance program written in 1992.

The history even recalls the first time CIA project director Richard Bissell and Air Force officer Col. Osmund Ritlandt spotted the site, which was then an old airstrip by the salt flat named Groom Lake.

They viewed it from aboard a small Beechcraft plane piloted by Tony LeVier, Lockheed's chief test pilot.

They spotted what appeared to be an airstrip by a salt flat known as Groom Lake, near the northeast corner of the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Nevada Proving Ground.
After debating about landing on the old airstrip, LeVier set the plane down on the lakebed, and all four walked over to examine the strip. The facility had been used during World War II as an aerial gunnery range for Army Air Corps pilots. From the air the strip appeared to be paved, but on closer inspection it turned out to have originally been fashioned from compacted earth that had turned into ankle-deep dust after more than a decade of disuse.
If LeVier had attempted to land on the airstrip, the plane would probably have nosed over when the wheels sank into the loose soil, killing or injuring all of the key figures in the U-2 project.
The document says the group agreed that the location "would make an ideal site for testing the U-2 and training its pilots," according to the history.

The lightweight U-2 spy plane was being built by Lockheed at its top-secret "Skunk Works" plant in Burbank, Calif.

The document says that the CIA then called on the Atomic Energy Commission to add the Groom Lake area to its real estate holdings in Nevada.

"AEC chairman Adm. Lewis Strauss readily agreed and President Eisenhower also approved the addition of this strip of wasteland, known by its map designation as Area 51,to the Nevada Test site," according to the document.

"To make the facility in the middle of nowhere sound more attractive to his workers, (Skunk Works founder) Kelly Johnson called it the Paradise Ranch, which was soon shortened to the Ranch," according to the document.

Several books and articles in recent years had already begun to penetrate the mystery of Area 51.

In 2010, James Noce, who said he did contract security work at the site in the 1960s and 1970s, told The Seattle Times that he used to get paid in cash, signing a phony name to the receipt.

Noce, then 72, told the newspaper that he had attended the first-ever public reunion in 2009 of former Area 51 workers.

"I was doing something for the country," Noce says about those three years in the 1960s. "They told me, 'If anything should ever come up, anyone asks, 'id you work for the CIA?' Say, 'Never heard of them.' But [my buddies] know."


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Area 51 has long been a topic of fascination for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts, but newly released CIA documents officially acknowledge the site and suggest that the area served a far less remarkable purpose than many had supposed.
According to these reports, which include a map of the base's location in Nevada, Area 51 was merely a testing site for the government's U-2 and OXCART aerial surveillance programs. The U-2 program conducted surveillance around the world, including over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Area 51, about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is synonymous in popular culture with government secrecy, and many have theorized that it holds the answer to one of the greatest questions plaguing mankind: Are we really alone in the universe?

But the newly released documents make no mention of alien autopsy rooms or spaceship parking lots.
UFO spotted hovering over pool FBI memo details flying saucers, aliens UFO welcome center waits for green guys
This information will be disappointing to some, who have come to view the area has been a mecca of sorts for alien encounters.

For these true believers, the existence of alien spacecraft at Area 51, and the government's attempts to cover up their trace, is irrefutable and has been since reports of Unidentified Flying Objects -- or UFOs -- began to emerge from the Nevada desert in the middle part of the 20th century.
The map and other documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives, in 2005.
Richelson submitted the request as part of his continuing study of aerial surveillance programs and told CNN that he was not given an explanation of why the new documents were less redacted than previous versions declassified by the agency.
He points out, however, that the location of Area 51 was not a particularly well-kept secret. Its location appears in books on aerial surveillance and is widely referenced in popular culture.
In fact, the map that was released in the CIA documents mirrors the one that appears after a simple Google Maps search for "Area 51."
Area 51 has also been referenced in government documents in the past, though this newest release is the first that acknowledges its existence and location in a purposeful way.
Richelson told CNN he believes this could signal a dramatic change in the government's willingness to declassify information about the famed base, meaning even more information could come out about Area 51 in the future.
The release of these reports seem to put the theories about aliens and flying saucers to rest for the time being, although they may not be enough to silence the true believers.
At least they still have Roswell, right?
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It is no surprise that they are now releasing information. They need to give the appearance that they are more open than they have been in the past. Without a doubt they have replaced Area 51 with something under ground or in some remote region in like Wyoming or a similar location.

Coulda swore I saw this on The Onion. Didn't look because it seemed too legit.

Area 51 is nothing i could imagine, Just a cover up so we the people would not focus on what ever else they have planned going on... Know what i mean?

Okay... well half the shit in this article is old news. Literally all conspirators act like this is breaking news, when in reality it's not. Every time a new stealth fighter jet rolls out and lands at Eglin Air Force Base or Hurlburt Field seventy five percent of the installation knows where it was birthed for a lack of better terms.

Then you get all the conspiracy theorist out from under their rocks that bust a nut expressing their excitement... "Zomg guise, I bet that diddly jet was made with ufo technology!" Shit like that goes in cycles, and I'd say 80% of the time when something new comes out you can find information about it, and if Area 51 is redacted it'll say something along the lines of Edwards Air Force Base or Nellis Air Force Base range... which includes Area 51.

All in all the conspiracy shit just drives me nuts.

The real secrets are underground. There's a whole new world down there.

Wonder why it was redacted in the first place that is pretty strange.

If you're interested I will show you more.