Subject: ABC News Groom Lake Transcript


REPORT ON GROOM LAKE
ABC World News Tonight
April 19, 1994

Peter Jennings:  Finally from us this evening, the road to 
Dreamland.  And there really is such a place, though you are not 
supposed to know about it, and the U.S. Air Force is unhappy with 
us because we're going to tell you about it.  The Dreamland we are 
talking about is actually an Air Force base in Nevada.  The 
Russians know about it, so why not you?  ABC's Jimmy Walker has 
the results of an ABC News investigation....

Jimmy Walker:  We are one hundred miles from Las Vegas driving 
across the Nevada desert on public land.  There is more here than 
meets the eye.  A few feet off the dirt road, an electronic sensor 
is hidden in the sagebrush.

Glenn Campbell:  [Radio static in background.]  The base control 
has relayed to the patrols that someone has crossed one of their 
sensors.  That's us.

Walker:  So they now know...

Campbell:  They know we're here.  They'll be here in about ten 
minutes.

Walker:  Sure enough, minutes later, a white Jeep goes by.  
Someone is very interested in who visits this particular piece of 
scrub.  That someone is the U.S. Air Force.  A helicopter flies 
out to investigate us.  It comes from Groom Lake, one of the most 
closely guarded military facilities in the country.

The secret air base which some people call Dreamland or others 
Watertown or still others Area 51 is located about twelve miles 
over in that direction.  It's clearly visible but the government 
won't acknowledge that it even exists.  And to photograph it would 
violate the Espionage Act.  

Military historians say the U-2 spy plane was tested at Groom 
Lake.  More recently, the Stealth fighter.  But the base does not 
appear on any map, and for the record, the Pentagon will only say 
that Groom Lake is part of the vast Nellis Range complex.

Enter Glenn Campbell and Peter Merlin, members of a group that 
believes the Air Force has too many secrets and not enough 
accountability.  Armed with lawn chairs and binoculars, they set 
up shop on public land overlooking the air base.  And they're 
driving the Air Force crazy.

Peter Merlin:  There's some large hangers.  One is quite enormous.  
And a control tower....

Walker:  As a result of the prying eyes, the Air Force is trying 
to expropriate this hilltop and an adjoining one to add to the 
4700 square miles it already controls, saying it's needed for 
safety reasons.

Campbell:  There was the suggestion that people sitting on this 
ridge like we are doing might be hit by aircraft.

Walker:  The pending land grab has turned the hilltops into a 
tourist attraction, drawing even more attention to the base.  Last 
month at a federal hearing in Las Vegas, officials got an earful.

Angry Citizen at Hearing:  The place is big enough already.  How 
much expansion do they need?  That place is safe.  It's stupid.

Another Citizen at Hearing:  There have already been allegations 
that environmental crimes have been committed there.  Now you're 
asking for 4000 more acres to hide behind.

Walker:  What's more, buy this model plane kit [Testor's "Thunder 
Dart"] and you get with it [on the] directions this 1988 
photograph of the base taken by a Soviet satellite.  The pentagon 
says it's okay to show you this picture.

Campbell:  The only people this base is being kept secret from are 
the American people, the people who pay for it.

Walker:  Our story took an unexpected turn as we prepared to 
leave.  We spotted a Sheriff's car heading our way.

Deputy (at driver's window):  We're investigating the possibility 
of a criminal offense.

Walker:  And what would that criminal offense be?

Deputy:  Sir, may I see your driver's license, please.

Walker:  They believed we were photographing the facility.  They 
were wrong.  We were detained, questioned and searched.  Our 
camera, audio equipment and some video tapes were confiscated.  
The Air Force held the gear for five days before returning it.  No 
charges were filed against us.

And every work day, a fleet of privately owned unmarked airliners 
shuttle more than 1500 workers from Las Vegas to the base that 
doesn't exist.

Campbell (looking through binoculars):  Yup, secret base out 
there.  Sure enough.  Same secret base as yesterday.

Walker:  J
ames Walker, ABC News, Lincoln County, Nevada.

#####


Subject:  ABC News Groom Toxic Suit Transcript
 
 ----- GROOM LAKE TOXIC INJURY SUIT -----

Below is a transcript of a report on ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH 
PETER JENNINGS, August 1, 1994.

[Supplement to the Groom Lake Desert Rat. The transcript is followed by 

a press release from George Washington University concerning the suit.]

FORREST SAWYER (fill-in anchor):  Some government employees are 
going to court this week, charging that their work has made them 
sick.  What makes their claim so unusual is what they do and 
where--at a super secret military base called Groom Lake whose 
very existence we first reported just a couple of months ago.  
Here's our legal affairs correspondent Cynthia McFadden.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  These people are not your average commuters.  
[Workers boarding jets at McCarran Airport.]  Among them are 
engineers and technicians helping develop America's most secret 
new weapons.  Every day they fly a half an hour into the desert 
from Las Vegas on an airline that doesn't exist.

[In desert.]  The planes land at an air base just behind these 
hills.  Showing it to you would be a crime.  And if you have ever 
worked at the air base, talking about it is a crime.  And yet some 
of the workers say they now must talk about environmental crimes 
they say the government committed.

VICTIM (in shadow, voice disguised):  We all done a lot of 
coughing while the smoke was blowing in our direction.  I 
developed cancer.  I guess I'm not cured of it.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  This man and at least a dozen others say that 
throughout the 1980s a deadly smoke was produced by weekly 
burnings in huge pits at the air base.
 
WITNESS (in shadow, voice disguised):  There were several trenches 
about 300 feet long and about 25 to 30 feet across and about 25 
feet deep.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN (to WITNESS):  What was the purpose of the 
trenches?

WITNESS:  For the destruction of classified material.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  Materials like those used to make the stealth 
fighter invisible to radar.  Where better to dispose of the secret 
compounds than the secret air base, as seen in this 1988 Russian 
satellite photograph.  An air base where the environmental laws 
didn't seem to reach.

WITNESS:  The running joke was, it was the place that didn't 
exist, so consequently anything could occur there.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  The Air Force says that while we can't take a 
picture of the base, they can't object to our showing you this 
Russian photo.  It shows where workers say the trenches were 
located.

VICTIM:  It was thick black smoke.  Sometimes it was thick gray.  
The smell was very nauseating.  It would burn your eyes.  It would 
burn your throat.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  And the smoke, say some of those who worked in 
it, made them sick.

VICTIM:  I developed a rash, skin rash.  I used sandpaper to get 
the scale off, because it's the only way I can remove it.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN (to VICTIM):  Do other men that you worked with 
describe a similar rash?

VICTIM:  One in particular, yes.  He had it all over his body. 

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  What happened to him?
 
VICTIM:  He died.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  Robert Frost was a sheet metal worker at the 
base, until he started developing these rashes.  Neither he nor 
his wife could figure out what had caused them.  Just before his 
death, they sent a tissue sample to Peter Kahn, an expert on 
hazardous chemicals.  His conclusion?  Robert Frost had been 
exposed to types of dioxins and dibenzofurons, which are not 
normally seen in humans.

PROF. PETER KAHN ("Rutgers University"):  My only reaction is, 
what on earth has this man been exposed to?

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  Frost died in 1989 of cirrhosis of the liver, 
but his widow Helen says that while Frost did drink, he was no 
alcoholic.  She believes the real cause of her husband's death was 
working at Groom Lake.

HELEN FROST:  Who does the government think they are that they can 
go around killing people.  That's called murder.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  The Air Force told Mrs. Frost that it had 
nothing to do with her husband's death, so she and her daughters, 
along with a dozen others who worked at the air base, have hired 
themselves a lawyer.

PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY (to Frost family):  Many of our clients may 
be developing more extensive injuries similar to your father's.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  They want to lift the secrecy surrounding the 
burning and find out what the workers were exposed to.  The 
government's position has been that these people have no right to 
go to court, that national security demands continued secrecy.  
Air Force and Environmental Protection Agency officials said that 
they would not comment on the pending legal action.

PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY ("George Washington Law Center"):  The 
secrecy oath doesn't mean that my clients have stopped being 
citizens of the United States.  It doesn't mean that they are non-
persons and they've got a non-injury.

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN:  The government says there were no environmental 
crimes committed there at Groom Lake, the Air Force base that 
doesn't exist.  They say, nobody's sick.  Jonathan Turley and his 
clients say given a chance they can prove otherwise.

Cynthia McFadden, ABC News, on the road to Groom Lake.

 ----- GWU PRESS RELEASE -----

Below is a PRESS RELEASE from George Washington University, Office 
of University Relations, Washington, D.C....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2, 1994

GW LAW PROFESSOR JONATHAN TURLEY FILES AGAINST THE EPA FOR FAILURE 
TO INSPECT SECRET AIR FORCE BASE FOR VIOLATION OF FEDERAL 
ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS.

Washington, D.C. -- The George Washington University National Law 
Center Professor of Environmental Law Jonathan Turley, in an 
unprecedented move, filed suit today against the Environmental 
Protection Agency for failing to live up to its duties to inspect 
violations of federal environmental laws.  This will be the first 
in a series of legal actions planned by Professor Turley.

Turley is representing current and former workers at Area 51, a 
secret Air Force base in Nevada -- also known as Dreamland or 
Groom Lake.  The suit alleges serious injuries, and at least one 
death, to employees due to the burning of hazardous and toxic 
wastes at the facility.  Turley's suit further alleges that 
workers were denied requests for protective clothing -- including 
gloves -- in handling hazardous wastes.  Workers, who signed 
secrecy agreements upon employment at the base, will be 
represented as "John and Jane Does" to prevent possible 
retaliation, including physical threats.

This case is the first of it's kind.  Area 51 is generally 
considered the most secret, classified base in the U.S. military 
network.  "By forcing compliance at Area 51, we hope to establish 
a precedent whereby the military will be forced to acknowledge its 
responsibilities in every base and facility," says Turley.  
"Ultimately, this case is a direct confrontation between national 
security laws and environmental and criminal laws."

Specifically, Turley will be asking the D.C. court to force the 
EPA to inspect and monitor the secret base.  He will argue that 
the federal hazardous waste law does not give any exception for 
secret bases in its provisions and will be asking the court to 
force the EPA to fulfill a mandatory duty under the law.

"We want to establish that workers at secret bases should not be 
forced to rely on the arbitrary protections of the military, but 
should be able to go to court to receive remedies for violations," 
says Turley.  He also intends to establish that secrecy agreements 
do not preempt environmental protections.  Eventually, Turley 
plans to draft a new law on the judicial review of such cases and 
on issues ranging from anonymous legal actions to standing 
questions to citizen suit actions against the EPA.

###

How to stymie a toxic-waste lawsuit


February 20th, 1995 - Newsweek Article

It Dares Not Speak Its Name

Enviroment: How to stymie a toxic-waste lawsuit

What's in a name?  Maybe the key to a pathbreaking enviromental 
lawsuit. 
Five former and current government employees and the widow of a sixth,
charge that the workers suffered blackouts, rashes, respiratory 
problems
and dime size open sores after they were exposed to burning toxic 
wastes
at a secret air force facility in Nevada.  The widow, Helen Frost,
contends that poisonous fumes, from plastics and chemicals that were
thrown into open pits and doused with jet fuel, contributed to her
husband's death in 1989.  Lawyers have a tough enough time pinnin 
illness,
let alone death, on exposure to toxics.  But the worker's attorney,
Jonathan Turley of George Washington University's law school, faces a 
more
basic problem.  For four months after the suit was filed, the 
government
denied the very existence of the facility; now is acknowledges that 
there
is an "operating location" in the area, but refuses to reveal its name. 

(The workers know the site by several names, but the Feds won't say
whether any is right.)  And in a Kafkaesque technicality, without the
officially recognized name, which Turley filed a motion last week to 
get,
the suit cannot proceed.  If the site's a secret, it's badly kept. 
Russian spy satellites have amassed a nice bumful of snapshots of the
facility, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas on Nellis Air Force Base.  
UFO
groupies know it as Area 51, or Groom Lake: hundreds have flocked to 
the
perimeter, convinced the air force is reproducing a captured flying 
saucer
at the site.  It was also the testing ground for the U-2  spy plane and
the F-117A stealth.  But just as you can't sue someone you know only by
nickname, so Turley's clients can't sue the Pentagon over a site whose
proper moniker the government won't disclose.  The plaintiff's request 
for
the name, says a government brief, is "vague, overbroad, and 
unreasonably
burdensome."  If the Feds remain mum about the name, Turley plans to 
call
o the witness stand the military attache at the Russian Embassy, whose
testimony would show that Area 51 is eminently real, and no secret. If 
he
gets past the procedural hurdle, Turley says, he has a strong case.  He
has evidence that the Air Force denied the worker's requests of 
protective
clothing, and that Frost's body had high levels of dioxins and furans
(produced when plastics burn) when he died.  The Department of Justice 
and
the Enviromental Protection Agency have launched a probe into hazardous
waste violations at Area 51; an air force spokesman says it "takes its
environmental responsibilities very seriously."  Of course, if the
Pentagon blocks the suit by refusing to release the name of the side, 
the
validity of the charges won't matter.

- Bruce Shenitz and Sharon Begley, Newsweek

OUR WONDERFUL PROTECTIVE GOVERNMENT!