Alien Confidential Multimedia/Alien Confidential Multimedia (Disk 2 of 9).adf/LAKE/177

Text File | 1995-05-09 | 15KB | 366 lines

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

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