Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base

by Annie M. Jacobsen

  35. “mission is to advance technology and promote related innovation”: Google DOE.gov and this statement is the subhead. Or go

  to http://www.energy.gov/.

  36. formal beginning in 1908: Federal Bureau of Investigation Official Web site, Timeline of FBI History, 1900–1909.

  37. Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko in a secret CIA prison: Edward Jay Epstein and Susana Duncan, “The War of the Moles,” New York, 2837.

  38. His true allegiance remains the subject of debate: Walter Pincus, “Yuri I. Nosenko, KGB Agent Who Defected to the U.S.,” Washington Post, August 27, 2008. In CIA documents released decades later, Nosenko is quoted as forgiving the CIA for the harsh treatment, stating “while I regret my three years of incarceration, I have no bitterness and now understand how it could happen.” Shortly before he died, CIA officials gave Nosenko a ceremonial U.S. flag from CIA director Michael Hayden.

  39. memorandum dated May 1, 1995: Memorandum to Members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, from Advisory Committee Staff, May 1, 1995, “Official Classification Policy to Cover Up Embarrassment.” Clinton Staff Memo is marked “Draft, For Discusssion Purposes Only,” and cites 1947 memo listed below.

  40. “All documents and correspondence”: “Report of Meeting of Classification Board During Week of September 8, 1947,” Atomic Energy Commission.

  41. “cause considerable concern to the Atomic Energy Commission insurance Branch”: September 28, 1947, memorandum from J.C. Franklin, manager Oak Ridge Operations to Carroll L. Wilson, General Manager Re: Medical Policy, 2–3; located circa 1995 by Clinton staff.

  42. “medical papers on human administration experiments done to date”: Ibid.

  43. “reworded or deleted”: October 8, 1947, Memorandum to Advisory Board on Medical and Biology Re: Medical Policy, 8; located

  circa 1995 by Clinton staff.

  44. In 2011 there are an estimated 1.8 billion Internet users: According to Miniwatts Marketing Group.

  45. Deny Ignorance: Interview with AboveTopSecret CEO Bill Irvine.

  46. the New World Order conspiracy theory: Wikipedia has an interesting overview of New World conspiracy theories, with bibliography.

  Chapter Twenty: From Camera Bays to Weapons Bays, the Air Force Takes Control

  Interviews: Richard Mingus, Ed Lovick, Bob Murphy, T. D. Barnes, Gene Poteat, Peter Merlin, Harry Martin, Millie Meierdierck, Dr. Wheelon, Joe Behne

  1. most sensational near catastrophes: Interview with Richard Mingus. Interview with Joe Behne.

  2. a mock helicopter attack: The details of the mock helicopter attack remain classified. Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the NNSA, Nevada Site Office, would neither confirm nor deny the event. Both Mingus and Behne were able to discuss this event with me because the details of the helicopter attack were only ever relayed to them secondhand. Their jobs had to do with the nuclear bomb going down the hole. In other words, while both men were privy to the security scare, neither man was ever officially briefed on the mock attack.

  3. The bomb, one of eighteen: U.S. Department of Energy, United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 through September 1992, 14.

  4. five-man security response team: Interview with Mingus. This is one of the rare security stories from the secret base. Mingus tells it because the procedure is now obsolete.

  5. Quick conversation with Joe Behne: Interview with Joe Behne.

  6. With astounding lack of foresight, Wackenhut Security: Interview with Richard Mingus. Interview with Joe Behne.

  7. using slide rules and calculators: Interview with Ed Lovick. 8. “roughly the size of a ball bearing”: Interview with Lovick and

  specifically “based on 15GhHz radar, 08 wavelength.”

  9. The man in charge of engineering, fabrication, and assembly: Interviews with Bob Murphy.

  10. at Groom Lake to drop bombs: Barnes points out that some bombs were dropped close in to the dry lake bed at Area 51.

  11. to use a preexisting, little-known bombing range: Johnson, “Tonopah Test Range Outpost of Sandia National Laboratories,” Sandia Report SAND96-0375 UC-700 March 1996, U.S. DOE Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

  12. the Chicago of the West: State Historic Preservation Office, Beatty, Center of the Gold Railroads, “Chicago of the West,” Nevada Historical Marker 173.

  13. “secret testing [that] could be conducted safely and securely”: Johnson, “Tonopah Test Range Outpost of Sandia National Laboratories,” 8.

  14. would quote Saint Paul of Tarsus: Ibid., 9.

  15. Operation Roller Coaster, three dirty bomb tests: Ibid., 47; Operation Roller Coaster Sites, TTR SAFER Plan, Section 2.0. Map here; NVO-171 Environmental Plutonium on the Nevada Test Site and Environs, June 1977, 35.

  16. construction for an F-117 Nighthawk support facility: Interview with Peter Merlin.

  17. grow their hair long and to grow beards: Interview with Richard Mingus, who lived there.

  18. test flights of the F-117: Crickmore, Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, 4. Major Al Whitley became the first operational pilot to fly the Nighthawk in October of that year.

  19. Lieutenant General Robert M. Bond: U.S. Air Force official Web site, biography.

  20. men like General James “Jimmy” Doolittle: Interview with Harry Martin.

  21. “There was some debate about whether the general”: Barnes had left Area 51 by this time; this is a secondhand story. Having been

  involved in the MiG program since its inception, Barnes was privy to information about Bond but was never formally briefed.

  22. were the general’s last words: Transcript reads: 10:17:50 a.m., Bond: “How far to the turn?” 10:17:53 a.m. Ground control: “Turn now, right 20.” Bond responds with two clicks. At 10:18:02 a.m. Bond: “I’m out of control. I’m out of…” At 10:18:23 a.m. Bond: “I’ve got to get out, I’m out of control.”

  23. Fred Hoffman, a military writer: Hoffman, “Allies Help Pentagon Obtain Soviet Arms,” Associated Press, May 7, 1984.

  24. at Area 51 and Area 52 for eleven years: Johnson, “Tonopah Test Range Outpost of Sandia National Laboratories,” 79. The first flight of Have Blue was December 1, 1977, by Bill Park at 7:00 p.m. as noted in Crickmore, Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.

  25. Code-named Aquiline: Hank Meierdierck’s personal papers; interview with Jim Freedman; interview with Millie Meierdierck, who had the only known mock-up of the drone sitting on the bar in her home.

  26. original purpose of Aquiline: Interview with Gene Poteat.

  27. Cold War Soviet hydrofoil named Ekranopian: James May, “Riding the Caspian Sea Monster,” BBC News magazine, September 27, 2008.

  28. Jim Freedman to assist him on the Aquiline drone: Interview with Jim Freedman.

  29. ninety-nine million dollars over budget: Hank Meierdierck’s personal papers.

  30. Project Ornithopter: Richelson, Wizards of Langley, 148.

  31. Project Insectothopter: Seen by the author at the CIA museum, located inside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

  32. “Acoustic Kitty”: Richelson, Wizards of Langley, 147.

  33. sensor drones to detect WMD signatures: Interview with Dr. Wheelon.

  34. Early efforts had been made using U-2 pilots: Interview with Tony Bevacqua, who flew “sniffer” missions in U-2s for the U.S. Air Force. The Black Cat pilots flew some of these dangerous missions, per my interview with Colonel Slater.

  35. Operation Tobasco, risked exposure: Richelson, Wizards of Langley, 93–94.

  36. did considerable damage to the Agency’s reputation: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” 220. Marks’s entire chapter 12, “The Search for Truth,” is a particularly searing portrait of how the CIA was perceived during this time.

  37. “probable biological warfare research”: CIA Top Secret, Biological Warfare, USSR: Additional Rumors of an Accident at the Biological Warfare Institute in Sverdlovsk. Dated October 15, 1979. Declassified 6/10/96.

  38. Hellfire missiles: Lockheed makes the Hellfire, which is an acr
onym for its original design: helicopter-launched, fire-and-forget.

  39. his name was Osama bin Laden: Coll, Ghost Wars, 533: “While hovering over Tarnak Farm outside Kandahar, the Predator photographed a man who appeared to be bin Laden.”

  Chapter Twenty-one: Revelation

  Interviews: T. D. Barnes, Colonel Leghorn, Hervey Stockman, Gerald Posner, Stephen Younger, John Pike, Gene Poteat, EG&G engineer, David Myhra

  1. engineers and aerodynamicists had concerns: Interview with Barnes. This is educated speculation; Barnes did not work on the drone project. Coll also writes about this.

  2. targeted assassination by a U.S. intelligence agency was illegal: December 4, 1981, President Ronald Reagan Executive Order 12333.

  3. State Department gave the go-ahead: Coll, Ghost Wars, 539.

  4. CIA and the Air Force teamed up for an unusual building project: Ibid., 534. “The Air Force ought to pay for the Afghan operation, CIA officers believed, in part because the Pentagon was learning more about the drone’s capabilities in a month than they could in a half a year of sterile testing in Nevada… Having seen the images of bin Laden walking toward the mosque at Tarnak, Black was now a vocal advocate of affixing missiles to the drone.”

  5. on the outer reaches of Area 51: In Ghost Wars, Steve Coll places the mock-up “in Nevada” (549). One source interviewed by me placed the mock-up at Area 51; a second source interviewed by me placed the mock-up inside the Nevada Test and Training Range (speculating Area 52). The exact location where this took place remains classified.

  6. CIA director George Tenet decided: Coll, Ghost Wars, 535. “There was a child’s swing. Families lived at Tarnak. The CIA estimated that the compound contained about one hundred women and children — bin Laden’s family and family members of some top aides.” Tenet would have made the final call.

  7. CIA drones provided intelligence for NATO forces: Jim

  Garamone, “Predator Demonstrates Worth Over Kosovo,” American Forces Press Service, September 21, 1999.

  8. The first reconnaissance drone mission in the war on terror: 9/11 Commission Report, 213–214.

  9. “a very successful tactical operation”: Wolfowitz’s interview with CNN anchor Maria Ressa appeared in print as “U.S. Missile Strike Kills al Qaeda Chief,” CNN, November 5, 2002. Wolfowitz added, “one hopes each time you get a success like that, not only to have gotten rid of somebody dangerous, but to have imposed changes in their tactics and operations and procedures.”

  10. exclusive interview to the Christian Science Monitor: Yemeni Official Says US Lacks Discretion as Antiterror Partner,” Christian Science Monitor, November 12, 2002.

  11. Hull spoke Arabic: Ibid.; Seymour Hersh, “Manhunt: The Bush Administration’s New Strategy in the War Against Terrorism,” New Yorker, December 23, 2002.

  12. Mohammed Atef, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan: Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, “The Drone War: Are Predators Our Best Weapon or Worst Enemy,” New Republic, June 3, 2009.

  13. targeted assassination spearheaded by the CIA: Mark Hosenball and Evan Thomas, “The Opening Shot,” Newsweek, November 18, 2002.

  14. Predator got a new designation: MQ-1B Predator, official Web site of U.S. Air Force, fact sheet.

  15. company that built the Predator: General Atomics Aeronautical, http://www.ga-asi.com/accessed December 30, 2010.

  16. “big differences between the Reaper and the Predator”: Travis Edwards, “First MQ-9 Reaper Makes Its Home on Nevada Flightline,” U.S. Air Force Public Affairs, March 14, 2007.

  17. Brigadier General Frank Gorenc was remotely viewing: Major

  John Hutcheson, “Balad Predator Strikes Insurgents Placing Roadside Bomb Near Balad,” Red Tail Flyer, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, Public Affairs, Balad Air Base, Iraq, March 31, 2006, 5.

  18. “put a weapon on a target within minutes”: Ibid.

  19. By 2009 the number of drone strikes would rise to fifty-three: http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes.php; these numbers vary. Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann are considered the authorities on the subject of drone strikes. The pair keep track of numbers and provide analysis for organizations including New America Foundation and the New Republic magazine.

  20. “These are just the assets we know about”: This is because when missiles are fired it is often the work of the CIA, and CIA drone strikes are not made public. As per my interview with Pentagon officials, “That we can’t confirm or deny.” State Department officials also refuse to comment on CIA drone attacks and deflect attempts to get confirmation on the CIA’s role in drone operations. While visiting Pakistan in December of 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a group of journalists who were inquiring specifically about drone strikes, “I’m not going to comment on any particular tactic or technology.” In reality, the strategic partnership between the CIA and the Air Force that began with Bissell’s CIA and LeMay’s Air Force in 1955 is back together again.

  21. the Beast of Kandahar: Originally reported by Air & Cosmos magazine, http://www.air-cosmos.com/site/, the story was quickly picked up in the U.S. press. David Hambling, “Mysteries Surround Afghanistan’s Stealth Drone,” Wired magazine, Danger Room Blog, December 4, 2009; interview with unnamed Lockheed official.

  22. Defense Department confirmed: Interview with secretary of the Air Force, Public Affairs Engagements Office.

  23. synthetic aperture radar, or SAR: Sandia National Laboratories: Synthetic Aperture Radar: What is Synthetic Aperture Radar? Sandia Synthetic Aperture Radar Programs (Unclassified

  programs and participants); http://www.sandia.gov/.

  24. thirty miles south of Area 51, at Indian Springs: Physical tour of Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada, October 9, 2009.

  25. “Wicked Problems”: “Report of the Defense Science Board, 2008 Summer Study on Capability Surprise, Volume II: Supporting Papers, January 2010. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense For Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Washington, DC, 20301-3140, chapter 2, Appendix 2-A, Wicked Problems, 127-31.

  26. “playing the game changes the game”: Ibid., 127.

  27. shot down one of their own: Carl Hoffman, “China’s Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites,” Popular Mechanics, July 2007.

  28. The official Pentagon story: Jim Garamone, “Navy to Shoot Down Malfunctioning Satellite,” American Forces Press Service, February 14, 2008; “Navy Says Missile Smashed Wayward Satellite,” MSNBC.com News Services, February 21, 2008; “U.S. Missile Shoots Down Satellite — But Why?” Christian Science Monitor, February 22, 2008.

  29. not required to tell the truth to Congress: Killian, Sputnik, Scientists and Eisenhower, 25.

  30. “A satellite cannot simply drop a bomb”: Ibid., 287. Killian originally wrote this as “a study of space science and technology made at the request of the President for the non technical reader,” which was released from the White House on March 26, 1958. “Much has been written about space as a future war theatre, raising such questions as satellite bombers, military bases on the moon and so on… most of these schemes, nevertheless, appear to be clumsy and ineffective ways of doing a job. Take one example, the satellite as a bomb carrier. A satellite simply cannot drop a bomb.”

  31. by his own admission, was not a scientist: James Killian had only an undergraduate degree in management, as per my interview

  with MIT’s archivist who researched the question for me in March of 2010.

  32. United States Space Surveillance Network: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, Frequently Asked Questions, July 2009, http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faqs.html.

  33. “A one-centimeter object is very hard to track”: Carl Hoffman, “China’s Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites,” Popular Mechanics, July 2007.

  34. “spy satellites launched into space”: Interview with Colonel Leghorn.

  35. Leghorn founded the Itek Corporation: Itek, which stood for Information (I) Technology (tek), was founded in 1957 with seed mo
ney from venture capitalist Laurance Rockefeller. Itek built Corona cameras from the beginning of the program until Corona ended in 1972. The CIA/NRO follow-on systems were contracted out to PerkinElmer; interviews with Colonel Leghorn, Dr. Wheelon. In his memoir, Helms wrote, “Corona flew 145 secret missions, with equally rewarding results,” 267.

  36. Leghorn spent decades in the commercial-satellite business: U.S. Air Force official Web site, Biography of Colonel Richard Sully Leghorn, Retired, Air Force Space Command,

  http://www.afspc.af.mil/library/biographies/bio.asp?id=9942.

  37. W61 Earth Penetrator: Leland Johnson, “Sandia Report: Tonopah Test Range Outpost of Sandia National Laboratories, SAND96-0375, UC-700,” March 1996, 80.

  38. launch the earth-penetrator weapon: Nelson, “Low-Yield EarthPenetrating Nuclear Weapons,” 3, figure 3.

  39. and signed by five of the then seven or eight nuclear-capable countries: Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (http://www.ctbto.org/). The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom,

  and Russia on September 26, 1996, in New York. The nuclear-armed states who did not sign (and as of 2011 have not signed) are India, Israel, and Pakistan. According to CTBTO, Israel has not reported testing but is generally assumed to be a nuclear-armed state. In 2006, Korea announced that it had conducted a nuclear test. Notably, the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, to which I also refer, prohibits nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater but allowed for underground nuclear tests. The Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty of 1996 prohibits all nuclear explosions, including those conducted underground.

  40. Rods from God: Eric Adams, “Rods from God,” Popular Science, June 1, 2004.

  41. “that’s enough force”: Interview with Barnes.

  42. “long-rod penetration”: Nelson, “Low-Yield Earth-Penetrating Nuclear Weapons,” 4.

  43. April 1999 report: JSR-97-155, “Characterization of Underground Facilities.” JASON, MITRE Corporation, McLean, Virginia.

  44. Los Alamos fired back: Interview with Stephen Younger.