Area 51

[Waelith]

Area 51 is secret Air Force research and testing facility located at Groom Lake Nevada which is north of Las Vegas out in the open desert area.  Area 51 isn't the official term for this facility, it's the pop culture name given to the facility. 
Warning signs are posted around the boundries of the facility about 10 miles out from the actual facility!  If you cross that imaginary line in the sand they have the authority to shoot to kill and there's nothing your familiy or any lawyer can do about it.  You're toast and there's no repercussions for the Area 51 personal who killed you.
There are also no environmental laws at Area 51.  So they burn their toxic waste on site because they don't even want that to be in the hands of anyone else.  Everything down to a pencil or toilet paper at Area 51 is classified material.  Some Area 51 employees died from the toxic waste fumes which blew into the base in the 1990's.  In court, the Federal Government wouldn't even acknowledge their real names or the fact they even worked there! 
Billions of dollars are spent at Area 51 each year!  The money comes out of what's called the "Black Budget" which is seperate tax payer money.  Area 51 is so classified, there is no congressional oversight at all.  I understand that a lot of what goes on at Area 51 is needed for the defense and security of the United States of America, but a place with no environmental laws, can shoot people dead, has zero congressional oversight or any other government oversight for that matter, and receives billions of dollars per year seems a bit dangerous to me.
There is also an area called S-4 which is Southeast of Groome Lake at Papoose Mountain.  Inside Papoose Mountain is a 4 level facility.  9 hanger doors are built into the base of the mountain.  Extraterrestrial space craft are said to be held there and test flown in the general area at night.
Groom Lake is not a conventional airbase, and frontline units are not normally deployed there. It appears, rather, to be used during the development, test and training phases for new aircraft. Once those aircraft have been accepted by the USAF, operation of that aircraft is generally shifted to a normal air force base. Groom is reported, however, to be the permanent home for a small number of aircraft of Soviet design (obtained by various means). These are reportedly analyzed and used for training purposes. Soviet spy satellites obtained photographs of the Groom Lake area during the height of the Cold War, but these support only modest conclusions about the base. They depict a nondescript base, airstrip, hangars, and so forth, but nothing that supports some of the wilder claims about underground facilities. Later commercial satellite images show that the base has grown, but remains superficially unexceptional.
Defense contractor EG&G maintains a private terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. A number of unmarked aircraft operate daily shuttle services from McCarran to sites operated by EG&G in the extensive federally controlled lands in southern Nevada. These aircraft reportedly use JANET radio call signs (e.g., "JANET 6"), said to be an acronym for "Joint Air Network for Employee Transportation" or (perhaps as a joke) "Just Another Non-Existent Terminal". EG&G advertises in the Las Vegas press for experienced airline pilots, saying applicants must be eligible for government security clearance and that successful applicants can expect to always overnight at Las Vegas. These aircraft, painted white with red trim (the livery of now defunct Western Airlines), include Boeing 737s and several smaller executive jets. Their tail numbers are registered to several unexceptional civil aircraft leasing corporations. They are reported to shuttle to Groom, Tonopah Test Range, to other locations in the NAFR and NTS, and reportedly to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. Observers counting departures and cars in the private EG&G parking lot at McCarran estimate several thousand people commute on JANET each day. A bus runs a commuter service along Groom Lake Road, catering to a small number of employees living in several small desert communities beyond the NTS boundary (although it is not clear whether these workers are employed at Groom or at other facilities in the NTS). The bus drives down Groom Lake Road and stops at Crystal Springs, Ash Springs, and Alamo.
Its secretive nature and undoubted connection to classified aircraft research, together with reports of unusual phenomena, have led Area 51 to become a centerpiece of modern UFO and conspiracy theory folklore. Some of the unconventional activities claimed to be underway at Area 51 include: The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell), the study of their occupants (living and dead), and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology. Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials, the development of exotic energy weapons (for SDI applications or otherwise) or means of weather control, activities related to a supposed shadowy world government all all rumors surrounding Area 51. Many of theories concern underground facilities at Groom or at nearby Papoose Lake, and include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system, a disappearing airstrip (nicknamed the "Cheshire Airstrip", after Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat) which briefly appears when water is sprayed onto its camouflaged asphalt, and engineering based on alien technology. In 1989 Bob Lazar claimed that he had worked at a facility at Papoose Mountain (which he called S-4) on such a U.S. Government flying saucer.
Some technology being developed at Area 51 is said to be 25-50 ahead of the technology we have today.  Just stop and think for a second how far we've come with our technology since the 1950's!  Just think of what we'll see in the year 2055!!!

[Blaen]

Did anyone read that article a while back about the theory they have moved Area 51? It just seems that because Area 51 has so much press, testing "Alien technology" there would be slightly unwise to say the least.

[Waelith]

I think the general consensus was to throw the "public" and the media off the scent, but area 51 still exists, but as for the aliens/alien technology, this has been rumoured to have been moved to another base, but some elements of it still apparently remain in the area, near Groom lake, at a place called Papoose Mountain, but the USAF still operates its military aircraft tech/tests at Area 51 itself...just under extremely heavy guard

[Rwar]

Of course Area 51 is high security! How could it not be? I mean, whatever they are doing in there, they don't want the whole world knowing about it do they? Of course not. I wouldn't. God know's what their testing on and doing if they've got toxic waste!

[Blaen]

Of course they still use the base. But any "Alien technology" they have there would have been moved as soon as any rumours of there being any there started. There are hundreds of high security military bases across America, who knows what any of them contain?

[Rwar]

Precisely Chris. I think that once the world's tabloid's and press got wind of there being any "Alien Technology" there, they moved it somewhere unknown and unthought of holding such things.

[Blaen]

I'm sceptical about any ALien visitations to earth but I would like this answered. If Aliens are real and the governments of earth know this, why keep it secret?

[Waelith]

Can you imagine the overall public response to that? There would be world-wide chaos over this. Some people would be frightened...VERY frightened.

[Blaen]

Some people. I would have thought most would be pleased to know that we are not the only form of life in the Universe. I certainly would be, can you imagine the implications. Why must people always assume that Aliens are the evil invaders? Besides if Aliens are out there I doubt they'd be interested in us. To be fair, humans are galactic vermin compared to anything else that may exist out there. I wouldn't be surprised if our solar system is a quarantined zone.

[Moreta]

Though I agree with you, I would love to know if there really were other intelligent life than our own, as Waelith said, most people would not be able to cope with it. We are a very select few, and though you live amongst people who feel the same way as you, there aer a lot of people who just could not deal with that sort of information. Its something frightening like only 10% of americans have passports. 60% of americans (or something equally large) dont even know the sun is a star!! How would they cope knowing on another planet there is life when they dont even understand the world they live in.

As for Area 51, yes, they certainly have something there. Whether its alien technology or merely incredibly dangerous technology along the lines of nuclear bombs that they dont want the public to know about Im not sure.

I once had a talk at my school from some guy that was part of some UFO society. All the stuff he showed us was absolute rubbish, always quite obviously explicable, except one thing. A photo that was taken on a beach in Cornwall I think it was. It showed about four helicopters flying past with a bright light flying in the middle. There were several photos taken, not just one. Now, not only did the government and army etc deny the presence of that light, they denied that helicopters had even been in that area that day. The light might have been faked, but the helicopters werent. Those helicopters were out that day, and if they were, I think that light was real, which means they were flying with the technology of something we have never before seen. They were denying the existance of something, trying to hide something from the public, just as they do everywhere else.

[Jøesmø]

Area 51 has always been an iffy topic for me. 

I, personally, don't believe anything that has to do with aliens (but I do believe in ghosts, especially since last night.)

I'm sure there are... normal ... things there, such has weapons developing places and the like. 

And about the Nuclear Weapon, most all nukes we have are around the northern midwest, except for an occasional Airforce Base.


...  All that sounds sooo stupid... oh well.

[Waelith]

I am currently reading a book called "the day after Roswell" Its about the UFO crash in the mid 40's. And how the U.S. government are trying to cover it up, etc etc. Well, the guy who wrote this book was actually on the project, and some of the stuff he is saying is sounding completely viable.

It might just change your mind about Extraterrestrials, and stuff.

The day after Roswell - Col Phillip J Corso

Check it out.

[Mojo Toner]

I doubt Area 51 exists, its more likely Area 2, cause they won't have 51 areas of "alien" testing...
No wait they are americans, perhaps they do waste tht much money...

[Mithrandir]

Area 51 is still used by the US government and is merely a place for testing weapons and military machines. The "peculiar looking" aircraft created by the US government and tested nearby are what give rise to this alien rubbish (as with many military bases in the US).

Area 51 has nothing to do with aliens. If it did wouldn't they shout it around the world (and the Russian's would've made damn sure they found out during the Cold War)?

Furthermore, if aliens were to come to Earth, why would they go to the USA? OK they are the superpower these days, but would the aliens know that? They might go to the country with the largest population, or largest land area, not simply the most money and bigest military. In 1947 (when the Roswell "incident" took place), there is a stronger case for the fact aliens, if looking for a power in the world, woulld go to the London due to the British Empire and victory in the World Wars.

[Shadowfax]

Omg, of course there are alien craft in area 51, havent you guys *seen* the xfiles?  o_0

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