Phoenix court
APPENDIX Andros, Area 51 and Diego Garcia
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APPENDIXAndros, Area 51 and Diego GarciaAndros has been likened to Area 51 and Diego Garcia. Are they similar? Area 51 is in Nevada, high up in the desert, ringed by mountains, and 75 miles north of Las Vegas. To the northwest of Area 51 is the almost 5,000 square miles of the Nevada Test and Training Range; and to its south is the Nellis Air Range and Creech Air Force Base. Area 51’s various facilities are constructed by, and over, a dry lakebed known as Groom Lake. It is, however, only one of a number of similar areas which are, or have been, used by such government organisations as the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the Air Force and Navy, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), the National Reconnaissance Officer (NRO). The AEC is now called the Department of Energy. The area in Nevada, generally known as the Nevada Test Site (now known as the Nevada National Security Site), was first established by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1951 on the orders of President Truman. Between 1951 and September 1992, more than 100 nuclear devices and weapons above-ground, and 830 underground in tunnels and vertical shafts, were detonated and exploded at the Nevada Test Site, many as near as five miles northwest of Area 51. Originally an animal sanctuary, the site became contaminated with plutonium-239; despite efforts at cleaning up the site by thousands of Army personnel, one of the “dirty” bombs exploded in 1957, is reported to have a half-life of 20,000 years. (By 1955, the United States already had a stockpile of 2,280 nuclear bombs.) Altogether, the United States is said to have constructed more than 75,000 nuclear bombs! + + + + + In 1954, President Eisenhower directed Richard Bissell, Assistant Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to find a secret location to assemble and construct new spy planes, in co-operation with the Lockheed Corporation, to investigate, and spy on the Soviet Union’s own nuclear weapons programme. And, so in the winter of 1955, Bissell together with CIA colleague Herbert Miller, and Lockheed Corporation aerodynamist Clarence Johnson, flew over Area 51 in search of a dry lakebed called Groom Lake. Under extreme secrecy, Area 51 was established in which the CIA, in co-operation with the Air Force and the Lockheed Corporation, could develop, assemble and test reconnaissance spy planes originally called Utility-2 (or just U-2). A hangar, and later various buildings, were constructed on the site. The U-2s were transported to Groom Lake runway, in sections, inside giant C-124 transport planes and then assembled on site. According to Jeffrey Richelson in his The U.S. Intelligence Community (p.157), more than 55 U-2s in various versions are known to have been built, all presumably at Area 51. There were numerous crashes. By 1956, the CIA deployed three U-2s, known as Detachment A, to fly over the Soviet Union from the RAF airbase at Lakenheath, in Suffolk, in England. (See also Ranelagh.) And, by July 1958, five RAF pilots, working undercover of the Meteorological Office in London, and paid through a SIS secret bank account, were sent to America to train as U-2 pilots in Nevada. One of them, Squadron-Leader Christopher Walker, was killed in a crash during training over Area 51 (see Dorril, p.659). Soviet MIG fighter jets could climb to a maximum of 45,000 feet; the U-2s flew to more than 60,000 feet (Guardian, 4 August 1997). They flew at about 500 miles per hour, and had a range of around 4,000 miles. + + + + + By 1960, the CIA and Air Force had produced, assembled and tested 12 airplanes (A-12) which for some perverse reason they codenamed Oxcart, at Area 51 which could fly five times as fast as the U-2s, at 2,300 miles per hours, at an altitude of almost 100,000 feet, and had a range of more than 4,000 miles. Jacobsen comments (pp.205-206): “In total, 2,850 Oxcart flights would be flown out of Area 51 over a period of six years. Exactly how many of these flights generated UFO reports is not known, but the ones that prompted UFO sightings created the same kinds of problems for the CIA as they had in the previous decade with the U-2, only with elements that were seemingly more explicable. With Oxcart [A-12], commercial airline pilots flying over Nevada or California would look up and see the shiny, reflective bottom of the Oxcart whizzing by high overhead at triple-sonic speeds and think, UFO. When the Oxcart flew at 2,300 miles per hour, it was going approximately five times as fast than a commercial airplane…Seventeen miles higher up the sun was shining brightly on the Oxcart.” Not surprisingly, they were thought to be from outer-space. In 1962, Lockheed secured a contract to develop unmanned vehicles, or drones, Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs) to give them their correct name, called Tagboard, which were tested at Area 51. Drones were first launched from an aircraft, already moving faster than sound. Updated, and tested at Area 51, pilotless drones have been used, first for reconnaissance and later for attacking specific targets in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iran, Kosovo, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, as well as Libya. Controlled by so-called pilots, sitting more than 8,000 miles away in front of computers at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, south of Area 51, both the U.S. and Britain’s RAF have caused considerable damage, as well as killing and injuring many people. Although the drones’ programmes are still classified, the CIA and US Air Force, and RAF, have been concerned with what they term “collateral damage”. Many drones go astray. The U.S. has about 8,000 drones. According to the Times (29 October 2011), United States MQ9 Reaper drones, armed with Hellfire missile and satellite-guided bombs, and with a range of 1,150 miles, are based at, and operating from, an airfield at Arba Minch, a remote mountain area in southwest Ethiopia, as well as at bases in Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Americans also have their largest permanent base at Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, The operation of drones is, however, not simple. Each aircraft requires a team of more than 150 personnel, maintaining and repairing it, as well as the collection of radio signals (SIGINT), videos and “voluminous intelligence necessary to prompt a single strike” (International Herald Tribune, 3 October 2011). Indeed, the US Air Force spends at least $5billion a year just on its remotely piloted drone systems. Writing in the Guardian (3 April 2012), Richard Norton-Taylor notes that “Drones, armed with cameras, and increasingly with bombs and missiles, are fast becoming a key weapon of modern warfare.” The CIA has dramatically increased the use of drones along the Afghan-Pakistan borders, as well as in Somalia and Yemen. Israel is in at the forefront of drone technology, says Norton-Taylor. He continues: “The US-manufactured General Atomics MQ-Reaper is at the moment the RAF’s only armed unmanned aircraft. It can fly for more than 18 hours, has a range of 3,600 miles, and can operate at up to 15,000 meters (50,000 ft). The Reapers, armed with Paveway bombs and four Hellfire missiles, are operated by RAF personnel based at Creech [Air Force Base] in Nevada. They are controlled by satellite datalink.” Unlike the submarines tested at AUTEC/TOTO in Andros, the drones are not – as yet! – nuclear-powered, as they are prone to crash. + + + + + Also tested at Area 51 were the F-117 Stealth bombers, developed and produced by Lockheed, and first named Nighthawk. Planned in the early 1970s, they were flight-tested, at night, during the 1980s for bomb-testing; an area designated Area 52, northwest of Area 51 was used. According to Annie Jacobsen (Area 51, p.343), Areas 51 and 52 worked in tandem. Public access to Area 51 (as with AUTEC on Andros) is strictly forbidden. One notice states: “Photography of this area is prohibited. 18 U.S.C. 795”. Another, ominously, says: “WARNING. Restricted Area. It is unlawful to enter this area without permission of the Installation Commander. See Internal Security Act of 1950. U.S.C. 795. While on this Installation all personnel and the property under their control are subject to search. Use of deadly force authorized.” Indeed, trespassers have been arrested, put in leg-irons, strip-searched, heavily fined and even jailed for ignoring the warnings. Not surprisingly, ever since the Area 51 base was established, people have reported seeing odd-looking objects in the sky. At first, both the U-2s and the Stealth bombers’ silver bodies reflected the rays of the sun, encouraging the sightings of “fiery objects”. Later, they were painted black to reduce so-called UFO sightings. Rumours of alien spacecraft – and little grey or green men from Mars – abounded. Originally, the CIA rubbished such claims. There were no flying saucers or aliens from outer space. No little men. They were not from Mars, or outer space. But they did, and do, exist. In a report, “The CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90”, published on the 3rd of August 1997, the Agency admitted it had lied about the real nature of UFOs in the vicinity of Area 51 and elsewhere, to preserve secrecy during the Cold War. It admitted the validity of hundreds of sightings from the public, aviation experts and pilots. Initially, they were U-2s and Stealth bombers and, later, drones. Commenting on the CIA report, the Guardian (4 August 1997) said: “The planes were built at Area 51, or Dreamland base in Nevada, whose existence the Pentagon still denies. The U-2s flew to more than 60,000 ft. and the Blackbird to 80,000 ft.” Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2014 2014 -> For want of a nail 2014 -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 2014 -> Ihbb asian Championships 2014 middle school bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> Ihbb european Championships 2014 Bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> International History Bee and Bowl 2013-14 Asian Division Question Set Bowl Round Six 2014 -> United states patent and trademark office 2014 -> Coffs harbour eisteddfod vocal syllabus 2014 -> Listen News Programs Schedule pledge now 2014 -> Slow club announce third album complete surrender Download 305.05 Kb. Share with your friends:
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