Area 51 No Longer (Officially) a Secret

[wraggster]

The first-ever declassified story of Area 51's origin is now available (http://www.nbcnews.com/science/area-51-its-purpose-declassified-no-ufos-lots-u-2-6C10931555), thanks to a Freedom of Information Act filed years ago by George Washington University's National Security Archive. The (only lightly redacted) document (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/) is actually primarily a history of the U-2 and A-12 ("Oxcart") spy plane programs from the Cold War, but is remarkable for being the first-ever official unclassified acknowledgment of Area 51's purpose (http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-now-admits-theres-area-51/68389/) and its role in the program. Interesting tidbits include that the U-2 program was kicked off with a CIA check mailed personally to Lockheed Skunk Works chief Kelly Johnson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer)) for $1.25M; a U-2 was launched off an aircraft carrier to spy on French nuclear tests; and the U-2 delivery program itself was actually done under budget, a rarity for secret government programs then or now."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/08/16/129200/area-51-no-longer-officially-a-secret