Tucked away to the north of Las Vegas in the Nevada Desert of America, at a place called Groom Lake, many many miles from the nearest town or populated area, is a vast military complex.

We are not just talking about a small secret building, nor even just a hidden airfield or military encampment, this place is far bigger than a city, larger even than a county, this 'hidden' area compares more with the size of a small country.

575 Square Miles of 'Secrets'

Groom Lake or as we better know it 'Area 51' has the worlds longest runway, it is three times the length of any other.

Right up to 1994 the American Government denied even its existence.

It did not appear on any official maps, aerial photography was and still is banned, and all satellite imagery was carefully doctored to remove certain parts from vision.

Those that work and have worked there were sworn to complete secrecy, threatened with very long imprisonment and huge fines if they were to reveal any information, that is if nothing untoward happened to them first!

The whole area surrounding and above Area 51 is monitored and guarded closely, if you were to fly too near the restricted area then the air control tower will in no uncertain terms advise you to alter path. Armed jets will instantly escort you away, and if you fail to comply then yes they will shoot you down.

The road entrances are guarded by what are called "Camo Guys", a security force who wear camouflage, they watch closely and quickly intercept any vehicle that goes too far down the road. They also have Snipers hidden away at possible entry routes.

Even on the roads that surround the base, if you decide to stop, then instantly a vehicle or armed attack helicopter will appear, making it definitely known to you that you are not welcome.

Even roads outside the bases area have been fitted with electronic monitoring devices, these have recently caused much upset as they have been fitted outside of the military controlled zone. One of these sensors was 'dug up' by a civilian and a big legal battle ensued.

Chuck Clark, a resident of tiny Rachel, Nevada -- 100 miles north of Las Vegas along the Extraterrestrial Highway -- the amateur astronomer and author has spent years keeping an eye on the spot the government calls the "operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada. He's said to be a frequent presence at the Little A'Le'Inn, where you can purchase post cards and tee shirts, enjoy an "Alien Burger," and walk out with a copy of Clark's "Area 51 & S-4 Handbook" to guide you on your journey into the desert.

But this self-appointed military watchdog is harder to find these days: messages left for him at the Inn go unreturned, and his media appearances have dried up like Groom Lake itself. "I think he's really not as motivated to talk to the media anymore as he used to be," says friend and fellow base-watcher Joerg Arnu.

The reason: it turns out the truth really was out there, and the US government didn't appreciate Clark digging it up.

Clark didn't find the Roswell craft or an alien autopsy room -- in fact, while officially shrouded in secrecy, the 50-year-old base is generally believed to be dedicated to the terrestrial mission of testing classified aircraft. "The U2 spy plane, the SR-71, the F-117A stealth fighter, all were flight-tested out of the Groom Lake facility," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. The myth of Area 51 memorialized in films, T.V. shows and novels is a function of the secrecy that surrounds it. "It is a concrete manifestation of official secrecy at its most intense, and that invites a mixture of paranoia and speculative fantasy that has become ingrained in popular culture," says Aftergood.

But even without aliens, the facility has its secrets, and last year while roaming the desert outside the Groom Lake base Clark stumbled upon one of them: an electronic device packed in a rugged case and buried in the dirt. Marked "U.S. Government Property," the device turned out to be a wireless transmitter, connected by an underground cable to a sensor buried nearby next to one of the unpaved roads that vein the public land surrounding the base. Together, the units act as a surveillance system, warning someone -- somewhere -- whenever a vehicle drives down that stretch of road. Similar devices had been spotted in the area in the early 90s, but they were crude and bulky, stashed in the bushes and easily spotted. They were later withdrawn. The new road sensors are more clandestine, given away only by a slender antenna poking up through the dirt. "They're very, very hard to find, because there's just this little wire, like a blade of grass," says Arnu.

Sniffing Out Surveillance

Arnu, a Las Vegas software engineer, has shared Clark's preoccupation with the Groom Lake base since 1999, when he made a trip to the area to see what all the fuss was about. "I thought, okay, I'll give it a try, see what's out there... A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and before I knew it I started developing a website about Area 51," says Arnu. So when Clark found the new generation of road sensor, Arnu drove out to help investigate further. The pair found that, at close range, they could use a handheld frequency counter to pick up the wireless signals given off by the devices as a car passes. Over the following month and half, Clark and Arnu engaged in a kind of geocaching game with the Men in Black, systematically sniffing out the road sensors with the frequency counter, exhuming them, and opening them up. They discovered that each device was coded with three-digit identifier that could be read off an internal dial, allowing Arnu to make a list that correlated each unit's I.D. number with its GPS coordinates, creating a virtual map of a portion of the surveillance network surrounding the Groom Lake facility. Some of the sensors were miles away from the base.  "We dug up about 30 or 40 of them on various access roads leading to the base on public land," Arnu says, insisting that he and Clark always carefully reburied each unit after logging it, and even tested it with the frequency counter to make sure it was still working before moving on to the next one.

Based on their survey, Clark and Arnu have estimated that there are between 75 and 100 sensors, on public land used by hikers and photographers in addition to curiosity seekers. "I think it is absolutely inappropriate," says Arnu. "You have to understand that people going out there-- not everybody is interested in Area 51... They track these tourists on public land going about their hobby."

When they'd gathered sufficient evidence that the Air Force was bugging the desert, Arnu and Clark revealed the road sensors on Arnu's website, Dreamland Resort, a forum and information site for Area 51 aficionados and the "Official Home Page of the world-famous Little A'Le'Inn." The reaction from the government was immediate, according to Arnu: the road sensors were fitted with a new feature aimed at better eluding detection. Now the transmitters would wait a minute or two before broadcasting an alarm, so that desert wardrivers are out of range before the transmission takes place -- at least, using relatively insensitive detection equipment like a frequency counter.

Undeterred by the innovation, in June of last year Clark led a news crew from Las Vegas' KLAS television station into the desert and showed them some of the road sensors. The following week, according to the station's report, FBI and Air Force agents raided Clark's trailer home in Rachel, and carted off his computer, photographs and records. The next day, Arnu got a call at work from the FBI. "They demanded that I speak with them the very same day," he says.

The Case of the Missing Sensor

The investigation sparked something of a backlash in Nevada. The Las Vegas Review Journal editorialized against the FBI's tactics. In the Las Vegas Mercury, George Knapp, the newsman who filmed the KLAS segment, asked how far the government should be allowed to go in protecting the secret base. "If you or I accidentally kick one of these hidden transmitters, should the feds be able to seize our Macintosh and photos of Aunt Betty?" Arnu describes the probe as an intimidation tactic. "It didn't lead anywhere," says Arnu. "It was basically a dead-end from the beginning because we didn't break any law... We dug [the sensors] up without damaging them or destroying them."

But court documents unsealed earlier this year reveal that there was an unsolved mystery lurking around Groom Lake. It seems that a month prior to the raid, one of the road sensors went missing-- vanished, like an abductee' pulled into a flying saucer.

The government didn't charge anyone with stealing U.S. property, but last December they charged Clark with a single count of interfering with a communications system used for the national defense. On March 12th, 2003 Clark allegedly obstructed, hindered and delayed "a signal from a mini intrusion device" located outside "the Nevada Test and Training Range" -- a reference to the government land that encompasses the Groom Lake site.  "He removed one," says Natalie Collins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas. "It says that there, so it's fine for me to confirm that."

In a deal quietly reached with prosecutors last January, Clark agreed to "either locate and return the sensor removed on March 12, 2003 or pay restitution to the United States Air Force to replace the missing sensor." In exchange, the government agreed to suspend proceedings against Clark and to place him on a kind of probation called "pretrial diversion": if Clark goes a year without interfering with any of the road sensors, and doesn't otherwise break the law, the government will drop the felony charge.

Clark's phone number is unlisted, and he didn't respond to repeated messages left for him at the Little A'Le'Inn over the course of several months, and inquiries passed through Arnu. Clark's attorney also declined to return repeated phone calls on the case.

Arnu says his friend never told him about a missing sensor, or his agreement to return it. "I refuse to believe that Chuck would be stupid enough to remove one," says Arnu. "I know... that he agreed to lay low for a year." Clark's adventures near the most famously secret patch of real estate in the world appear to have pulled him beneath the very cloak of secrecy he poked and scratched at for so many years. He has, in a sense, become a part of Area 51.

All businesses when creating their latest products such as cars; planes; computers etc, keep things secret from their competitors, all hoping to stay one step ahead. The military all around the world are exactly the same, they have to be, so we know lots of things need to be tested in secrecy. But when they will not even admit that these 'testing places' exist, that is when we begin to ask what exactly goes on in these places.

Obviously during times of conflict, and during the 'Cold War' years, there was a need for military secrecy, and there will always be a need for industrial and commercial secrecy to some extent, companies trying to produce a newer better product before it is copied by competitors. Since the end of the cold war this need for military secrecy has eased, yet still Area 51 remains clouded in deep secrecy, denial and mystique.

The worlds car manufacturers, computer companies, technology giants all perform 'Secret Testing' of their new products, yet unlike the US Government they do not deny the existence of their research facilities, and they definitely do not take the costs for it out of the country's budget without telling the people.

Although unconfirmed, and of course strongly denied by the Government or Military, it is said that the Groom Lake base has a highly secure area (S4) where there is several 'captured' Flying Saucers.    

The wreckage from the 1947 UFO crash at Roswell was transported here, and there is said to be fully working craft which scientists are reverse engineering to find out how their propulsion systems, navigation, and even methods of flight work.

Over the years, many of the engineers; scientists and workers that have been based at Area 51 have divulged information and recounted what they both saw, examined and worked on whilst at the base.  Obviously some of these accounts may well be fake, as are some of the photographs and videos of 'Aliens' or alien craft, but many similar reports have come from a variety of very believable sources. 

And they do say there is no smoke without fire !

Throughout the lead up to what is known as the Disclosure Project which I shall explain below, there has been claims that the US Government and Governments from other countries have actually been in contact with alien life forms for many years. Observers and ex-workers claim that night time landings of such craft regularly occur at Area 51 Groom Lake Base. This could possibly explain the undisclosed reason for a runway that is three times longer than any other in the world, and certainly it could explain the sudden advancements we have made over recent years in regards to technology.

Governments from other countries around the world have openly admitted to the existence of Alien presence and technology.

So why have our Governments continually denied it?

That is simple to answer, to save face, and to cover up past lies and deceptions!

When they first became aware of these unidentified aircraft they chose not to discuss it in case it created fear and unrest. You can understand that to a point, just think of the chaos that was created when the radio broadcast 'The War of the Worlds' without informing people it was just a radio play. But a radio play ends, he visitations have not!

The one lie soon grew to two and three and so on, each lie trying to cover up the lies before. Each new leader covering for those who had lied before, frightened that to admit they had been lying in case the deception damaged trust and turned the people against them.

Having your cake and eating it!

The US Government and Military have used both sides of the coin, they have chosen to use whichever side suits them at the time. They were happy to make use of the UFO presence during the cold war to cover up their own development of top secret aircraft such as the U2 and SR-71 Spy planes, and later with the F117a Stealth Fighter and B2 Stealth Bomber, using misinformation to blame accidental sightings of these aircraft by the public on UFO's.  However now these planes are common knowledge the coin has been flipped over, and UFO sightings are being explained away as Test Aircraft or mistaken identity of regular aircraft.

US Planned Disclosure.

The US Government planned 'Disclosure' to the world following pressure from 'Believers' after the declassification of many documents by the new freedom of information acts. This reluctant disclosure was originally planned to take place in the days following the 9/11 tragedy. Obviously the impact of 9/11 rocked the US if not the world, and so the disclosure was put on hold.

The 'Disclosure project' assembled a large collection of many individuals of status, eg Scientists, High ranking Military Officers and technical staff, Pilots both military and civilian, Police officers, Doctors, Radar operators, air traffic control and other trained observers,  even Astronauts who have witnessed incidents related to the presence of an unidentified flying object believed to be from an alien race. They are all willing to give testimoney under oath and all have revealed their experiences to the project at annual Disclosure symposiums.  With so much evidence from believable witnesses, the Governments had no choice but to move towards disclosure. Most of these disclosures are available to view on Youtube if you wish to see for yourself.

Disclosure was meant to be rearranged - but we are still waiting for it to happen!

It seems that the US Government rubbed their hands together in glee that such a disaster occurred days beforehand, thats if it was not orchestrated as conspiracy theorists believe), they do not want to admit to us that they have been lying to us for many years, to do so will open a very large can of beans that they will struggle to put to rest, immediately it will have a dramatic effect on the trust of the people, who will in turn begin to question everything else they have been told over the years.

Already there is much doubt about the truth behind the Moon landing; the death of Kennedy; even the events of 9/11. If they admit to lying about knowledge of the presence of E.T.'s and past Alien interaction, then who will believe they did not have a key role in these cover-ups, and who will believe anything they say in the future!

The Disclosure project is detailed in more depth in the section on this site relating to U.F.O's

and there are many videos (Witness Testimonies) available on Youtube.

The awareness of UFO activity has been going on (as far as we know) since the second world war, although if you look back in history and archeology you can find many indications that it has been going on for centuries.

Ironically it was the American Military who first publicly announced we had been visited by making a report that wreckage found in a field in Roswell was from a crashed 'Saucer'. Quickly realising their error, the news article was retracted and a cover-up statement issued saying it was nothing but a weather balloon.

The story of the Roswell Crash is covered more in the UFO section of this site, but the basics of the story are as follows:-

that in Roswell in 1947 debris was found scattered over a large area, this was reported to the military who sent out a senior investigation officer, he was filmed holding the debris as he revealed it was crash debris from a flying saucer. However this was quickly turned around and denial began, trying then to bluff and deceive the public into believing it was a weather balloon. At the same time the crash debris and it is believed the craft itself was collected by lorry and the area thoroughly cleaned, this craft was then taken first to Wright Patterson Air Force Base for examination, then moved across the States to Edwards AFB before ending up at Area 51.

There are many photographs and videos now on the internet which make weeding out the fakes a difficult job, but early photographs and cinefilm are more believable as we did not have the high-tech editing facilities that we have today. Although the Military have released various footage from fighter jets and other aircraft which might be more believable.

Even if thestories of captured UFO's are proved to be untrue, the development of our own similar craft over the years is true.

The German Nazi Scientists during the second world war were working on a variety of Flying Saucer style craft and experimenting with anti-gravitation devices. Evidence which is still present now, and detailed more in the UFO section.

Since the 1940's we have been trying to make and fly our own 'flying saucer', and we now even have working examples. 

See below  the German Nazi wartime Flying Saucers, The US AvroCar, and the present day HoverCar and GFS Saucer Drone.

Correctly identifying real photographs and videos has now been made harder still. Over the recent years Drone technology has evolved at a fantastic rate. Most Military drones still tend to look a little like aircraft we have seen before, making use of wings and propellors etc.,  they are beginning to use smaller 'Spy Drones' the size of a model aircraft, and are developing some the size of birds and insects. But now we have a sudden increase in the use of commercial and recreation Drones, and these come in all shapes and sizes, and no doubt will be more mistakingly identified as UFO's.