[CPEO-MEF] Document extends secrecy on Area 51 in southern Nevada

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Nevada
LAS VEGAS SUN
Document extends secrecy on Area 51 in southern Nevada
September 18, 2003

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Invoking national security, President Bush has
renewed an exemption allowing the Air Force to keep mum about its
top-secret operations at Groom Lake, also known as Area 51, in southern
Nevada.

Bush signed a memorandum on Tuesday declaring it of "paramount interest"
to exempt the base from disclosing classified information.

President Clinton first issued the exemption in 1995 in response to two
lawsuits filed by injured workers in Nevada seeking information about
the military's environmental practices at the site. It has been renewed
yearly.

In renewing the order, Bush also cited the Nevada suits brought by
injured workers and Helen Frost and Stella Kasza, widows of two men who
worked at the military base.

In their 1994 lawsuits, Frost and Kasza alleged that their husbands were
exposed to hazardous and toxic materials while working at Groom Lake,
which sits along a dry lake bed in Lincoln County, about 90 miles north
of Las Vegas. The area is in a no-fly zone and closed to the public.

Attorney Jonathan Turley, who represents the families, said the
presidential directive keeps secret documents and testimony that he
believes would link Area 51 to the men's deaths.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2003/sep/18/091810215.html

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