TITLE:  CLASSIFIED BASE STAYS UNNAMED

SUBTITLE:  The military "operating location near Groom Lake" will 
be identified as such in an environmental lawsuit.

PUBLICATION:  Las Vegas Review-Journal

DATE:  May 5, 1995 (Page One)

AUTHOR:  Warren Bates

[Reproduced without permission.]

A federal judge has ruled that national security would be 
compromised if the name of the Pentagon's operating location near 
Groom Lake was disclosed in an environmental lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro, in a ruling made available Friday, 
said that classified information given to him in court chambers by 
U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall justified keeping 
the facility's name under wraps.

Jonathan Turley, the attorney representing former air base workers 
suing the government for environmental violations, has referred to 
the base in court motions several times as Area 51, a designation 
the government has denied.

Turley argues the name of the base is a central issue in the 
lawsuits, which claim the government is using secrecy to hide 
illegal, open-pit burning of hazardous chemicals at the facility, 
which is on a dry lake bed 35 miles west of Alamo in Lincoln 
County.

"All I can say is that it's important to keep perspective," Turley 
said Friday after reading the decision.  "This is the first ruling 
in a series of rulings.  While we strongly disagree with the 
court, we will continue to press Judge Pro to enforce the law 
against these defendants."

Turley said an appeal of Friday's decision will be pursued.

"The defendants have claimed they can withhold the location of 
documents under their theory of national security," Turley said.  
"We're confident that we'll be able to show the use of privilege 
is excessive in this case."

Widnall, in an unclassified declaration, said that the classified 
information, if released, "could reasonably be expected to cause 
exceptionally grave damage to national security."

The base has no actual operating name per se, Widnall stated.  But 
she told Pro that revealing the program names would compromise 
base missions, military operations, intelligence sources, 
technological matters, contracting relationships and "security 
sensitive environmental data."

"Collection of information regarding the air, water and soil is a 
classic foreign intelligence practice because analysis of these 
samples can result in the identification of military operations a 
capabilities," Widnall argued.

She said the presence or absence of certain chemicals could 
reveals classified operations and that disclosure "increases the 
risk to the lives of United States personnel and decreases the 
probability of successful mission accomplishments."

Thus, Widnall invoked military state's secrets privilege.

Pro rejected the government's argument that Turley's request was 
"vague and overbroad."

But he said that Turley "simply failed to demonstrate a compelling 
need" for the name and that the government's reference to the base 
as "the operating location near Groom Lake" was good enough for 
the lawsuit's purposes.

"Plaintiffs would like the government to acknowledge that terms 
such as Area 51 or Dreamland are used," Pro's ruling said.  
"Although the use of these names might be common among the general 
public, possibly because of the so-called "black" nature of the 
facility in question... these names would not be responsive to 
(Turley's request)."

Turley had filed a 300-page exhibit with the court asserting the 
government referred to the base numerous times in public documents 
such as the Congressional Record, defense trade publications, 
government contractor correspondence and federal employee 
publications.

###

Photo:  Telephotoe view of Groom base from Freedom Ridge.

Caption:  The Air Force's operating location sits on the dry Groom 
Lake bed at the base of a ridge near the Nevada Test Site, 35 
miles west of Alamo in Lincoln County.

Photo credit: Mark Farmer/Special to the Review-Journal.