Lawyer disputes government editing of Area 51 papers

Friday, July 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The attorney representing six workers claiming harm from toxic fumes at the secret Area 51 military base said a foot-thick stack of documents released by the government doesn't go far enough.

Jonathan Turley said he has filed motions in federal court charging that government attorneys edited documents under cover of national security.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro on Monday made public the stack of documents stemming from a lawsuit brought by the workers against the government.

The former workers said they were exposed to toxic materials burned in open pits, 60 feet long and up to 50 feet deep, at the secret test facility also known as Groom Lake, about 150 miles north of Las Vegas.

Pro had dismissed the lawsuit March 6, saying a trial on the claims of exposure to toxic fumes would pose a threat to national security.

He followed his decision with orders for the government to release to the workers documents and other materials, but edited to protect information posing a threat to national security.

The judge's second order followed a motion filed by KLAS Channel 8 to unseal a transcript from June 1995.

"This transcript will be released if I have to go to the Supreme Court," Turley said in a telephone interview from his Washington, D.C., office.

Turley said he asked Pro to release all sealed documents.

"It's a very serious question," Turley said of the national security claims. "All I can say at this time is that these claims have never been made in history (by the government)."

The appellate court has granted one extension to Turley because the government has been slow to produce the documents. He said he expects a second extension.

The four volumes of documents unsealed Monday contained blacked out and missing reports, testimony and transcripts. Those missing materials are still considered under seal, and Turley would not discuss them in detail.

However, the hundreds of pages revealed that Turley worried that Justice Department attorneys would seize his voluminous records.

Letters contained in the pile indicate that Turley feared that if the government grabbed his documents, criminal or civil charges could be brought against individual workers named in them.

Two original suits, against the Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency, alleged that fumes caused serious injuries and at least one death.

Sheet metal worker Robert Frost died in 1989 after working almost 10 years for Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co., a base contractor.

His widow, Helen, claimed the death was linked to inhaled poisonous smoke from the burning pits. She filed an unsuccessful suit in 1993.

The other five workers remain unidentified.