Editorial: Photos belie need for veil of secrecy

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 9:33 a.m.

What's wrong with this picture?

For years the U.S. government refuses to say what goes on at a top-secret Air Force base, which is located about 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But on Monday a North Carolina-based company, Aerial Images, posts on the Internet extraordinarily detailed satellite photos of the base commonly known as Area 51. In fact, the photos were taken by this nation's former archenemy, Russia, as part of an open-skies agreement that both nations signed with 22 other nations in 1992. The photos are so precise that not only do they show an aircraft, but they also reveal what appear to be living quarters, tennis courts, a baseball field and even a swimming pool.

It wasn't until the 1990s, when former workers at Area 51 brought a lawsuit that alleged they had been exposed to toxic fumes and other dangerous materials, that the U.S. government finally acknowledged the base existed. (Even today, however, no specifics regarding the base or its mission have been released.) Although nothing shocking was revealed by the photos, which are similar to others published before, that won't dampen the enthusiasm of conspiracy theorists, some of whom claim that extraterrestrial aliens have been brought to Area 51.

The supreme irony in all of this is that it took a former totalitarian regime to shed more light on a military base located in a democratic nation. That truly is a shame.