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Bush renews secrecy exemption for Area 51

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 10:20 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force can still keep its activities at Groom Lake secret, according to an exemption renewed by President Bush on Tuesday. The exemption has been renewed each year since 1995.

In a two-paragraph memorandum sent to the Environmental Protection Agency, President Bush said he found it "paramount" to the interest of the United States to exempt the Groom Lake site, also known as Area 51, from having to disclose classified information.

Groom Lake is about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

The memo exempts the site, for one year, from any federal, state, interstate or local laws regarding control of solid waste or hazardous waste disposal that would make the Air Force give up classified information.

Helen Frost and Stella Kasza, widows of two former employees at the base who claim they were exposed to toxic fumes at the site, have been trying since 1994 to discover whether hazardous materials are at the base and how they are handled, but the courts have also refused to unveil confidential documents.

Former President Bill Clinton began issuing the exemption in 1995 as a response to the widows' lawsuits.

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