Dreamland - It doesn't officially exist, but it's no desert mirageBy Timothy R. GaffneyCox News Servicefrom the Austin (TX) American StatesmanSunday, April 3, 1994, page C1FREEDOM RIDGE, Nev.-- Along the ancient shoreline of Groom Dry Lake, about90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, sits a huge complex dubbed Dreamland. Ithas nothing to do with casinos.Officially, this military air base in the middle of the Nevada desertdoesn't exist. But there's enough going on here that signs along theperimeter say: "Deadly use of force authorized." Guards in white JeepCherokees and Blackhawk helicopters prowl the border.While other federal agencies acknowledge the end of the Cold War bycautiously shedding some secrecy, the Air Force has been tightening thecloak around Dreamland for a decade.Military officials refuse to talk about it. Pllots' charts don't evenshow a runway. But you can see it clearly from atop Freedom Ridge,a rocky, windblown crag a dozen miles east of the base.Dreamland looks like a cross between an airport and an auto plant. It hasa long runway, rows of hangars, service buildings and what looks like alarge manufacturing area.And it's growing. Some of the biggest buildings have gone up in the pastfew years. Dust clouds rise from a large sand quarry.Unmarked Boeing 737 airliners come and go all day. After dark, lightssparkle across the base.Secrecy hasn't kept aviation observers from divining the base's purpose asa test site for some of America's most exotic aircraft.Since the 1950s, a series of revolutionary airplanes has taken wingthere, including the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes and the F-117 Stealthattack jet. Russian built fighters now in U.S. possession have beenseen flying in the vicinity.Rumors abound about new aircraft flying at Dreamland, especially a spyplane nicknamed Aurora.Witnesses say Aurora is a superplane that has caused noisy rumbles acrossthe Southwest. Aviation analysts believe it secretly replaced the retiredSR-71.Some people even believe this base, or possibly another nearby facilityhidden by hills, is testing recovered extraterrestrial aerospace vehicles-- flying saucers.UFO investigators have yet to prove the existence of flying saucers. Andgovernment officials emphatically deny the existence of anything like Aurora.The Air Force is trying to tighten security around the base. On Sept. 30,Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall asked Secretary of the InteriorBruce Babbitt to seal off Freedom Ridge and another nearby viewpoint alongthe eastern edge of the Nellis Range Complex.The Nellis Range is a 3.5 million-acre bombing and gunnery range thatstretches north from Nellis Air Force Base near LasVegas and surrounds Groom Lake.Widnall's request would add 3,972 acres of now-public land to the off-limitsrange.Military officials never mention the secret Groom Lake base, and Widnall'sletter to Babbitt didn't break the secrecy. It simply said the land wasneeded "for the safe and secure operation of the Nellis Range."The request has made secrecy itself an issue.Opponents howled in 1984 when the Air Force added 89,000 acres of publicland east of Groom Lake to the gunnery range. They said it was illegal towithdraw more than 5,000 acres without congressional approval. (Lawmakersapproved the action after the fact.)Opponents suspect the Air Force is trying to remove viewpoints it missedbefore. They speculate the proposal is but the first of several small bitesthat will close off a large area of public land without involving Congress.On March 2, more than 100 citizens packed a Las Vegas meeting room to hearspeakers lambaste the federal government.The Air Force's stated reason for wanting the land "is a lie," assertedGlenn Campbell, a local resident and leading opponent."They're taking this land because of that secret base out there."Alaskan freelance journalist Mark Farmer held up an eight-foot-long muralof Dreamland. It was a taped-together strip of photos he'd snapped onFreedom Ridge.Farmer, dressed in a night-camouflage uniform and paratrooper boots,essentially dared authorities to arrest him: Signs posted aroundFreedom Ridge say photography is prohibited."This right here could get me a year in jail and a sizeable fine," hesaid. "I don't see why it should.You can go buy a (satellite) shot from the Russians.... There's acouple other places that I'm not going to talk about where you canlook into the base, so it's kind of a moot point."Authorities don't seem keen to prosecute people for photographing a basethat doesn't officially exist.The Open Skies Treaty will allow foreign nations to do considerably more.Under that agreement, the United States, Russia and 22 other nations willbe allowed to make observation flights over each other's military bases.National security will be no excuse for the Pentagon's On-Site InspectionAgency.Although Dreamland is no secret, the Air Force has its reasons for wantingto clear the ridges: While satellites and scheduled inspection flights canspot installations, a hilltop observer can monitor activities."We need a secure place where the bad guys cannot readily gather informationabout our systems or our tactics," Col. Bud Bennett, Nellis range squadroncommander, said at the meeting.When people pop up on the overlooks, he said, "altitude and route changeshave to be made by aircraft to avoid harming them and to prevent disclosureof operational matters. Some missions have to be delayed or canceled."That doesn't explain why the government won't admit the base is there.Critics say it may be concealing overspending, blunders or environmentalcrimes."Secrecy basically takes the program out of the policy loop. It's notopen for public discussion or congressional debate," said Steven Aftergood,a military analyst with the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.Last month, Air Force Secretary Widnall refused to discuss the base by namebut indicated it is subject to checks and balances."In this country we have a well-developed procedure for decisions involvingissues of national security,: she said, "and that particularset of issues has gone through that process, including the necessarycongressional oversight."Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, who said he has visited the base in past years,agrees.Glenn, a former Marine Corps pilot, serves on both the armed services andintelligence committees.Asked if the great secrecy surrounding the base is worthwhile, he said,"The answer is absolutely yes."Aftergood disagrees. "To say that there is conressional oversight is agrotesque exaggeration, so I don't buy it," he said.Aftergood said the government has long invoked national security to avoidembarrassment.As an example, he cited a recently declassified Atomic Energy Commissionmemo from 1947 that dealt with radiation experiments on humans. The memosaid documents referring to the experiments should be kept secret becausethey might have an "adverse effect on public opinion or result in legalsuits."At least one person has already tried to sue over alleged environmentalabuses at Dreamland.Helen Frost of North Las Vegas claimed her husband, a sheet metal workeremployed by a contractor at Groom Lake, died after years of breathing smokefrom aerospace materials burned in open trenches.She filed a lawsuit against her husband's employer and an aircraft manu-facturer, but the claim was denied.A Washington organization specializing in environmental issues has nowtaken aim at Dreamland because of the alleged trench burning.John Turley, director of the Environmental Crimes Project, told a Las Vegasnewspaper that he plans to sue the Air Force to make it disclose environ-mental crimes at Groom Lake and prosecute those responsible.Turley said he has a growing list of people who have been harmed byenvironmental practices there.Asked about the alleged burning, Nellis Air Force Base spokesman Maj. GeorgeSillia said, "We don't even confirm or deny there is a Groom Lake, so howcould I comment on that?"Even government opinion is divided over the secrecy issue. The JointSecurity Commission, a special panel set up by the Pentagon and CIA to findways to reform the national security system, found that covering up theexistence of facilities like Dreamland wastes money and accomplishes little.In its March 2 report, the commission said, "These cover mechanisms areexpensive and the marginal security benefits... often are outweighed bythe costs of concealment, including the costs to other programs that wouldbenefit from sharing technical knowledge and sharing use of the facility."In part, the report recommended that "special protection generally shouldfocus on the most sensitive uses of a facility, rather than the fact of itsexistence."Aftergood isn't optimistic the report will make any difference. Otherpanels have made similar recommendations, he said.
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