The truth that everyone already knew is finally out in the open: Area 51 is not a mythical place and is in fact a Defense Department facility.
Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives, can hold the title of being the one who finally issued the Freedom of Information Act request that didn't have Area 51 redacted from a document. Richelson request was connected to records on the U-2 program.
The documents released by the government did not unveil any admissions of hidden alien bodies or space contraptions as have long been suggested in books and movies. It did, however, release new information regarding the U-2 program.
The report includes the names of pilots, their codenames and a table with key data on all U-2 flights over the Soviet Union.
It also provides a map of Area 51, which is about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is published in the study.
"It marks an end of official secrecy about the facts of Area 51," Richelson said in a Las Vegas Sun report. "It opens up the possibility that future accounts of this and other aerial projects will be less redacted, more fully explained in terms of their presence in Area 51."
-- UPI contributed to this report.
