Area 51 - Toxic Waste Dump Nevada Highway 375 shoots across the high desert landscape in an endless straight line. It may as well be a road to the twilight zone, because it leads to a place that doesn't "officially" exist. It's not on the maps, and you won't find it mentioned in any government publications. Yet somewhere beyond the mountains about two and a half hours outside Las Vegas, there is a secret U.S. air base. It is where the "Blackbird" and the "Stealth" fighter first tested their wings. Outsiders have come to know it as "Area 51", the perfect place for a government to keep its secrets and possibly the perfect place to commit a crime.
"The flames and the black, blue and white smoke would form clouds so thick. If the wind were blowing in the direction where you were working, you'd get it all."
� U.S. Government Employee
Base workers risking imprisonment came forward to tell CNN how government contractors reportedly used Area 51 as a secret dumping ground. They described how truckloads of hazardous wastes were dumped into large open trenches and set on fire as armed guards stood watch. The workers, who demanded anonymity in speaking to CNN, said they developed health problems after breathing smoke from the burning trenches. They claim their
complaints were ignored and that requests for protective clothing were denied.
Bob Frost is a former sheet metal worker whose complaints are well documented. After working at the base for seven years, he developed some unexplained rashes. Sometimes they were so severe that his skin would crack open and bleed. Within three years, Frost's body was covered with painful open sores. Sworn to secrecy, he could not tell doctors about the burning
or about the smoke that he was breathing. It's a secret that may have cost him his life.
"Everyone could see that he was gradually deteriorating, and there was nothing we could do," said Frost's wife, Helen. "We didn't even know why or what was causing it."
After her husband's death, Helen Frost says she contacted a base manager who denied there was any burning of classified wastes at the base. But tests conducted on tissue samples from Bob's body told a different story. They revealed he had been exposed to "substantial quantities of chemicals
containing dioxins and furans".
As long as the government refuses to admit that Area 51 exists, there is no way to prove liability for any crimes that may have occurred there. As long as the base remains a secret, there is no legal obligation for it to obey environmental laws, labor laws, or worker rights laws. Attorney Jonathan Turley represents several injured base workers and the widows of two
workers who have died. He says his clients have been threatened with arrest and imprisonment for making their complaints public.
"If this was a corporation, there'd be people going to jail right now." � Jonathan Turley, Law Professor
"Why is the government trying so hard to protect the people who committed these crimes? I've got two dead clients. I've got two people who died. It's not a joke," said Turley.
UFO enthusiasts have long believed Area 51 to be an extraterrestrial landing area, a theory that may have started with sightings of the top secret military aircraft flown there. Critics believe the UFO phenomenon has allowed officials to scoff at any claims that there is such a place as Area 51.
In an Air Force press conference regarding the alleged "Roswell Incident" officials were asked by reporters about Area 51. "There is a facility in Groom Lake, Nevada," said Air Force spokesperson Col. John Haynes "Quite frankly, I have no knowledge or expertise in the matter. I understand there are classified things that go on there and that's all I have to say about it."
There have been recent reports that the facility known as Area 51 has been moved, to a new "secret" location in Utah.
The government continues to close ranks on cases involving Area 51. A lawsuit filed by workers has been cut off at almost every turn, from the courts to the office of the President. Neither the Justice Department nor the military will comment on the case. The fear now is that legal proceedings will drag on for so long that more workers will end up like Bob Frost -- unable to live long enough to see their day in court.
Correspondent: David Mattingly