The Revealing Truth of Ufos, Secret Aircraft, Cover-Ups & Conspiracies: Area 51
Add to all this the fact that many of the workers at Area 51, whose job it was to dump and bury those same chemicals, showed evidence of all three in their systems. No wonder the odds were stacked against them. Turley believed that the families of the deceased had a good case. They did. The problem, though, was that because the suit would potentially reveal a great deal about Area 51, the government did all it could to ensure that the case didn’t achieve what the families were rightly hoping for.
At the heart of the suit was the assertion that the U.S. Air Force and the Environmental Protection Agency had been woefully inadequate in their actions at Area 51. With regard to the Air Force, the assertion was that it flouted the law when it came to using such chemicals. As for the EPA, it was targeted for not having followed the correct safety protocols, particularly so the protocols that were designed to ensure workers’ safety. In no time at all, though, things proved to be very difficult for Professor Turley.
Key to making a solid case was the hope that the suit would force the government’s hand and, as a result, see the surfacing of official documents generated by the Air Force, the EPA, and the projects out at Area 51, and that would help a solid case to be made. That isn’t what happened, though. What did happen is that the U.S. government made quick use of the little-known State Secrets Privilege. In essence, it prevents courts from revealing state secrets in the course of civil litigation and, as no one needs to be told, “state secrets” absolutely abound at Area 51.
Just about each and every official document that was generated on the inside—and which would likely have shed a great deal of light on the plight of the dead men and the families—was deemed classified and was, therefore, ultimately denied. This was clearly done to try to hinder and thwart the suit, but a bigger issue was at hand: the U.S. government knew that if it released documents relative to the burning of the chemicals, a good chance existed that those same documents might reveal classified data on Area 51. The suit had the distinct ability to open huge floodgates and reveal an untold amount of highly classified data. This situation was spelled out to the judge by informed government representatives overseeing the case. That judge was U.S. District judge Philip Pro of the U.S. District Court of Nevada.
The potential threat to national security if classified files were used in the suit hit home and Judge Pro understood the gravity of the situation, but he concluded that using the State Secrets Privilege as justification for withholding what might have been data crucial to the suit was a definitive no-go. That’s when things got even more controversial. When Judge Pro explained to both the defense and the prosecution teams that he felt that the SPS was not persuasive enough—in terms of the government wanting to hold back top-secret data— something incredible happened: none other than then-President Bill Clinton got involved.
In what many observers considered to be wholly outrageous, President Clinton passed a presidential determination (a presidential directive that is seen as the official policy of the U.S. government) that specifically exempted Area 51 from any and all laws relative to environmental-based issues. Interestingly, the presidential determination didn’t even refer to Area 51. Instead, it used the cloaked term “the Air Force’s operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada.” This is somewhat laughable, as just about everyone knew the infamous name of that certain “operating location.”
The fact that the government was, effectively, now immune to any kind of lawsuit that involved Area 51 and matters relative to potentially deadly chemicals meant that no documentation could be—or would be—provided that would potentially help Professor Turley’s case. To the professor’s credit, however, he did not stop. In fact, he went full steam ahead to try to find another way to secure important, corroborative materials that would help the families of those who fell victim to those deadly chemicals. Professor Turley went right to the U.S. Court of Appeals. At this point, the secretary of the Air Force at the time—Sheila Widnall—stepped in and said that any kind of disclosure would compromise classified programs and even have a very serious effect on the national security of the nation.
Despite the very best and praiseworthy efforts of Professor Turley, the case was brought to its close. National security won hands down over morals and ethics, all in the name of Area 51. To this very day, the Nevada Test and Training Range remains exempt from any and all issues relative to the environment, which effectively means that if further suits surface similar to that which Professor Turley handled, the chance of anyone achieving a success is pretty much zero apart from the government, which is intent on keeping what is known about Area 51 to an absolute minimum.
https://scienceandspace.com/ufos/desert-hazards-part-1/