George Knapp: Disinformation

George,

In your quest for stories on Area 51 as well as others that may involve possible top secret programs, have you ever felt that you were the target of disinformation? Have you ever determined that one of your sources has deliberately lead you astray because you were getting too close to uncovering secret information? Have you ever been asked not to report on something because it was classified?

Thanks for you time.

First of all, allow me to apologize to ATS participants for not being here last night. I'm on vacation this week and decided to extend my stay at a local hotel for an extra night. Domestic harmony took precedence over this forum. I hope everyone can relate.

I'm sure I've been fed disinformation over the years. There are many who still believe that the entire Lazar story was disinformation. I disagree. If, as the critics suggest, this was an effort to distract public attention away from something else that was underway at Area 51, it was a disastrous failure for an obvious reason. My stories put Area 51 on the map. It is now known all over the world. Tens of thousands of people have trekked out into the desert to watch the base, including every major media organization in the world. Even if there were no flying saucers at Groom--ever--this much attention has caused a lot of headaches from the folks who run Groom Lake and has disrupted ongoing programs out there. If they know that people are in the desert, armed with cameras, watching for whatever is flying around, they often end up scrubbing test flights. The attention has also forced the military to finally, reluctantly, admit that the base even exists, something they clearly did not want to do, as silly as that might seem. They did not want this kind of attention, saucers or not, so if the military creatd the UFO story as a distraction from something else, they surely are kicking themselves in the ass because of how things turned out.

Over the years, I've had a lot of people contact me with information about 51 and UFOs, and a few of them seemed to be trying to lead me away from the central questions. I suspect, but cannot prove, that they were working for "someone", perhaps in an effort to feed me something that would blow up in my face if I ever used it. (I initially suspected that Dan Burisch was in this category.)

I have never been asked or ordered to sit on any UFO related story by anyone in the government, although I have certainly been asked to do this by individual sources who gave me information that was meant only for me, not for publication. I've had several similar situations related to classified programs unrelated to UFOs, situations where someone told me about a particular program with the understanding that I could not make it public. I have always honored these requests, just as I would for any other kind of news story for the simple reason that by keeping my word, I end up getting a lot more info in the long run.

I hope you are enjoying your vacation, and would buy you a drink if I could. Take all the time you need for the replies, we'll still be here.

I've heard that because of the notoriety that Area 51 has now, that several programs have been moved to other locations. Do you think eventually that the base will become less secretive and turned into a normal airfield?

I can see in the future if the public were allowed access, it would become a tourist attraction.

Area 51 is bigger and more activethan ever. The Janet flights still zip in and out on a regualar basis. They've built large new hangars and other facilities. The base is too damned big to move altogether, and even with all of the public scrutiny, it is still an invaluable resource for the military, almost irreplaceable. Simply put, they have too much invested in it to pack up and leave.

That said, I'm sure that SOME sensitive proects have been moved. I have a hard time believing they still have flying saucers out there, not operational anway. (This assumes that they had them out there to begin with, something we suspect but cannot prove conclusively.) As most of you probably know, the story that appeared a few years ago in Popular Mechanics about Area 51 shutting down and moving to Utah was total crap. There may be some interesting stuff going on in Utah surrounding military bases---in fact, I'm sure of it---but it is wishful thinking on the part of some to say that the bulk of 51's work is now being done there.

The information I have is that their primary work out there right now deals with a new generation of UAVs.