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A new report has alleged that the conspiracies around Area 51 were used to hide a classified weapons programme.
The shocking claim comes after information from an official 2024 US Department of Defence (DOD) review was released.
Findings from the report claim that a lot of the misinformation spread during the Cold War era, which is when Area 51 started to gain notoriety.
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A lot of conspiracy theories have flown around when it came to the confidential military base, leading a number of ufologists to explore the area on their own accord.
Numerous people believe that the base is a cover for aliens that may be housed in the area, or for research to communicate with 'extra terrestrials'.
So far, none of these claims have been proved, but where did this all begin?
What is Area 51?
Area 51 is a highly classified US Air Force facility located in the Nevada desert, US, which was established in 1955.
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The military facility is located at Groom Lake in the south of the state, and has started several conspiracy theories due to officials remaining tight-lipped on it.
It has long been the subject of apparent UFO sightings and stories, with ongoings at the facility considered Top Secret, or Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).
Following a Freedom of Information Act request in 2005, the CIA publicly acknowledged the base and declassified documents about its purpose.
It is closed to the public, with military personnel making their way to the airbase via plane, which flys out of a restricted terminal at the (formally known) McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
What are some of the conspiracy theories surrounding Area 51?
While it is under surveillance 24/7, it hasn't stopped people from attempting to infiltrate the base.
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Satellite imagery of the base was censored until 2018, but you can now openly access it on Google Maps - all those decades of censorship has left its mark though.
Area 51 has only been confirmed to be a flight testing facility, while the US Army Air Corps use the site as an aerial gunnery range.
The big conspiracy theory here is to do with aliens, with a man named Robert Lazar claiming in 1989 that he worked on alien technology at the military base, where the government also examines recovered alien spacecraft.
Many people have also reported seeing UFOs in and around Area 51 but the reality is, none of it has been proven.
What did the report say?
The bombshell report claims that conspiracies around Area 51 were planted by the Pentagon to hide a weapons programme, with the government apparently conducting a deliberate disinformation campaign during the Cold War.
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This allegedly went as far as distributing fake photos of UFOs to locals.
By the 1980s, a US Air Force colonel was said to have handed out photos of UFOs to people at a local bar, saying that were taken nearby.
It added that the disinformation campaign was to hide classified military testing, which included fighter jets.
Lazar claimed on TV that he worked at a hidden facility called 'S-4' at the facility, which further convinced conspiracy theorists.
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The report claims that high-level Air Force officials would brief new commanders on a secret projected titled 'Yankee Blue', which would involve studying alien spacecraft, though it was all a hazing technique.
They would apparently even be told that they'd be jailed or executed if the information ever got out.
During the Cold War, Area 51 was used to test the U-2 spy plane, A-12 reconnaissance jet, and other aircraft, in secret conditions.
The supposed cover-up claims come from the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a DOD taskforce that investigates rumours of secret government projects to do with alien technology.
Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough told the Wall Street Journal that AARO discovered fabricated materials used as part of secret programmes involving aliens.
What is really in Area 51?
You may best know the military base after its viral moment in 2019 as a Facebook group called 'Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us', was started as a joke, before starting to take shape.
You may remember an attendee doing the famous 'Naruto Run' in the background of one of the news broadcasts too.
But the bottom line, is nothing was uncovered in this instance.
Jerry Freeman took it upon himself to trek to the restricted area back in the '90s, claiming that he felt vibrations comparable to an earthquake.
"It looked like a dry lake bed to me, nothing else, but at night it was a different story," he said of Groom Lake, which is next to the base.
Freeman went on: "I could clearly see what were security lights on the perimeters and I could see lights that opened and closed near the centre of the lake.
"I think if they'd have caught me in there that they'd have lit me up like a Roman candle."
Topics: Area 51, Aliens, Weird, Conspiracy Theory
Joshua Nair