CIA: Mysterious Area 51 exists

In a newly declassified document, the CIA has finally acknowledged the existence of the mysterious Area 51, the US airbase rumored to house UFOs.

On Thursday, George Washington University’s National Security Archive released a CIA history of the U-2 spy plane which it had obtained through a public records request.

The 400-page report explains the 1955 acquisition of the site in central Nevada, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, for testing of the secret spy plane. The site was chosen for the U-2 program after an aerial survey by CIA and Air Force staff.

The plane, used to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, is still used by the US Air Force.

Many science fiction films and wild UFO tales have for decades claimed that the US government imposed secrecy over the site to cover up evidence of extra-terrestrials touching down on Earth.

“There is a section on the relationship between the U-2 program being responsible for UFO sightings,” National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. “But if people are looking for sections on dead aliens and inter-species contact, they’ll be disappointed. It’s just not there.”