Documents / Official release
This file holds unclassified internal emails dated February 8 and March 18, 1996, from James E. Baker to public affairs and other staff, with brief replies. They give press guidance on a Wall Street Journal article and a 60 Minutes story about lawsuits over hazardous waste at the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, which the media called Area 51. The emails report that on March 6 the district court dismissed the suit against Perry, Lake and Widnall on state secrets grounds, and they describe President Clinton's disclosure exemption for the site.
314D9FFA.FIN Page 1 of 3 MSMail DATE-TIME 18 March 96 09:41 FROM Baker, James E. CLASSIFICATION UNCLASSIFIED SUBJECT TO CARBON COPY TEXT BODY Heads Up We may receive calls because (1) Tony Lake's name was highlighted during a camera zoom on the Plaintiffs complaint to the court, and (2) the Presidential exemption described in an earlier e-mail, was discussed. You should also be aware that GAO is doing an inquiry on environmental BACKGROUND: 60 Minutes ran a story last night on the "operating location near Groom Lake," erroneously referred to as Area 51. While the story was nominally about the facility, the focus was plaintiffs' attorney's version of a suit filed against Sec. Perry, the National Security Adviser and Sec. of the Air Force (previously described below). This suit, however, was dismissed by the district court of Nevada on March 6. Plaintiffs will appeal. As they say, this is an effort to try the case in the media. The most troublesome aspect of the story (from my perspective) was the discussion with Lee Hamilton, the only person interviewed for the story not associated with Jonathan Turley and plaintiffs. Hamilton criticized the Government's efforts, upheld by the court, to classify the results of the EPA inventory and inspection at the operating location. I believe he referred to the classification of "paint" as nonsense or silly. (Note: I asked Air Force/GC to consider whether it was appropriate to brief Hamilton on the operating location.) Bass, Peter E. Bell, Robert G. Bendick, Gordon L. Burrell, Christina L. Danvers, William C. Davis, William K. Kreczko, Alan J. Sestak, Joseph A. 60 Minutes story on Groom Lake [UNCLASSIFIED] Cullin, Brian P. Fetig, James L. Johnson, David T. Naplan, Steven J. Schuker, Jill A. Wozniak, Natalie S.
Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 13 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.