Jacobsen's new book reveals Area 51 secrets

"AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base," by Annie Jacobsen, Little Brown, $27.99, 500 pages

Working backward from an eyewitness account from former Area 51 employee Bob Lazar, author Annie Jacobsen reveals a new explanation of a government cover up for the July 1947 UFO crash near Roswell, N.M., in her book, “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base.”

Lazar claims he saw an alien being held at Area 51 in 1989, and Jacobsen, who is a contributing editor for Los Angeles Times Magazine, then tells how Lazar was later discredited after it was revealed he had lied about his educational background.

According to Jacobsen's sources, Lazar's attempt to reveal the secrets of Area 51 have permanently linked aliens and UFOs to Area 51 in the public's mind. However, Jacobsen, a former investigative reporter who had her works published in National Review and the Dallas Morning News, goes much deeper and reveals how recently declassified documents and interviews with a key Area 51 engineer have revealed a link between the Roswell UFO and the Soviet Union's first shot of the Cold War. Her book discloses the theory that the Roswell UFO was a Soviet aircraft being piloted by humans.

She also reveals a sophisticated plan by Joseph Stalin to create a panic inside the United States by staging a crash of an alien like craft near Roswell. According to Jacobsen's sources, Stalin was very much aware of the national panic that was created by the live radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' “The War of the Worlds.” Stalin's plan was to create this type of panic inside the U.S. using captured Nazi technology.

After unleashing this theory, Jacobsen sets the stage for more mystery with a lengthy narrative about the history of Area 51. Her book covers from the creation of Area 51 at the end of World War II to the modern-day testing of drone aircraft designed to kill Osama bin Laden.

Told through the use of declassified documents and interviews with actual test pilots and Area 51 personnel, Jacobsen creates an image of a military base that operates in its own unique way. According to Jacobsen, the Air Force, CIA and the Department of Energy have been battling for control of Area 51 almost from its beginning. These organizations all have a stake in the control of information being gathered from tests conducted at Area 51. They also have their own reasons for keeping this information secret.