Alien nation.

• Author: Riggs, Mike
• Position: Briefly Noted - Area 51 - Brief article - Book review

Annie Jacobsen's new book on Area 51, a secret government testing facility in Nevada, details the development of the ultra-high-flying U2 spy plane program and various nuclear warhead tests. The bulk of Area 51 (Little, Brown) is plausible and well sourced, but one element of the story is not.

Jacobsen interviewed a former Area 51 employee who claims that in 1947 government forces discovered flying saucers developed by the Russians for the express purpose of causing War of the Worlds--style mass hysteria across America. Another source tells Jacobsen that inside the flying saucers were tiny...