U.S. military apologizes for deleted tweet threatening to attack the Area 51 event. The highly classified U.S. Air Force base has been a consistent point of interest for extraterrestrial buffs and conspiracy theorists around the world for decades.
Having initially made headlines in the 1950’s when rumors began to spread that the American government was housing UFO’s and aliens there, the mysterious Area 51 base can be found in the Nevada desert, not far from gambling Mecca, Las Vegas. The base had been kept such a secret for so long, in fact, that it wasn’t even until 2013 that the CIA, under legal obligation as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, declassified documents on Area 51 and officially admitted its existence. This served to amplify interest in the subject for some, and this past summer, a campaign called Storm Area 51 became an online phenomenon. Over 2 million people committed to a Facebook invitation for the September 20 event, in which the intended purpose was to literally storm the top secret base and free whatever extraterrestrial life that was being held there.
As things turned out, the event was a complete bust, with estimates of actual participants numbering nowhere remotely near the expected millions. No attempt was made to breach the base’s gates and Area 51 remains as secure and mysterious as ever. This being said, it appears the U.S. government took the joke quite seriously. In a now deleted tweet (via CBR) the threat of potential violence from the American state was no laughing matter. The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service tweeted and image of a stealth bomber and a wall of military personnel with text that read: “The last thing #Millenials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today…” After deleting the message, the DVIDS account issued an apology via Twitter.
It stands to reason that nothing was ever going to come out of the Storm Area 51 event. For starters, even if the supposed day of action had, in fact, culminated in a mass effort to breach the gates of Area 51, the event had been announced in June, meaning that whatever incriminating evidence may or may not have been found inside the base would have long since been removed. Perhaps more realistically speaking, though, this is a United States Air Force base. The initial tweet was a poor attempt at humor by the DVIDS, but it did make a valid point. The U.S. Air Force took the threat seriously, with the Storm Area 51 Facebook page even having been removed at one point. Of course, this only served to further fuel the desire for alien enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists to find out the truth.
Whatever is or isn’t taking place at Area 51, it’s clear that intrigue in the famed base isn’t going to disappear any time soon. And, if there are aliens inside the base, one can’t help but wonder what they do all day? Maybe the Storm Area 51 event was set up by an imprisoned alien who managed to get WiFi access and create a Facebook account in a sad cry for help? For now, however, we’ll all just have to be content with sci-fi movies and plenty of conjecture.
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Source: CBR
