For reasons unknown, the government finally has admitted that Area 51 - the Shangri-La of alien hunters and a sturdy trope of science-fiction movies - is a real place in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. Area 51 is confirmed in declassified CIA documents posted online [by] the National Security Archive at George Washington University. A dogged researcher pried from the CIA a report on the history of the U-2 spy plane, which was tested and operated at Area 51. The military, which runs the base, always denied that Area 51 was called by its famous moniker. "Your honor, there is no name," an Air Force attorney told a federal judge in 1995. "There is no name for the operating location near Groom Lake." The hearing was part of an environmental poisoning case brought by Area 51 workers who said that they had been sickened by exposure to toxic chemicals ... burned in open pits on the base. The men could tell no one what they did; they had signed national-security oaths barring any disclosures about the black-budget facility, where the stealth bomber also was tested. National Security Archive fellow Jeffrey Richelson [filed a FOIA] request in 2005 and the documents arrived about a month ago. Therein, the first-ever reference to Area 51. Why was the veil finally lifted? "It is something we do not know the answer to," Richelson said. "One of the things I want to find out is the genesis of this decision: Why did they not redact it?" The secrecy surrounding Area 51 amplified conspiracy theories claiming it was infested with extraterrestrials - a notion popularized in movies such as "Independence Day" and, more recently, "Super 8."