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Nick Pope, who used to work for the government’s specialist UFO department, has said the discovery the search engine giant did not update images of the Tonopah Test Range for eight years is “murky”.
Using his insider background of how governments want to keep such facilities out of the public’s knowledge, he has speculated the reason behind the blackout was because the American government kept top secret information and crashed UFOs.
The search giant normally updates satellite images of every part of the continental United States every 60 days but no fresh photos of the Nevada facility appear on Google Earth between 2008 and 2016, it has emerged.
This is despite most other military bases in the US being regularly logged.
Mr Pope told the Sun Online that the base is close to the infamous Area 51, which is why he thinks the US government wanted Google’s cameras to ignore the facility.
He said: “Because of its proximity to the infamous Area 51, this has understandably started all sorts of conspiracy theories in the UFO community.
“Could this super-secret location be where the US government hides crashed UFOs?
“Or is it where the next generation of stealth aircraft, drones and hypersonic weapons are developed and tested?
“Either way the US government is hugely concerned – and understandably so.
“This is all quite murky. Either as a consequence of federal law, or through a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, Google and/or the third party providers from whom they obtain satellite imagery have ensured that the public won’t see up-to-date images of the Tonopah Test Range.
“Along with drones flown by hobbyists, the easy availability of high-quality satellite imagery has caused immense problems for the military and the intelligence community.
“It’s given people a window on a world that was previously closed to them.
“Simply put, these technologies make it more difficult for the government to hide things.”
“Having worked in the MoD for 21 years I well understand the need for secrecy, and indeed my final posting was to the Directorate of Defence Security.
“While I understand that people are naturally curious about what’s going on at Tonopah, the problem with people’s ‘right to know’ is that once information is in the public domain, it’s seen by everyone: not just UFO researchers and aviation enthusiasts, but the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans, ISIS and all sorts of other non-state actors who may not have the best of intentions.”
The desert army barracks have long been the subject of mystery after it was reported the range has been used for secret government aerospace and weapons testing since the 1950s, including the development of the iconic stealth bombers.
A spokesperson for Google denied any censorship of the base in a statement.
The company said: “Google Earth didn’t censor this area in Nevada.
“Our satellite imagery is licensed from third party providers which are commercially available and are not the property of Google.
“We update imagery by prioritising areas that are most popular with users while complying with local and federal laws.”
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