Home / Articles / Extraterrestrial Life / Update on Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar
International UFO Congress
Alien spacecraft described by Bob Lazar. (Credit: Open Minds Production)

Update on Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar

Bob Lazar

Bob Lazar

Bob Lazar is best known as the whistleblower that outed Area 51 and its extraterrestrial secrets. He claims to have been an employee there tasked with back engineering alien technology. In a recent email from his company, apparently he is now a science and technology consultant to Raytheon, and his company has contracts with the military.

In 1989, KLAS investigative reporter George Knapp conducted an interview that forever changed UFO mythology. This is when he first interviewed Bob Lazar live for his Las Vegas viewers. Lazar claimed to have worked in a secret underground lab called S4, 8 miles south of the main Area 51 base. Here he says there were several disc-shaped craft that looked as though they had been damaged. He says he was told they were extraterrestrial, and he noted that they appeared to be built for pilots that were small and humanoid.

He started telling friends about his work at the base, and even told them where and when they could view test flights. He and his friends were then busted and he was fired. So the story goes. The Air Force denies his claims. However, upon investigation, Knapp found that another top secret facility, Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) in New Mexico, had Lazar listed in their phone book. Lazar said he had worked there, but LANL denied that claim.

However, other claims by Lazar did not pan out. He said he received degrees from the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, neither of which can be confirmed.

For a large part of the 90s Lazar’s claims made big news, and became the bedrock for claims of ET technology being horded by the United States government. This has lead to Area 51 getting the legendary status it currently enjoys, although at the same time it remains a top secret facility.



Lazar left the UFO limelight, and has not spoken on the topic for many years. He started a scientific equipment and supply store called United Nuclear. I contacted them to find out if Lazar would be interested in speaking about his experiences, as next year will be the 25th anniversary of his interviewed with Knapp. I was told:

Sorry, Mr. Lazar no longer involves himself in matters related to the topic of UFOs.

He hasn’t followed the topic in about 10 years and does not lecture on anything other than basic science & energy technologies.

His companies are involved in several Military contracts and he is a science & technology consultant to Raytheon weapon systems.

For these reasons he avoids ‘rocking the boat’ and generally keeps his distance from the topic.

I found the response rather interesting, as I am sure you will as well. The only reference to Area 51 I found on the United Nuclear website is this Area 51 style “Restricted Area” aluminum sign. I might pick one up. It is a fun conversation piece considering the source.

United Nuclear restricted area sign

United Nuclear restricted area sign. (Credit: United Nuclear)

For more about the history of how the public found out about Area 51 read our post on it here.

Popular Posts:

About Alejandro Rojas



  1. avatar

    Feels like he was either scared off the subject and/or paid to leave the subject. It simply seems too cool to not be real. The lack of proof from his past academic career is very disturbing. You would think he could have kept his diploma as proof…

  2. avatar

    The day Obama provides his college records is the day I’ll worry about Lazar’s college records.

  3. avatar

    Still.. I find it interesting that he has no proof of schooling…
    This was a staple for skeptics when trying to “debunk” his claims…
    Yet, he is an advisor for Raytheon?
    Something stinks… Again…

  4. avatar

    The President’s college records are public. Are you a ‘birther’ as well?

  5. avatar

    Bob Lazar’s company has contracts with the military? Do they still trust him after blabbing about their biggest secrets? they must be nuts!

  6. avatar
    Luke The Drifter

    Hi Bähb.
    I’m thrilled to hear that. Please direct me to Mr. Obama’s college records.
    You may also want to notify Snopes
    Fact Check
    so they can update their information.
    And does Orly Taitz know about this yet?
    It’s a little puzzling to see the regime doing something they have declared “preposterous”
    but hey, they do lots of preposterous things.
    I really appreciate your help with this. I can’t WAIT to check those records out now that they’re public.
    Thank you.

  7. avatar

    1. Obama has never released his college records. What difference it would make now. His destruction is for the history books,
    2. If his stories were true and the government wanted it kept secret he would have disappeared.
    3. We will never know.

  8. avatar

    He has military projects now ? How did he manage that if he told supposed military secrets even if they deny such secrets ? The whole military community wouldn’t hire this guy or take him on in capacity of being a sub-contractor/contractor. Maybe because of his skills they worked out an agreement that he no longer talks about the subject and in return he gets paid good money ? So much we know and are being told it’s very fishy to me.

  9. avatar
    What's That Smell?

    HEY Bahb share the link I’d love to see Barry’s college records.

  10. avatar

    Good article. One small correction. Related to Lazar’s area 51 demise. He was never fired. That is according to Lazar which is the only account we have. His security clearance was suspended, and the reason given was that his wife was having an affair with her flight instructor. Later Lazar reported that he was invited to come back to work but he turned it down as he couldn’t remember what had happened during some trips to the base. Figuring that it was a risky move Lazar said he was not coming. If true, it confirms that Lazar was being fed and they were not quite finished.

  11. avatar

    Well, It is a quirky thing, was Bob touting disinformation? Was he on the up and up? We will never know. As far as academic records, I doubt if the bursar at a college is going to say anything when an NSA agent comes in and wipes someones academic records from a computer. I know I wouldn’t and it is ridiculous to think that any academic organization would protest as they are funded in one way or another by the government.( student loans and such) So, when people are shocked that the academic records of top secret workers are misplaced, I find that terribly naive. You basically do not want any records of workers on a highly sensitive projects out there. The ideal candidate is to be exceptionally brilliant with no family and no ties, so if they happened to disappear no one would miss them.

  12. avatar
    Luke The Drifter

    It’s funny how a haughty tone isn’t a substitute for evidence in the real world, away from liberal echo chambers.
    But I’ll be perusing those Obama college records pretty soon.

    Yep, aaaaany minute now, Bähb will get back to me.

    You there, Bähb?


  13. avatar

    I rely on the opinion of Dr. Paul A. LaViolette, Ph.D.
    In his book, “Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion” he says
    that when you press Lazar on the details, it’s just not there.
    He’s not telling the truth.

  14. avatar


    He had to think about the year he graduated? He is nowhere to be found in the year book? He couldn’t name any of his professors from Cal Tech or MIT?

  15. avatar

    The birthers here are cute, but, as the factcheck page linked by “Luke The Drifter” clearly shows, Obama’s college records aren’t “sealed.” They are available, as college records normally are, to anyone who has a legal right to access them. In other words, it would be illegal for a college to give his records to the press. No president has ever released their college records.

    Those conspiracy theories started out as ridiculous, then they got sad, now it’s just embarrassing.

  16. avatar

    So if Bob got these degrees from two highly regarded institutions then there must be plenty of evidence like him publishing his several theses, his professors remembering him, his classmates remembering him, his attending conferences, his published papers in scientific or local journals-etc. But the NSA probably killed all those folks, yet allowed Bob to talk all about his secrets..

  17. avatar

    Could find no mention of Lazar or United Nuclear on the Raytheon website. Nor could I find any confirmation of Lazar consulting with Raytheon except for UFO-agenda websites. Is it possible Lazar is back to his old pathological lying?

  18. avatar

    Nobody, I mean nobody throws away their University degree certificate. It should be possible to verify his education. Even another physicist talking to him will be able to tell if he studied physics at university by testing his knowledge and ability.

  19. avatar

    When any american citizen wants to steap back REALLY- and look at all the government” statements/releases”-that later they get”caught or proven wrong”HOW CAN ANYONE POSSIBLY BELIEVE ANY OR ALL POLITICAL STATEMENTS–CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG OPEN OUR OWN EYES. N. SEE THE BIG GOVERNMENTAL PICTURE AND REALLY SEE LIFE AROUND OURSELVES???

  20. avatar

    After reading that he works for the military now, it’s hard not to think that something else could have been going on. I admit that I was taken in by his story at first because I’m a planetary science and Universe fan, but now it doesn’t make any sense and we could have been misled by Agent Bob Lazar.

  21. avatar

    I can’t remember a single professors name and I graduated in 1998, I did keep my diploma though. I can see how he could forget that though, because quite frankly in a class of 800 I wasn’t all that important. I remember one TA but only her first name and that was because I thought she was hot and to be in computer science department at the time she stuck out being 1 of around 10 women.

    I am not saying his story is true, but not being able to remember a single professors name isn’t that big a deal. I could have cared less about any of my professors.

  22. avatar

    UPDATE: Well I’ve always believed Lazar & as of now the element 115 has been acknowledged on the table of elements & Mr. Lazar has his own company called “United Nuclear” which has many government contracts and he is even a paid consultant to Raytheon a MAJOR US military weapons company (lasers, E-bombs etc) so it seem almost impossible that if in fact Lazar lied about what the government was doing that they would actually do business with him as they are doing now.. It’s easy for powers that be to force a school to erase his records, yet when they want him to work for them & actually hire him they already knew his credentials were 100% true.. Lazar went against the grain & lived, saved only by the fact that his mind was too valuable to be snuffed out.

  23. avatar

    I like how the author of this article say’s “However, other claims by Lazar did not pan out. He said he received degrees from the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, neither of which can be confirmed” Cannot be confirmed? if the US government tells you to deny Mr. Lazar ever went to this school or we will have all funding and programs stopped, what would you do?.. As of now Mr. Lazar has a highly successful company called “United Nuclear” and is a paid consultant for Raytheon technology (a MAJOR US Military weapons developer) all because he told the truth. Mr. Lazar is alive & prospering today only for the fact that his mind was too valuable to be snuffed out by a staged suicide or car wreck as in the case of Phil Schneider, who was “suicided” after speaking out about how the US military was working with grey aliens deep within our deserts. There are many things we will never know, but to think we are alone on this planet or in the universe is greatest lie ever told, unless you believe that a God created us (we are an engineered species) what some called God is a geneticist a million years more advanced then the greatest mind of any human… Wake up, we are under the microscope & we are the lab rats for races Millions & billions years ahead of us – our human ego likes to deny this but this is the truty.

  24. avatar

    The facts speak for themselves… Mr. Lazar blew his proverbial whistle and gave us information about tech with nuclear powering drives. I’ve researched his articles on the supposed propulsion device used to power these extra-terrestrial vehicles.
    1. He postulates an “unknown element” having an atomic number of 115 being used for mean of travel.
    Sep. 2013, element 115 is discovered…and out of all the implications we decide to pursue???
    Gravitational energy harnessing. O_o
    2. Out of everyone who came out with evidence of UFO’s, he’s not dead from some random accident. Kind of like what happened to Tony Stark in the desert??? “Your too important to kill so lets give u a task to do.” Hence why he is working for a government contracted company.
    3. For those who are hell bent on doubting someone for a college degree, you really need to look at the advances in human history. One such man spent almost 10 years in college, studying randomness and majoring in law and having a fascination with astronomy. He later postulated that we were not the center of the universe. o_0

    Somethings are hidden best, out in the open.

  25. avatar


    This article gives a very interesting view from a journalistic perspective and also has another more recent link to a story on his shady arrest to obtain “United Nuclear” computer data.

  26. avatar

    You will see “Use of deadly force” signs on many Air Force installations and bases, that is not unusual. I was in the Air Force for 26 years, worked in NORAD air defense radar, worked on the A-10 fighters. Those same signs were around and on the fences that were around the NORAD block house where I was station at Luke AFB at the 26th Air Division/NORAD Region from 1976 thru the first few months of 1980. Plus in 2002 or 2004 scientist discovered the element 115, that Bob Lazar claimed the government was using from UFO’s

  27. avatar

    I, too, can testify that I do not remember the name of even one of my college professors and I attended several universities as well as a number of technical schools. Names of instructors was not important, only the material that they were presenting.

    I also worked on many ‘above top secret’ projects during a 20 year USAF career, but many of them will have no record of me! Not unusual at all. Being released from programs for undisclosed reasons was not unusual either. The most common excuse you were given was ‘due to changing requirements of the using command’ and it was not a black mark on your records. I strongly suspect that Bob Lazaar was given that same answer.

    If the US Government wants any information erased from the records, it gets erased!

  28. avatar

    You want a smoking gun… Bob Lazar claimed the saucer he was researching used an unknown (at the time) element, he called it 115, Ununpentium. This was in the mid 80’s, and all the skeptics and scientists consulted at the time called it fantasy, no such thing, impossible. So he goes away, gets quiet, says to hell with everyone after he told his story… Years later in late 2003, what do you know, Scientists “discover” a new element, 115, publish their findings in 2004, and guess what they called it, that’s right, exactly what Bob Lazar called it, “Ununpentium”, because it existed the whole time, they just weren’t ready to release it publically yet. So guess Bob either knew what he was talking about, or he was a Time Traveler, or maybe a Prophet who could see into the future.

  29. avatar

    In my opinion Bob is telling the truth. He does not benefit financially from his story and has to b persuaded to talk about his experience. His Naval Intelligence payslip checks out plus other people have came out too to support bobs claimshttp://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2007/04/15#recap The point is the believers don’t know the truth but more importantly the skeptics who claim its bullshit also don’t know the truth. It is a personal opinion on both sides.
    As stated though above. My opinion is that Bob is telling the truth or believes what he experienced at that time in his life was true.

  30. avatar

    I know skeptics will say well how can you have an opinion of belief when he can provide no evidence. I am sorry but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
    Science frequently believes one thing and then new discoveries are made and they are proven to be wrong. Did the microscopic world of bacteria not exist before microscopes? Of course not but at the time if you explained the microscopic world to a scientist they would brush you off like you were crazy.

  31. avatar

    So, Bob Lazar received an MS at MIT, but…. Can’t provide a diploma, or a thesis paper(which is required for an MS), the year in which he graduated, the name of anyone at all that attended MIT with him, didn’t belong to any academic or scientific communities(MIT really?), or provide a single photograph of him being there, on the grounds, in the halls, with alumni, or professors?????

    The funny thing is the blinders all you “true believers” pull over your eyes. You brush aside the glaring inconsistencies and lies he tells, in favor of…. Him mentioning a new atomic element that is discovered years later. That one thing. He picked the next heaviest synthetic that could possibly be discovered or created. It wasn’t the last or the most incredible addition to be added since.

    I’m writing a book about common sense and rationality. It will go on to explain how a staggering amount of people lack what I dub, “a bullshit filter” and eat up any and all lies they are told, because they are interesting or “far out”.

    Not even a yearbook photo… From MIT. What happened to his degree again?

    Oh, and another thing. The only thing that really urks me about you weirdos is this reversing alien tech bullspit. The thousands of scientists that have spent their entire lives tirelessly discovering and inventing amazing things to advance our way of life and standard of living. You discredit them and their work by saying it came from a saucer. Scientists leave trails. They write and publish papers. They don’t hind their work. A little bit of your time and you can trace back who developed the transistor, how long it took, and which great minds took that and invented something new.

    Scientists leave trails, so where is Bob Lazars? Sheesh, you crackpots.

  32. avatar

    Hi David,
    i understand what you mean but the information you put forward regarding Bob’s credentials actually cones from one of your so called ‘crack pots’ Stanton Friedman. He is the one that put in all the research into Lazar’s credentials so why are you taking his word at face value? The only research you did was on the net.
    Let me enlighten you.
    You have to understand some of the politics involved here. Stanton Friedman has degenerated in recent years and has quite a chip on his shoulder. If stories like that of Lazar are true, no one wants to see an aging, bloated, windbag like Friedman standing around holding blacked out Freedom of Information Act documents or talking about an individual UFO sighting somewhere else in the world. The people want the real information and Friedman doesn’t have any. When California changed it’s funding for public education back in the 80s, it abruptly halted Friedman’s career as a speaker on the college and junior college circuit. His entire income was dependent on that and when it stopped, he moved to Canada. Ask him. The point is that he has a lot more to lose than most when the attention gets focused away from him. Bob Lazar is running from the attention and Stanton Friedman is running to it. There’s a big difference. Friedman wrote and entire book about a UFO crash at Corona and it never happened! His main informant turned out to be completely unreliable and admitted that he was a fraud. Do you think Friedman wants to talk about that? Now we’ll specifically address some of Friedman’s allegations. Lazar was the first to come out and say that some of his educational background had been deleted. Bob Lazar never attended any of the universities on an ongoing, year after year basis, going to football games and running for student body president. He was a nerd who moved around the country because of his parents. He had to petition for his diplomas. Friedman’s information about when and where Lazar went to school was taken from some erroneous internet info, not from Lazar. Bob Lazar graduated from high school in August alright, a year early. He was in a special program for the smart kids and studied electronics and things of that sort. Bob Lazar graduated from Tresper Clark High School on Long Island in New York. They say they never spoke to Friedman and that he fabricated that whole story. Now just in case you’d like to confirm that, why don’t you personally take it upon yourself to call that high school and try and get records on Bob Lazar. You’ll find that they won’t release any records without written, notorized permission from the individual in question. Friedman was so desperate that he lied. It is possible that Bob would be in a lower part of his class if they segregated his general education grades from his technical grades. Bob is not one to dwell on English Lit, Poli Sci, and mundane things of that sort, nor would he try to excel in those subjects. The reason Friedman brings up that Bob worked for a sub-contractor at Los Alamos is because Friedman lost an old argument and he won’t let it die. When Bob Lazar first surfaced, Friedman called Los Alamos and asked if they had any records on Lazar. They said no. Friedman released a world wide statement on his own letterhead stating that Lazar was a total fraud and had never worked at Los Alamos. Then Gene Huff and George Knapp sent Friedman all of the information on Lazar and it showed that Bob had worked for Kirk-Meyer, a large sub-contractor at Los Alamos, and Friedman had to eat crow. He now made a world wide release, on his own letterhead, and in it he then changed his story and said that Bob Lazar worked AT Los Alamos, not FOR Los Alamos, implying that he was still right. Friedman could not produce one shred of evidence that anyone had ever said that Bob Lazar worked FOR Los Alamos as opposed to AT Los Alamos, but Friedman just hates to admit that he’s wrong. In case you don’t know, a lot of work at major facilities is done by sub-contractors who use the facilities for their own purposes. In his next release, Friedman said that Lazar never had a security clearance because the Meson Physics Facility, where Lazar worked, was not a classified facility. Well, Friedman is right that, generally speaking, it is not a classified facility, but periodically, classified work is done there. George Knapp had interviewed people who worked with Lazar when they had clearance and they confirmed that Lazar had clearance. Gene Huff asked Friedman if he’d like to bet $1,000 that no classified work had ever been done at the Meson Physics facility and Friedman backed down. When Friedman talks about whether 115 is real or not, it’s important for you to know that he, nor anyone else who wasn’t in the program at S4, knows that. Currently the Lab for Heavy Ion Research at Darmstadt, Germany has plans to fuse Curium with Calcium to achieve element 116 which they anticipate will then decay in a chain of unknown nuclides and identify the island of stability. However, you need to understand that creating an atom of something which will only exist for a short time does not allow scientists to learn much about it qualitatively or quanitatively. They need to have a “chunk” if it massive enough to allow them to experiment with it and they are far from achieving that. The element 115 at S4 was kept under neutron bombardment when it was at rest to help it remain stable. It was activated by proton bombardment. Friedman knows nothing about any of this and is just blowing smoke because he’s jealous of Lazar. In his most recent book, Friedman claims that Lazar says he stole some 115 from S4 and brought it home with him. Lazar never said that and Friedman didn’t as much as make a phone call to confirm whether he did or didn’t. Friedman lied about Lazar in his book. It seems that Friedman has fallen on some trying financial times and can no longer be trusted. That’s unfortunate as he’s been out there touting ufology for two decades, instead of getting a real job, and he used to be a trustworthy character when it came to the government covering all of this up. His degeneration is blatant and sad. Too bad for ufology and too bad for Friedman.

  33. avatar

    Why would Lazar put himself in the spotlight to be ridiculed to death about what he was stating especially about extra-terrestrials and reverse engineering their crafts. There are easier ways to get into the spotlight than talking about UFO’s especially in the late 80’s. I think that he did work at S4 and did reverse engineer their technology. He also talked about element 115 on the scale which didn’t exist un-unpentium, but miraculously it was found to be accurate in the last decade or so. So when he came out about it the U.S. Government didn’t like it so they made him shut up possibly with the threat of going missing and never being heard of again, or come back and all would be forgiven. So what happens he works as a science and technology consultant to Raytheon, and his company has contracts with the military. Black ops for sure. It’s obvious to me that even though he was a whistle blower he was respected for the work he did and was probably very good at it and knew far to much to just make him disappear. Lets just hope before he dies that he has actual documents and photos and maybe a piece of a craft or better still he steals one and flies than lands in the middle of a major city any where in the world. It would be real difficult for the U.S Government to explain that away as a weather balloon.

  34. avatar

    You really know how to ask all the unimportant questions. Ofcourse the Military would hire him and for a good reason because thats the last place for you to look. You will not go anywhere with this mindset. This is why the chinese seem to be superior in brainpower all because they have way less critics to hinder them.Shame

  35. avatar

    Not really convinced one way or the other on the whole Lazar thing, but one question comes to mind. What do the scientists who claim to have made some element 115 really know about it? They say that it doesn’t have the properties claimed by Lazar, but what could they actually do with all 100 of the atoms they created?

  36. avatar

    None of the recent articles (that I myself read) about the “new” Element 115 that’s been added to the elements table, including Wikipedia which surprised me, mentioned anything about Lazar’s reference to it all those years ago. Kind of like the elephant in the room on the paper, to me.

  37. avatar

    Although it was pretty sensational and garnered a lot of attention, I’m guessing that Bob never made any money talking about his work on UFO’s at Area 51. He finally got smart and realized that if he shut up about the UFO stuff and let that story die, he could get contracts and make real money doing consulting work for the U.S. Government.

    I’m wondering if he “did a George O’Leary” as far as his college education was concerned.

  38. avatar


    Concerning your comment “You want a smoking gun… Bob Lazar claimed [element] 115, Ununpentium… what do you know, Scientists “discover” a new element, 115, publish their findings in 2004, and guess what they called it, that’s right, exactly what Bob Lazar called it, Ununpentium”

    In fact, “ununpentium” is latin for “one one five-ium”. Once this element was actually discovered and produced, in Russia, it was named Moscovium, with the atomic symbol Mc, in honor of Russia’s capitol city. “Ununpentium” was a placeholder, not the name of an element. There have been several such placeholders used for predicted undiscovered elements.

Leave a Reply
