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FBI Raid on Area 51 Website Owner’s Home

Raid on Area 51 Website Owner
Warning signs at Area 51, just off the main road | Image by CloudOnePhoto/Shutterstock

A joint task force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Air Force Office of Special Investigation (AFOSI) raided the home of long-time Area 51 sleuth Joerg Arnu, and questions still linger.

Since 1999, Arnu has run a website called Dreamland Resort that has served as a central hub for amateur Area 51 investigators, theorists, and hobbyists.

Area 51, the remote, formerly top-secret Air Force base within the Nevada Test and Training Range, has long been a fixture in the popular imagination, associated with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrial beings.

Dreamland Resort is a repository of aerial drone videos, satellite images of the classified military base, and photographs of UFOs. It also posts about purported new military aircraft, such as the so-called “super secret” Northrop Grumman RQ-180 unmanned stealth craft.

The website features a discussion forum with posts on various Area 51 topics.

After agents from both the FBI and AFOSI raided his residences in Las Vegas and the tiny desert town of Rachel, Nevada, Arnu claimed publicly that he was the subject of an intimidation campaign by federal authorities.

“I believe the search, executed with completely unnecessary force by overzealous government agents, was meant as a message to silence the Area 51 research community,” Arnu decried.

On the morning of November 3, Arnu claimed “15-20 agents in full riot gear” simultaneously raided his two residences “without warning.”

At the time, he was in the Rachel residence, where federal agents reportedly broke down his door; his girlfriend was in the Las Vegas residence. Arnu claimed they “were detained and treated in the most disrespectful way.”

“My girlfriend was led out into the street barefoot and only in her underwear in full view of the neighbors,” Arnu claimed. “I was led outside, handcuffed, and only in a t-shirt and sweats in sub-freezing temperatures.”

Arnu said he asked the agents about the impetus for the raid.

“I was only told that the search was related to images posted on my Area 51 website,” he recalled.

Federal agents seized Arnu’s laptops, phones, backup hard drives, cameras, and drone, which he estimated to be around $20,000 in total value.

Furthermore, the Area 51 researcher claimed the federal agents caused thousands of dollars of damage to his residence during the raid.

“Even my phone was taken, leaving me in Rachel with two broken doors and no way to communicate or call for help,” he said.

Arnu claims he has not been able to fully understand the nature of the raid or the scope of the investigation because the search warrant he was presented with had dozens of pages missing, the case file is currently sealed, and the FBI will not return his phone calls.

“At this point, I have no choice but to take legal action to try and get my equipment back and to seek reimbursement for the damage,” he lamented.

An FBI spokesperson, Sandy Breault, stated in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the federal law enforcement agency “declines to comment” on Arnu’s case at this time.

The AFOSI has not responded to media inquiries.

Arnu asserted that all the videos and images published on Dreamland Resort were “legally obtained and legal to publish.” Nevertheless, the webmaster took down some materials “in an effort to defuse the situation.”

“Considering how this went down, I have no intention of removing any more material unless ordered to do so by a federal judge,” Arnu declared.

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8 Comments

  1. Ronald Reason

    Green Lives Matter

    Reply
  2. Mean Gene

    Since when did the Air Force get authority to raid ANYONE not in the Air Force??

    Reply
  3. Wayne Manzo, PhD

    This sounds very much like what happened to what’s his name,
    William Cooper who was allegedly shot dead.

    I think the first question is “who the hell were they”. The article says
    Feds but it sounds like the Military Gone Crazy and the FBI cannot, as policy, criticize what the Insane Military does. So, are we talking about a black bag job by the DOO Department of Offense to shake up somebody for no apparent reason. I think the real reason there was “Trouble” after all these years is that Arnu surfed into my Mansue.com website and downloaded some of the information and the big shots who control the DOO and Military started sweating bullets. What is
    contained on my website Mansue.com? How about the takeover of the United States by KKK CIA Telepathic Collective Psychopaths turning the United States into a Huge Military Industrial Complex of Communist Savages.

    Well, that explains it then.

    Reply
    • Betty Stephens

      Let’s just hope this guy don’t end up missing or dead by suicide!

      Reply
  4. Pap

    And while the FBI raids some little schmuck, drug cartels and murderers go unabated. While we still wait for them to raid Biden over illegally stored classified information, like Trump. Be very careful, America. Big brother has gone Gestapo. And a lot of dumb clucks are worried about the police? While we sit around watching the owl, the fox broke into the henhouse.

    Reply
    • Janet

      If Trump would have given the documents back when they asked for them, maybe he would not have been raided. Maybe Biden’s home WILL be raided. The Special Prosecutor said he “will follow the facts and the law without fear or favor.” Not according to the wishes of the right wing media who continue to make excuses and promote Trump’s “I am a victim of persecution” narrative.

      Reply
  5. Michael P Hammer

    Meanwhile tons of fentanyl flood across the border daily, killing hundreds of thousands of people each year and destroying millions of lives. There are thousands of homeless drug addicts in every major city.

    Reply
  6. Djea3

    The FBI needs to be disbanded, that simple. With regard to his property; Unless it was listed on the warrant, seizure is unlawful.
    There has to be a list, a complete list of goods taken.
    If there are computers involved, the FBI can copy them but must return them or actually pay for them.
    File a suit, and do so in your own district, make it in State Court, and find the State RIGHTS violated. Sue the feds in state court for violation of State Rights. I hope you get it. They mean more than federal in this instance.

    Reply

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