Agents from the US Air Force and the FBI raided two Nevada homes owned by a man who operates a website about Area 51, which runs articles positing theories about what goes on at the top secret base, officials said.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI entered properties linked to webmaster Joerg Arnu in Las Vegas and Rachel on Nov. 3 and confiscated potential evidence, spokesman Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry confirmed in a statement.
While McGarry did not elaborate on the investigation, Arnu runs Dreamland Resort, a popular website dedicated to the top-secret Air Force base located about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert.
The base is often the source of speculation by government fanatics and conspiracy theorists. Arnu’s 23-year-old site features photographs and drone videos of Area 51 and reports on the comings and goings at the base from people who travel to the edge and take a look.
Speaking to George Knapp of KLAS this week, Arnu said he was always careful to screen posts for content that might be legitimately classified. He said he learned the hard way that something on his website crossed the line when the agents searched his home.
“I’m asking, ‘Okay, what is going on? What are you doing in my house?’” Arnu told the outlet. “I’m looking basically at this point at a riot shield and a gun that was drawn and pointed at me and an agent in a stern voice giving me commands.”
Arnu said most of the warrant is sealed, and he still does not know what the agents were looking for.
“As it is right now, I have no clear understanding of what I’m being charged with or why my property was seized,” he lamented. “Cellphones, memory sticks, backup drives, my camera equipment that is worth almost $10,000, my drone, everything was taken.”
Agents also entered Arnu’s Las Vegas home, where he says they detained his girlfriend outside in front of neighbors while the residence was searched, he said.
In an email to the
Las Vegas Review-Journal, Arnu said he took down some panoramas from Dreamland Resort to “defuse the situation … although I believe that it was legally obtained and legal to publish.”
nypost.com
