The FDA and Area 51

I figured this would make an good first post here. I have a way with computers and tend to look around when i can. One way to do this over the net is to look for a file called robots.txt. Many url's have them, many don't. The original purpose of robots.txt was to list directories that web spiders and search engines are not allowed to index. So I look for robots.txt when i'm feeling up to it, find some disallowed directories, type them in the url and see if they can be accessed. I eventually find my way to the Food and Drug Administration, FDA.GOV. I found they do have a robots.txt file and I was bothered by one particular entry. Below is the full contents of this file:

#robots.txt file for www.fda.gov...

#Added for Bristol-Myers on Sept 2005
User-agent: vspider
Disallow: /

#For all other crawlers
User-agent: *
Disallow: /.
Disallow: /data/
Disallow: /binn/
Disallow: /cder/test/
Disallow: /opacom/area51/
Disallow: /oashi/aids/listserv/
Disallow: /cdrh/ftparea/cdrh/MDR/coll/mdr/mdrcoll/
Disallow: /foi/warning_letters/d1371b.pdf
Disallow: /foi/warning_letters/archive/
Hit-rate: 30 # wait 30 seconds before starting a new URL request default=30
Visiting-hours: 23:00EDT-05:00EDT #index this site between 11PM - 5AM EDT
Concurrent-hits: 2 # limit concurrent active URLS to 2 for each index server

Ok, see the fifth disallow? /opacom/area51/? Any ideas on this? What is opacom? Why the FDA? If you try to access said directory, via ww.fda.gov/opacom/area51/ you get Forbidden directory warning. This is the first place I have brought this information to.

To see the file yourself: www.fda.gov/robots.txt

And the forbidden warning:
www.fda.gov/opacom/area51/

Any thoughts?

~odievk

[edit on 31-8-2007 by odievk]

I give this post , just for educating me on Robots.txt files.

I'd also like to know the meaning of:
"foi"
"oashi"

Unfortunately, these directory names could mean nothing. Who's to say a web programmer didn't humorously name a directory "area51," for purposes of irony, secrecy, or symbolism, while not having anything to do with the Airforce base.

Still, interesting post, thanks!

reply to post by electronQM


foi - freedom of information

reply to post by odievk


OPACOM is probably Office of Public Affairs Communications

www.fda.gov...

I think somebody was playing a joke, since if there was Area 51 related information, it probably wouldn't be distributed by the office of public affairs.

However, I do think researching robots.txt is a good idea. Also, if you can read the htaccess files, that might be interesting.

As you know, many websites sniff your IP and send you to the appropriate website. For instance, there are military versions of public "military" websites. Examples:
wwwmil.ellsworth.af.mil...
wwwmil.nellis.af.mil...
wwwmil.acc.af.mil...

Even if you spoofed your IP, you would still need the DoD certificate on your PC to view these websites.

Googling wwwmil gets you plenty of these websites since many DoD websites refer to the wwwmil websites for more information.

I'd really hate to see this thread...
well, this poster get lost and buried.

I think odie has quite a bit to offer
ATS.

Seems he does some incredible
digging into obscure places and
in my mind, makes him noteworthy.

Just my 2 cent,
Lex

good find, however could it not be that someone just gave a directory or page a weird name to make it easy to remember.

Also you can tell a bot to ignore robots.txt if you so desire you could try this to
see what info it brings

it does give a directory does not allow listing message when you goto the URL

anyway still nice find..


Later
GEO

cool this was interesting. I've been researching Area 51 for a few days now so this caught my attention. Thanks for educating us odi

Just thought it was interesting. I tend to agree with this being the creative offspring of the mind of the programmer. Thanks for the welcome, the search continues.

~odievk

Originally posted by Lexion
I'd really hate to see this thread...
well, this poster get lost and buried.

Word...

I don't really have much to offer, except that the FDA is a bunch of scumbags and I'm sure they're hiding a lot.

Still though, an area 51 reference is probably just some sort of tounge in cheek thing concerning information on the site that isn't public.

I doubt it involves thousands of deaths due to the FDA's premature approval of anything due to well greased wheels. I also doubt it involves complicity in the suppression of anything natural due to pharmacutical companies being unable to profit from said natural things. I especially doubt it would contain information concerning the personal financial transactions that would necessarily arise due to the previous two things that also certainly aren't documented on the web site.

And to the OP...
so you're good with computers? Get yourself on the photoshop and let's all see a kickass avatar.

I'll admit I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world, but here are a couple of documents with similar url's:

www.fda.gov/opacom/area51/dtapcon073196lb.pdf

www.fda.gov...

and,

www.fda.gov/opacom/area51/example.pdf

www.fda.gov...

The first document is a medical description of Tripedia, which is one Vaccine for Diphtheria and Tetanus. I am completely familiar with the second document as it is required reading for anyone adminsitering the Orasure HIV-1 test, which has now been replaced in my state by Trinity BioTech's UniGold. I'm not sure why either of these have a url containing "opacom/area51", but I would assume it's just part of a way to file documents such as this.

[edit on 4-9-2007 by Jazzerman]