EQ Pegasus Hoax

By Clyde Lewis

The recent story out of Australia regarding Echelon is not really all that new. It has just been buried under all of the so called hoaxes coupled with stories of victimization that were reported out of the mouths of those who should know better. Any one remember EQ Pegasi? We have all been victimized by charlatans perpetrating a cover up. Ground Zero wasn't fooled.

Back In October of 1998 many people who are listeners of alternative media switched off their minds for a moment. It was all because a talk show host by the name of Art Bell decided that he had to take time off for his family. Being a Radio broadcaster can be a burden on anyone's family, and recently the story of Art Bell's nightmare has been plastered all over the internet and some talk shows.

He Kept his reasons for leaving private which unwittingly seeded a publicity buzz about whether or not he was being silenced by a secret order hell bent on keeping the truth from little people. While the saga of Art's threat to his family played out on the air, the shepherd had left the flock unattended and during that time something significant had happened. A radio signal emerged from a region of space in the EQ Pegasi system.

The Signal baffled every one and allegedly, SETI researchers were scrambling to see if the signal was extra terrestrial or not.

Art Bell returned to the air and like a true champion took hold of the story and acting as an alleged journalist began to assess the situation. The time away from the conspiratorialist doublwide in Pahrump slightly dented Art's perception on the matter. Or at least so it seemed. Richard C. Hoagland and others were grasping at straws trying to point to reverse research that David John Oates had been doing, and without his consent and expertise began interpreting the gibberish to think that an extra terrestrial craft was heading for a collision course with earth. This of course grated on experts who reported what was more probable than what could generate ratings. However the truth fell on deaf ears.

On October 22 1998, an amateur astronomer named Paul Dore Claimed that a signal was beaming to earth. That the signal kept repeating. A web site was then erected and then immediately taken down and replaced with strange flags. The press and other observers were calling it a hoax. People were pointing fingers and making accusations. There was a dark cloud of territorial backbiting in the UFO community because of egotistical rants of who was right and who was wrong. It resulted in frivolous lawsuits and even harsher allegations of fraud and moral turpitude.

On November 3rd Ground Zero reported the story and stuck with it even after it was played out to be a hoax. The reason was simple. We had other information that we reported that perhaps was closer to the truth. Ground Zero thought that the hoax story sounded too much like damage control. It seemed easy to do this when everyone wanted to be the first to report that ET was about to land. Someone threw the story out that we were being invaded, an egotistical talk show host claims that he is the end all be all about it , allow him to find the guy who claims the signal is real and expose him as a fraud and count on the UFO community to slit it's own throat allowing itself to disintegrate. We believed that something leaked out.

Something that someone didn't want you to know about. Paul Dore may have been on to something. However even the most learned can make mistakes.

Ground Zero clearly reported that the signal coming from the EQ Pegasi system was a 10 meter surveillance probe. An anonymous tip to Ground Zero informed us of something called Cage 13 a next generation spy satellite that could have been responsible for such a signal. The satellite allegedly could lock on to multiple targets and analyze communication systems and intercept millions of communications every day. We speculated that perhaps the probe was nearing Tonapah in Nevada. Our contact would not tell us much more. He only confirmed that something was intercepting transmissions. We also received another anonymous tip that more tests would be done during the Leonid meteor shower. We thought that it was clever using a space anomaly as a cloak for secret tests. It was risky, but who would suspect a signal and transmissions test during a heavenly event.

Eyebrows were raised and with Research one only needed to go back in time to 1997 and the comet Hale-Bopp. Once again the story was that a probe sending a signal to earth was hidden in the tail of the Comet. This also raised a number of charlatans who claimed that there was a UFO heading towards our planet. It also was an enabler for 39 cult members of Heavens gate to commit suicide hoping to hitch a ride on the alleged extra terrestrial vehicle.

November the 17th 1998 the day of the Leonid Shower was a nail biter. Nasa was worried that NEO's would collide with Satellites. However in a gutsy move they opened the Hubble facing the mirrors away from most of the shower. We had predicted that this day would be the test day of an alleged surveillance satellite and the possible attempt of bringing it down. By this time many ignored the EQ Pegasi story because Art Bell and other Talk show hosts said that the whole story was an elaborate hoax. It was easy to be convinced of it when everyone in the alleged alternative media basically made themselves look like fools, chasing after little green men, interpreting gibberish and chasing after alleged landing sites in Arizona.

Michael Lindemann a noted researcher and head of CNI News stepped forward and made the observation that "At the Height of the controversy, the suggestion was raised that a real signal may have come from a spy satellite."

He also concluded that:

"As the controversy devolved into low comedy, the notion was lost in the noise and many observers were left to assume there has been no signal at all."

There was a signal. It was played on the November 17th Earthmail at Ground zero. We had what was said to have been a recording of it.

The S-4 database made a written statement after the 7th of December which was reported by Art Bell and Hoagland as the date in which the alleged Alien ship was to land in Arizona. While many of Art's listeners suspended belief at the word of their master we printed the information we had on the matter:

"Through information received by the S4 Database from TWO separate DOD related informants from two separate locations. Both of the sources supported each other in a complicated series of conversations in which we were told that the EQ Pegasi Hoax was actually a transmission from a Top Secret DOD satellite parked in deep orbit near the moon."-Ground Zero S4 Database December 1998

That would be close to 250,000 miles. No satellite could be used for Photo surveillance that far away. Obviously this raised questions as to what was being done in space and why it was completely ignored and intentionally sensationalized as an alien threat.

A story broke in November of 1998 and it went virtually ignored. It was about a rumored surveillance system called Echelon. The system it was rumored was sophisticated system that used a satellite position some 100,000 miles in space. The rumor came out of Australia. Paul Dore made his claims about a signal that beamed a signal at 1451.8MHz. The claim was that the signal came from deep space. When you have a satellite in orbit a third of the way to the moon it can easily be blown out of proportion by eager ufologists as a unknown craft. Especially when most Satellites orbit around 23,000 - 40,000 miles and others rarely reach 60,000 miles above the earth.

This had to have been part of the Echelon scenario. Cage 13 , Project Queen and a network of other satellite systems were being tested as well . It was reported that Lawrence Livermore labs was testing a satellite surveillance system to be used closer to the earth. They were also testing Laser capabilities during the Leonids . There was also some connection with the Chinese. A recent rocket launch accident at Cape canaveral also had some significance. About a year ago a Titan Missile that carried a Vortex satellite exploded after launch. It was going to be used as a fly on the wall to eavesdrop on several communications here on earth. This loss totaled in the billions of US dollars.

The question is if we are spending billions for this type of intelligence gathering, then how did the CIA accidentally bomb the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia? Maybe at 100,000 miles you can always get a bad connection. This smells of a clandestine space program that seems to have the same key players. Perhaps the UFO's that people have seen in NASA shuttle footage are really these surveillance satellites. Ground Zero has now learned that these satellites were proposed almost more than 50 years ago.

Echelon is a surveillance network that is a result of a proposed CIA spy satellite treaty in 1948. These surveillance networks apparently had been in place since the 1980's.

This means that your government proposed and implemented a massive surveillance system that monitors every fax, every phone call, every e-mail, every communication that used Fiber optics or wires or even radio and television transmissions in the country.

Echelon is a very scary and intrusive tool. It has electronic listening posts in four countries. It also includes a grid of spy satellites in geosynchronous orbit, all linked to supercomputers capable of analyzing massive amounts of Internet traffic and voice phone calls. Estimates are as high as 3 billion a day!

The system scans electronic data from satellite communications and cellular telephones all over the grid looking for certain "trigger" keyphrases. Now who would develop such an intrusive system? The National Security Agency. Big Brother has been watching since the 60's.

So what started as an alleged alien signal that was regarded as a hoax was clearly clouded by zealous buffoons who continue to gain an audience. As Obi Wan Kenobi said in Star Wars, "Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?

Now I really don't want you to read this and say "oh another Conspiracy' and break into the required giggles. This is reality and was printed in mainstream press and was immediately ignored. It was roped in with a make believe alien landing that people like Art Bell, Richard Hoagland, and Peter Gersten bought and sold cheaply on a talk show, and declared that all those who didn't believe in their pap were lost souls. In order to save face people like Robert Stephens and David John Oates were declared frauds by Mr. Bell.

Now the truth is known.

In the aftermath of this whole ordeal Ground Zero still has it right. Richard Hoagland claimed that an intelligence source told him that a UFO would land in Arizona on December 7th 1998. There was no saucer just a freak snowstorm which later prompted Art Bell and Hoagland to speculate on possible weather control that would stop the landing or the observance of a landing . Peter Gersten and Lloyd Pye Flew around the area to get a glimpse of a possible alien landing and saw nothing. Art bell and Hoagland invited Paul Dore and Robert Stephens on Coast to coast to ambush them and try to catch both of them in a lie. They also attempted to bring on a reverse speech student to point out that David John Oates Maniplulates his reversals. Obviously to tarnish the reputation of all three. (The student subsequently refused to appear on the show leaving them rather embarrassed. The student later issued a statement that David's reversals had not been manipulated. This fact was not reported by Art Bell.)

On the Reverse Speech addition of Sightings Robert Stephens made a statement that Art Bell was allegedly arrested for Pornography trafficking which still needs to be proven. (Art Bell subsequently admitted that he had been arrested on the suspicious of pornography but the charges were ultimately dropped.)

Art has now sued the both of them for $60 Million dollars and declares that he has been harassed on the internet. He also declares that responsible internet users should be licensed and that the Internet should be controlled and monitored to stop such harassment.

The Universe seems to have a sense of humor doesn't it? The Truth never feels good either. If Art had paid attention to the facts instead of his silly agenda perhaps he would have learned that the net is monitored already. Maybe Art should have kept his family business to himself. But he knows what his audience wants. They wanted to stick their noses in his business.

In the search for the truth sometimes important things like family breakdowns can breed resentment to anyone who even "appears" to be against you. In all fairness Art's hardships are horrible, but obviously they got in the way of something that he claims to be preaching.

Press Release by David Oates on the controversy