I just received this response email from Grant Gartrell

Originally posted by yeshayahu2004
I suppose no one has ever mispelled their name before. No one here has ever 'fat-fingered' the keyboard-eh? Has that blue pill kicked in yet?

[edit on 7-6-2004 by yeshayahu2004]

So I supposed the letter of denial from the "source", and also his lack of affiliation with anything astronomy-related doesn't do anything for ya? He is NOT an astronomer, never was, and knows nothing about any comets. But we believe what we WANT to believe don't we? It is way more fun to wish that this June is the end of the world, than to admit that we've been had! Such is the nature of belief, it is also called "wishful thinking". However, this doesn't mean that this summer will be uneventful, because there's a good chance that Bush and his cronies are planning another terrorist attack, since his popularity is waning and the election is coming close. So yeah, I'd still hang on to your hat, but not because of big falling space rocks (yet anyway).

I found this last night while surfing. I can't find the link.

0-Hour)Dr.Gartrell is gone??
The REAL Dr. Gartrell is gone
Wizard of OZ 6/6/2004 3:25 pm EDT

The REAL Dr. Gartrell is gone

in Adelaide SA. Let me say this will be my first and only post. I�m using an anonmyous proxie and posting from a public cafe. I will never be here again!!! I first met Grant in the early months of 1982. I was studying to become a teacher first at ANU in Canberra then in 1973 at Darwin Community College (in my home town Alice Springs). My father was born in the states and was an electrical engineer for government contracts. To my knowledge he never worked on anything super secret, from what he�s told me mostly he was in charge of upgrading and maintaining various military bases electrical systems. ANYWAY! My father must had some influence over me because a year after I was at Darwin I went to see him in the states.

Long story short I dropped out of uni (well not really a uni I suppose) and was accepted into a MAJOR engineering school (in the US). I majored in Eletrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Engineering. A few years into my degree I switched to Computer Engineering, as it seemed it was on the rise. I returned to central only to find a lack of jobs in my field. In late 1979 I finally landed a job at Pine Gap (partially due to my dual-citizenship, as well as my father friends).

I won�t give out details, but Pine Gap is ran by certain US gov. agencies. It�s an intimidating place, with about 15 big golf ball looking structures (which are actually hide various rotating sat. dishes) I don�t know the entire picture, everything was hush hush. They sectioned the employees apart with color coded ID bages, I don�t know of anyone that wasn�t a high ranking gov. offical that had access to the entire base. My job was to help keep the bases computer hardware operational, install upgraded equipment (usually IBM junk), troubleshoot any related problems, etc. Because of my job I was allowed greater access to the base, but I still don�t think I knew more than 60% of the place.

Again, I WILL NOT give out details mainly because I don�t want to disappear or get locked up for violating my NDA. At the time it was generally thought that the base was being used for the CIA or NSA in some type of intelligence gathering on the Soviets. I�m not sure, but it seems to be at least partially true. Around 1981 things started to change. They started bringing in astronomers - mostly americans. A few months prior they began HEAVY construction of both new buildings an a few more "golf ball" dishes.

That�s about the time when I met Dr. Gartrell. There weren�t many aussies in the more secure areas of the base. But he was one of them, I think he naturally became friends with me because the majority of the people he worked with were americans. We would hang out after work at the pub do the usual BS etc.. From what he told me he was there as more or less a consultant. He was working to help the US to better track and target incoming objects from space. (I was under the impression that the US wanted this to track the Russian space program in more detail) And that was that, we didn�t talk all that much shop. After 4 years I got offered a better job at my current location and moved out to south australia. We really didn�t keep in contact.

It wasn�t longer than a year or so ago that I ran into Grant. He was up in Adelaide on holiday if I�m correct. I have to say seemed like a completely different person. He told me about his new life working as a blueberry farmer living a nice quiet life. We would occasionaly meet and he acted like a normal person, just not the man I had met 20 years ago. It was only when we would go out drinking that he would bother me. "You know it doesn�t matter anymore...", "Nobody listens, NOBODY!", he never told me what was wrong. I thought he was having problems with his finances or love life, never did I think he was so depressed because he thought the earth would be hit by some type of space anomalies.

I got a call about two weeks ago telling me to get somewhere safe and to pray. He started to talk how we used to work together at Pine Gap. He began to explain what he was working on something about the SDI and it�s real purpose. Then silence, the phone went dead. I tried calling him back but it just rang and rang and rang da-da, da-da, etc. I tried visiting him but he apparently went out of town.

Yesterday I tried calling him and someone else picked up the phone claiming to be him. So today I drove by his house but nobody was home. I really don�t know what�s going on. I�ve never spoken to him on the internet but tried to find him via the net. Then I turn up this site, apparently he has been posting here. I can not confirm his writing mannerisms or whether these posts were by him. Certainly by someone that knows him or did their research. I really do not know what to believe.
It�s plausible, but I�m still unsure. I know he was having problems, he was drinking, and very depressed. I have to go now, people in line for this PC.

...wow...


I guess only time has the power to put this hoax-nonhoax to rest at last.

The plot thickens, eh? Maybe a moderator can analyze this post and see what they make of it?

Well, isn`t the oort cloud thing supposed to come today or tomorrow? Then about a week later first one is to hit? Well, I myself will be having an asteroid party! If the first hits and the next one is confirmed, my credit card will be very hot ! ha ha ha

energy-wave,

The message you posted was originally posted to GLP yesterday. Right now, GLP is down for maintenance but once it is back up I will provide a link to the thread.

The original poster returned later in his thread and confessed that he made it up. He claimed that he was conducting a psyop experiment to show how quickly people will believe. For reference, I think he posted under the handle "Wizard".

As I said, once GLP is back online, I will post a link to the thread.

[edit on 20-10-2004 by antipigopolist]

"I know exactly where you got that. GLP! And you carefully left out the follow-up post from Wizard of Oz not 1/2 a page down because why?"


You seem so sure of that, I wouldn't bet on it though. Complete conjecture.

energy-wave,

GLP is back up. Here is the link to the thread. (The poster's handle was actually "Wizard of Oz" - hey, I was close and that from memory)

"Wizard of Oz" posted the following at 4:40pm EDT on the first page of the thread.

This thread was a PSYOP. I�ve stopped it now before it get�s out of control. My point was the above scenario COULD be true. Dr. Grant Gartrell COULD be replaced by a member of a "letter agency". In fact it is HIGHLY likely that he has been IF what he stated was true.

Had I posted the above statement NO ONE would have believed it to be possible. Because 80% of you are easy to manipulate. I�m sure I�ll get flamed but I don�t care. I meant no harm, just trying to get you people to wake up.

Further proof this was a PSYOP by me:

Look at the time stamp of the post.

Wizard of OZ
6/6/04
3:25 pm

That�s 3:25 PM EST or around 4:55AM if your in Adelaide, South Australia. What kinda Internet Cafe is open that late?

www.timeanddate.com...

Again sorry, but I had to make a point. No one knows either way, the ONLY proof we should be gathering is by viewing current events not some lunatic�s story.

All I can say is this is one damn big tangle of lies.

but then again maybe it is the truth....

we need more info to try and get the story staight

It doesn't matter now, less than 8 hours before the skies allegedly begin to darken.

If at 4pm tomorrow the sky has shown no signs of darkening, then I believe we know for a fact that this is a hoax and that energy_wave just doesn't let things go. Story will be closed within 24 hours.

[edit on 20-10-2004 by antipigopolist]

Originally posted by energy_wave I found this last night while surfing. I can't find the link. 0-Hour)Dr.Gartrell is gone?? The REAL Dr. Gartrell is gone Wizard of OZ 6/6/2004 3:25 pm EDT

Then why did I get a response to my e-mail to him just 2 hours ago? (Not a big deal, just confirming the debunking we've already posted.) Really energy_wave, this is getting very tiresome.

I've been thinking a lot about the flap surrounding the infamous Aussie Bloke posts and things still don't seem to quite add up.

I was skeptical about the actual claims from the beginning, but having re-read through everything I wonder if this whole thing wasn't a well planned disinformation exercise.

My reason for thinking this is that the hoax seems too well researched and well informed to be the work of a lone hoaxer. It has the hallmarks of something that had some significant research and resources behind it.

The hoaxers must also have known that Dr Grant Gartrell would be away at a critical time and unable to dismiss the story until he returned. This may, of course, have been a lucky coincidence for the hoaxers, but otherwise it assumes that the hoaxer is someone who knew his movements - either a friend, an associate, or more worringly, a governmental agency with the resources to keep tabs on an individual.

So, why would an organisation wish to perpetrate such disinformation?:

1) There's something else big going on, or about to break, and they want to divert attention away from it.

2) There IS potentially something nasty coming from the skies (possible negative effects from the increased amount of dust within the solar system or increased solar activity?) and by perpetrating a worst case scenario to panic people now, the actual event will seem much less dramatic and panic/reaction from a desensitised public will be low-key compared to what it might have been otherwise.

This is a common government trick used often in the more mainstream media to get the public to swallow a bitter pill.

3) As an experiment to study the dynamics and implications of an internet-generated hoax.

4) To destroy the credibility of those sites which ran the story. Perhaps they get a bit too close to the mark with other subjects they cover?

5) For the simple enjoyment of screwing with people. (Unlikely, I feel, this would be more the mark of an individual hoaxer).

All this is a supposition for the sake of argument, I have no proof.

I'd be interested to hear what other members have to say given that we've all had time to reflect on this now.

(I thought about starting a different thread for this, but mindful of maintaining the sanity of the moderators, I'll post it here. Mods move to new thread if you want!

[edit on 8-6-2004 by harrisjohns]

Original Post Deleted... due to redundancy

[edit on 8-6-2004 by SimpleMan]

OMG!!!!

WHO TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS????

IT HAS GOTTEN PITCH DARK HERE IN NY......



lol
Time is the only thing that will put this story to rest. It is amazing the number of coincidental/incidental events that could tie into this story.

it does make it seem as if there is something bigger going on.

Either A.B. was legit and is now snuffed out and someone is playing spin control....orrrrr....
A.B. was a hoax designed to keep attention away from actual events shaping up.

Either way .....BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets get it over with....lol

the apparent real Dr Grant Gartrell lives in Mt Barker, South Australia. I live in South Australia also and was amazed to pickup today's 'Advertiser' newspaper and read about this story. There was an apparent 'newish' colour looking photo of Grant Gartrell accompanied by the information basically similar to what other users in this thread have included from an apparent email he wrote to defent the so called hoax. So to anyone who believes everything in the media, you can be rest assured that it was a hoax if you use your newspaper as a bible. To the others it perhaps suggests that Grant Gartrell was interviewed very recently by one of the newspaper journalists in order to gain this colour photo of him in there. It does make some wonder however that if Dr Grant Gartrell really was Aussie Bloke and the information was true, he could have been contact by the NSA, CIA, or just the Australian ASIO security, taken to a location away from his house (giving the front that he'd just got back from "caving") and threatened with violence unless he publicly told the press, thus leading to international press coverage of his information being a hoax. The apparent information he gave about the asteroids would not destroy the world or the world's population but three main minority parts and populations of it. Thus, if world survival was imminent, order and control needed to be maintained about the threat of an asteroid collission, no matter how unsevere it may be, the public stereotype of it would by as an "armageddon" "deep impact" "the world is gonna die" "doomsday" type view and religions of all kinds would be associating the damaging but not fatal impact of the meteorite with the end of the world. Like many have brought up there would be suicides, max credit card spending, and people would stop work, THUS society would stop functioning normally and the chance for a return to normal life after an area has been impacted by an asteroid would be destroyed. If no asteroids do hit the earth one has to wonder if all those navy vessels out in the middle of the ocean have anything to do with it with all their black book technology, bio, chemical and laser like weapons, maybe they're doing some kind of experiment with gravity using electromagnetic fields to bounce the meteorites away from earth, who knows? Not the public, that's for sure.

I ran across this on ATSNN

www.terroranalysis.com...

Possible explanation for the current level of naval activity?

"Presently there are no asteroids known to be on a collision course with Earth. And experts agree that one this big would almost surely come with decades or centuries of warning time, being fairly easy to spot well before it becomes an imminent threat. By then, experts hope, methods will be developed to divert or destroy such a rock."

I should have added this quote from the article when I posted this link originally. Here's the link again to save scrolling back.

www.space.com...

Don't you mean comets.

Astroids are much more harder to pinpoint. And considering that NEOs over the past few years (of varying sizes) have come pretty close with little warning, it's very possible one could surprise us and we not have decades or hundreds of years to prepare.