LOS ANGELES (AMP) – @lantis Interactive, Inc. today denied charges that it is a government-funded "disinformation" agency bent on covering up a secret U.S. dig in Antarctica under the guise of an entertainment website.
"The Atlantis Mapping Project is a mock dig based on an upcoming novel and movie," said Thomas Greanias, founder and CEO of @lantis Interactive, Inc., the parent company of @lantis.TV and sponsor of the Atlantis Mapping Project website. "It is completely fictional. To the best of my knowledge, there is no secret U.S. military dig in Antarctica or ancient ruins under the ice."
The conspiracy charges were leveled after the federal National Science Foundation (NSF) reported in its journal, The Antarctic Sun, that it is using American military personnel to construct a new base deep inside the Antarctic interior at Lake Vostok, where a huge magnetic "anomaly" has been discovered by scientists. [View RADARSAT video courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.]
Because the NSF base and anomaly both bear striking similarities to plot points in Thomas Greanias’ upcoming novel RAISING ATLANTIS, on which @lantis.TV is based, conspiracy buffs are voicing suspicions on websites and bulletin boards all across the Internet.
"What is @lantis.TV doing here, promoting fact based on fiction, fiction based on fact, easing us in gently or clever disinformation to muddy the ice" asks the editor of Cyberspaceorbit.com. "Read their pitch carefully: the Vatican influences, the whole mind-game. On a scale of 1-10, the weird factor is a 10."
Weird indeed. But the author and his representatives insist any similarities between fact and fiction are purely coincidental. "Tom’s novel was finished long before all this activity in Antarctica," said New York literary agent Simon Lipskar. "What can I say? We live in a strange world."
The NSF, for its part, says it has no choice but to rely on the Scotia, N.Y.-based 109th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard for logistical support. That’s because the military unit flies and maintains the world's only fleet of ski-equipped LC-130 "Hercules" transport aircraft.
"Due to the harsh conditions and remoteness of these locations, logistical support for science in the field is a complex undertaking and involves partnerships with other nations, with the private sector, with academic institutions and with the U.S. military," said NSF spokesman Peter West, adding that the NSF is an independent federal agency and is the only federal agency whose mission covers research in all fields of science and engineering.
As for the magnetic anomaly, it is currently being investigated by international scientists. Still, @lantis® chief Thomas Greanias cautions that the secret U.S dig depicted in his novel RAISING ATLANTIS bears little resemblance to the NSF’s research activities in Antarctica.
"Antarctica has been shrouded in mystery for centuries and is the closest thing on Earth to another planet," he said. "Like the myth of Atlantis, it’s only natural that it would capture the popular imagination."
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