Feds Sift Facts and Fiction From "Atlantis"
LOS ANGELES (AMP) – @lantisTV today announced the publication date of the novel that serves as the basis for its popular online "Atlantis Mapping Project" channel, even as federal officials in Washington acknowledged that they are reviewing it "in the interests of national security."
An uncensored version of RAISING ATLANTIS by Thomas Greanias is slated to be available online in April and the government-approved version in bookstores by the end of the year. The novel focuses on a secret U.S. military expedition that discovers ancient ruins two miles beneath the ice in Antarctica.
Conspiracy buffs claim the book is a novelization of actual events underway in Antarctica, and that its main characters are pseudonyms for real people. Furthermore, they claim that Los Angeles-based @lantisTV is a front for the government’s supersecret National Security Agency and the chief perpetrator of a "disinformation campaign" to cover up the "real" secret dig in Antarctica under the guise of entertainment.
The federal government refused to comment on the accusations. "We really don’t care if the novel is based on true events or simply a damned good realistic yarn, which it certainly is," said a spokeswoman with the National Security Agency. "Our concern is whether or not the novel contains pieces of information that might compromise our national security."
The spokeswoman, however, would not elaborate as to how events in Antarctica might threaten American homeland defense.
Federal officials have acknowledged that at least three plot points in RAISING ATLANTIS are, in fact, true. Namely, that a huge magnetic "anomaly" has been discovered in Antarctica by scientists at Lake Vostok, that American military personnel are helping the National Science Foundation (NSF) to construct a new base nearby, and that "Federal Emergency Plan D" exists.
Indeed, the Washington Post on Friday reported that one part of "Emergency Plan D" was activated after the Sept. 11 attacks and remains in effect. That plan section calls for the activation of a "shadow government" to operate in secret bunkers outside the nation’s capital to ensure the survival of the United States of America and the continuity of its government in the event of a natural global catastrophe or nuclear Armageddon.
Mr. Greanias, his representatives and @lantisTV executives 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."
Already two federal reviews have held up release of RAISING ATLANTIS, and @lantisTV’s powerful servers have been crashed by unknown hackers on three occasions, with thousands of subscribers reporting "NSA Override" messages on their screens.
The NSF, for its part, denies unleashing "cryobots" beneath the ice, as reported in previous @lantisTV webcasts. And it claims it has no choice but to rely on the Scotia, N.Y.-based 109th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard for logistical support in building its new base "for purely scientific research purposes" at Lake Vostok. 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 National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency and is the only federal agency whose mission covers research in all fields of science and engineering.
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