Avi Loeb Slams CIA Over 3I/ATLAS Secrets: Harvard Prof Claims Records Are Being Hidden

There's a glaring inconsistency here that would catch any investigator's eye. On the one hand, NASA has swiftly classified the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS as a mere natural comet, effectively resolving the issue. But things get strange when the CIA enters the conversation. When pressed for records on the same object, the agency remained completely silent, not even acknowledging the existence of a file on 3I/ATLAS in their system.

This clash between a 'case closed' scientific verdict and a highly guarded intelligence response has reignited the debate over what, exactly, is passing through our solar system. Harvard professor Avi Loeb argues that the CIA's secrecy is 'baffling' if the object is truly mundane and suggests the agency may be hiding records while preparing for a 'black swan event.

Intelligence Community Refuses To Rule Out Records' Existence

The story took another weird turn on New Year's Eve, 31 December 2025. After submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to uncover the government's knowledge about 3I/ATLAS, researcher John Greenewald Jr encountered an obstacle.

Instead of a simple yes or no, the CIA issued what's known as a Glomar response—telling him they can 'neither deny nor confirm the existence or nonexistence of records'. This legal phrase is typically reserved for sensitive national security matters, not lumps of ice and rock drifting through space.

Harvard Professor Avi Loeb argues that this classification is baffling if the object is truly mundane. NASA officials stated decisively at a press conference on 19 November 2025, that 3I/ATLAS is 'definitely a comet of natural origin'.

If the scientific and government consensus is that the object is harmless, Loeb questions why the CIA would treat records about a natural comet as sensitive enough to require such a high level of classification.

Unexplained Cosmic Anomalies Challenge the Natural Comet Theory

According to Loeb, the 'natural' explanation glosses over a suite of bizarre characteristics that 3I/ATLAS has displayed. The object features a 'prominent anti-tail jet directed at the Sun both before and after perihelion', a behaviour that defies standard cometary physics.

Furthermore, the object maintains a geometric alignment to 'within 8 degrees between the rotation axis of 3I/ATLAS at large distances and the sunward direction.'

Perhaps most intriguingly, the material shedding from the object has a chemical composition that mirrors industrial production. Data shows a 'prominence of nickel relative to iron in the gas that 3I/ATLAS sheds—reminiscent of industrially produced nickel alloys.'

Is the Government Preparing for a Black Swan Event?

According to Loeb, the most likely reason for the CIA's silence is simply caution. He thinks the agency is probably viewing this as a 'black swan' moment: something they didn't see coming but now have to manage because the consequences could be huge. Even if experts deem a threat unlikely, intelligence agencies operate on risk mitigation. Loeb draws a parallel to history and myth, noting that the 'residents of the City of Troy' learnt this lesson the hard way 'after they welcomed the Trojan Horse.'

As Loeb notes, the agency likely wants to avoid raising a false alarm, 'like the shepherd who repeatedly shouted "Wolf!" — so when a real wolf came, no one believed him.'

Radio Silence Isn't Proof

Critics of the artificial origin theory point to a recent lack of evidence from radio monitoring. Data from the Green Bank Telescope, released recently, found no technological signals in the 1–12 GHz band during a five-hour window on December 18, 2025. However, Loeb remains unconvinced that this rules out alien technology.

He argues that an interstellar probe would likely not transmit continuously. 'To save energy, an efficient signal would be beamed and compressed into a short burst with a small duty cycle,' Loeb explains. Furthermore, the object's arrival trajectory aligned with the 1977 'Wow! signal' to within 9 degrees, a coincidence with a probability of just 0.6 per cent.

Loeb insists that we must continue to monitor the object as it moves near Jupiter. Unless the scientific community investigates whether 3I/ATLAS 'deploys any small probes' or exhibits other technological behaviours, we may miss a discovery that changes human history. For more details on these anomalies, you can read Loeb's recent analysis.