CIA Cover-Up? Intelligence Agency Blocks Records on Interstellar Visitor 3I/ATLAS

In the early hours of July 1, 2025, a telescope in the high deserts of Chile saw a faint, moving speck. This tiny dot would soon cause a stir in the world's intelligence and scientific communities. This was the beginning of the 3I/ATLAS event. This 'exocomet' is the third object from another star system that has been seen entering our solar system. Its strange behavior has gone beyond astronomy and into the area of national security.

The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System found the object in Rio Hurtado. It was moving at an incredible 61 km/s (140,000 mph) relative to the sun, on a hyperbolic path that showed it came from deep interstellar space. People thought that billion-dollar observatories would give them clear, high-definition answers, but instead they have been met with a wall of low-resolution images and a mysterious silence from Washington's halls of power.

The mystery grew a lot after the object reached perihelion on Oct. 29 at a distance of 1.36 AU (about 126 million miles) and then flew by Earth on Dec. 19 at a distance of 1.8 AU. These milestones didn't bring any closure; instead, they just made people think about them more.

Critics want to know why the pictures from NASA and the ESA are so grainy. This perceived lack of openness has led to a storm of theories, from the scientific to the sensational. Some people even think that 3I/ATLAS isn't a rock at all, but an alien spy probe.

The CIA Silence: Why Records on 3I/ATLAS Remain Classified

When prominent UFO researcher John Greenwald Jr. decided to nudge the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) using a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request, he likely expected a standard bureaucratic brush-off. Instead, he received a 'Glomar' response — a legalistic manoeuvre where an agency refuses to even acknowledge if records exist. The CIA's official statement was a masterclass in ambiguity, stating they could 'neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of records responsive' to the request.

The agency further clarified that the very fact of whether such records exist is 'currently and properly classified' to protect intelligence sources and methods under the CIA Act of 1949. Specifically, the CIA cited Section 3.6(a) of Executive Order 13526, a move that prevents the disclosure of information that could reasonably be expected to cause damage to national security.

For many, this was the equivalent of a smoking gun. By refusing to deny they are tracking 3I/ATLAS, the CIA has inadvertently lent weight to the idea that the object is of more than just academic interest. It suggests that the US intelligence apparatus sees the trajectory or nature of this visitor as a potential security concern, rather than a mere curiosity for the morning papers.

Avi Loeb and the Sixteen Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS

While the spooks remain tight-lipped, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has been far more forthcoming. Loeb, who has built a reputation as the scientific world's most vocal 'interstellar detective', has been documenting the object since its discovery. He has flagged no fewer than 16 distinct anomalies that refuse to fit into the standard models of icy comets.

From strange non-gravitational accelerations to an unusual lack of a traditional 'tail', Loeb argues that the data gathered by X-ray and spectrometric observatories points toward a composition that is fundamentally alien to our solar neighbourhood. Among these anomalies is the detection of atomic nickel vapor at 3.3 AU — a distance where it should be frozen solid — and a rhythmic, 7.75-hour 'wobble' in its sunward jets that some suggest mimics a technological thruster.

Reacting to the CIA's refusal to speak, Loeb noted in a recent blog post that the secrecy surrounding the object only hampers the scientific community's ability to understand it. If 3I/ATLAS is indeed a natural phenomenon, the classification of data seems unnecessary; if it is something else, the public, he argues, has a right to know.

As the object continues its journey away from our sun toward a close approach with Jupiter on March 16, 2026, the window for close-up observation is rapidly closing. Whether 3I/ATLAS is a ghost from a distant star system or a sophisticated piece of technology, the silence from the CIA ensures that the mystery will likely endure long after the speck has faded from our telescopes.