CIA Records on Comet 3I/ATLAS Are 'Properly Classified' to Protect National Security

People are getting used to strange visitors from deep space, so the latest one, 3I/ATLAS, was supposed to be a closed case. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile found the object on July 1, 2025. It was quickly identified as the third known visitor from outside our solar system. NASA had already put it in the 'natural' folder, ignoring rumors of 'alien motherships' as just science fiction. But a new action by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has set the conspiracy world on fire, showing that what we don't know might be more important than what we do.

The CIA gave a 'Glomar' response to researcher John Greenewald Jr.'s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in November 2025. It said it could 'neither deny nor confirm the existence or nonexistence of such records' about 3I/ATLAS. If 3I/ATLAS is really just a harmless pile of ice and rock, why is the world's most powerful intelligence agency treating its information like a state secret? This strange position has sparked a heated debate right away.

The CIA Mystery Surrounding 3I/ATLAS and the Glomar Response

The agency's refusal to speak isn't just a bureaucratic hurdle; it is a classified wall. In its official response released on Dec. 31, 2025, the CIA noted: 'The fact of the existence or nonexistence of such records is itself currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information protected from disclosure'. This phrasing suggests that even acknowledging whether they looked at the object could compromise national security.

This is very different from what the federal government tells the public. NASA has been saying for months that 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever found after 'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, is just a comet.

During a crucial press conference on Nov. 19, 2025, attended by high-ranking officials like NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, officials dismissed claims that the object was built by humans, saying it showed no signs of being made with technology or being inhabited by aliens. They said that its core, which the Hubble Space Telescope estimated to be between 440 meters and 5.6 kilometers wide, acted just like a natural icy body.

However, the CIA's sudden silence suggests a disconnect between scientific transparency and intelligence-led caution. Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, a prominent voice in the study of interstellar anomalies, pointed out the irony in his latest blog post. 'That this information is treated as sensitive enough to be classified by the CIA is surprising, given that NASA officials stated decisively... that 3I/ATLAS is definitely a comet of natural origin,' Loeb wrote. If the science is settled, what exactly is the CIA protecting?

Could 3I/ATLAS Be a 'Black Swan' Event Hidden From the Public?

This secrecy has a lot of effects. Loeb supports the idea that the government may have been checking to see if the object was a 'black swan' event, which is something that happens without warning and could have terrible effects.

Loeb has pointed out '13 anomalies' about the object, such as its strange mass, which is a million times bigger than 'Oumuamua,' and its highly symmetrical anti-tail jets, which some people say look like technological thrusters. If the CIA found even a hint that 3I/ATLAS was a 'Trojan Horse' or a fake probe, the effects on society and the economy would be huge.

Loeb suggests that the government's primary goal may be the prevention of mass hysteria. 'The serious consideration of a black swan event by the CIA was hidden from public view in order to prevent panic from taking hold for no good reason,' he noted. An admission that an interstellar object required intelligence-level scrutiny could shake global stock markets, spark civil unrest and fundamentally alter our understanding of our place in the universe.

The CIA keeps a lid on a pot of speculation by not confirming or denying anything. NASA is still tracking the object as a celestial body. It came closest to Earth on Dec.19, 2025, when it was 170 million miles away. However, the intelligence community seems to be following a different set of rules.

For now, 3I/ATLAS is still two things: a simple comet to the public and a secret puzzle to the people who work at Langley. We still don't know if we'll ever see the data behind the curtain, just like we don't know where the object came from.