Has Dr. Avi Loeb been Bluffing all this Time?

 Dr. Avi Loeb is an astrophysicist at Harvard University. Nobody is questioning his credentials as an astrophysicist, but his penchant for jumping to wild conclusions about UFOs (UAPs) has made him something of a joke among serious astronomers. In 2025 the interstellar object 3I-ATLAS entered our solar system from the depths of interstellar space. Dr. Loeb started saying that it might be an interstellar spacecraft, perhaps sent to check up on earth? He co-authored a paper which said,

As largely a pedagogical exercise, in this paper we present additional analysis into the astrodynamics of 3I/ATLAS, and hypothesize that this object could be technological, and possibly hostile as would be expected from the ’Dark Forest’ resolution to the ’Fermi Paradox’.We show that 3I/ATLAS approaches surprisingly close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter, with a probability of ? 0.005%

Of course, when 3I/ATLAS reached its closest approach to the sun, it swung around and continued on its hyperbolic path out of our solar system, never to be seen again. Loeb had said basically the same thing earlier about the first interstellar object, 1I/Oumuamua, possibly being a spacecraft.. . 

 

In July Dr. Loeb wrote, “Why I Agreed to Lead the UAP Science Advisory Council for the U.S. Government”. In it he writes,

A month and a half ago, I was visited by a representative from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). He raised a simple question: “Would you be willing to establish and lead a new advisory council for the U.S. Government on the science of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). I responded: “You had me at `hello.’

In support of President Trump’s directive on UAP transparency, I was tasked by ODNI, the White House, the Pentagon’s All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the FBI and the Intelligence Community, to establish and lead the new UAP Science Advisory Council. The council reports to the UAP Governing Board which includes representatives from the above-mentioned organizations. Its goal is to advise the U.S. government on how to resolve the nature of UAP. 

 Small problem: there is no actual evidence, other than Loeb's word, that this really is a 'Government UAP Council.' I realized that the provenance of this Council seemed a bit woozy, but, well, sometimes academics are like that. Many of us thought that Loeb was a poor choice to head up the Council, given his penchant for jumping to absurd conclusions. But politics is like that sometimes, we thought.

To my knowledge the first person to raise the question in a serious manner was Alex Zorin. On Aug. 14 he wrote on X, 

??The FBI, in response to my FOIA request, says they have "no record" of a so-called "UAP Science Advisory Council."
@ProfAviLoeb  previously claimed in a blog post and reporting by @BrandiVincent_of DeefenseScoop  that he was tasked by the FBI (among others) to organize such a body. At the time, I noted there was no record of a FARC charter as legally required, and no official government announcement. And I suggested Loeb misunderstood a casual conversation to be something it was not,...
I'm still waiting on replies from the other agencies Loeb claims "established" the board — a board no one seems to have any record of existing.

I reached out to one of the members of the Council who I knew, and asked him the question about Government sponsorship. He was at first dismissive of the question as a crazy conspiracy theory. He then explained that they have a regular Zoom meeting with a friend of Avi, who works for the government. I told him, that sounds to me like the "Trust me, bro" arguments of so-called "UFO whistleblowers." He said he would ask Avi about this. I have not heard back from him.

On one of Dr. Loeb’s public postings on X about his Government Council to study UAPs, I asked the question: “Dr. Loeb, do you have any documentary proof that your Council is, in fact, an official government panel?” There was no reply.

I brought this to the attention of New York Post reporter Steven Greenstreet, who is like a bulldog when he gets his teeth into a story. Greenstreet looked into the question of whether Dr. Loeb’s Council was, in fact, an official government organization. He later wrote on X,

I reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to ask about Harvard Professor Avi Loeb's UFO council and its relationship with the government. 

He asked them, “Is the UAP Science Advisory Council an official government group? “. Their reply was, “No, the UAP Science Advisory Council is an informal group of experts who have provided their views to ODNI officials.” Ouch!  

So there you have it. Documentary evidence that Loeb's "Government UAP Science Advisory Council" is not a government agency, with only anecdotal evidence that it is. Why are you trying to fool us, Avi? Did you think that you could get away with it forever, that no skeptic would ever start digging? Why don't you go back to your telescope, maybe Spaceship 4I/LOEB will be here soon?

 

Steve Pierce confesses theTravis Walton UFO Abduction Hoax

The Travis Walton "UFO abduction" back in 1975 is one of the best-known and most widely believed of all UFO cases. It was depicted in the movie Fire In The Sky. Serious researchers have known for a while that the case was a hoax. Now Steve Pierce, one of the woodcutters in the truck with Travis, not only admits the hoax, but explains how it was done.

In August of 2026, researcher Ryan Gordon traveled to the 'abduction site' with Pierce to try to untangle the confusion. Gordon published a YouTube video to document their discussions about the case. He writes,

On November 5, 1975, deep in the chilling timber of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests just outside of Heber, Arizona, a logging crew experienced an event that would cement itself in UFO history forever. What started as a routine day in the woods ended with 22-year-old Travis Walton vanishing without a trace for five agonizing days and allegedly taken aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft. But as the years have passed, cracks in the world's most famous abduction story have begun to show. What really happened in the forest that night?

In this exclusive and gripping deep-dive interview, producer Ryan Gordon sits down with original logging crew member and eyewitness Steve Pierce to unravel decades of mystery, rumor, and shocking revelations.

The video begins with Pierce and Gordon at Turkey Springs in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. This is where the woodcutters were working on their forest service contract. It is also where Travis Walton claims he was "abducted," leading a group of researchers there, amid absurd claims about 'radioactive trees' and the like. 

But a little reflection tells us this cannot be true. The woodcutters normally returned home using Black Canyon Road, a primitive but direct route through the forest, starting before it gets dark. However, on Abduction Day, Mike Rogers, the crew chief and driver of the truck, had the crew work until it was dark. He then chose to return via the Rim Road, a forest road they had not taken before. At the intersection of another road, they reportedly saw a UFO. Rogers stopped the truck, and Travis ran out to see the UFO. When Travis was reportedly struck by a beam of light from the UFO, Rogers hit the gas and sped away from the site, reaching a speed of 60 MPH on Rim Road, until they decided to stop and go back to try to find poor Travis, which of course they could not.

The Gentry Tower as seen from the road in daylight. Travis Walton's "UFO."

At the site of the Gentry Tower, Pierce says that he is "100% certain" that this was Travis Walton's UFO. A brief description of the case as we now know it:

• The hoax was planned by Travis Walton and Mike Rogers. The other woodcutters (including Steve Pierce) knew nothing of it at the time.
• There was a third hoaxer working in the Gentry Tower. He shone a searchlight on Travis, to make it look like he was being "zapped".

More recently, Travis has been claiming that the beam from the UFO 'killed' him. Fortunately, the aliens took him aboard their craft, and restored him to life. 

Mike Rogers died this past February. According to his daughter, he made a deathbed confession of  the Travis Walton hoax. Rogers had "confessed" this in 2021 in a phone call with Ryan Gordon, but then retracted his confession soon afterward. Rogers also reportedly "confessed" to his daughter to having hoaxed the famous Phoenix Lights using balloons or something, which is preposterous. Those "lights" traveled 400 miles in less than an hour, so they were obviously aircraft. Frankly, this detracts from the credibility of Rogers' other confession, although I still don't doubt it..

Steve Pierce at the Gentry Tower.

 

Forest Service CL-100 lookout tower (same model as Gentry Tower in Apache-Sitgreaves Natl. Forest)

The National Enquirer was offering $1 million for "proof that UFOs come from outer space." The Walton/Rogers crew was hoping to win that prize, but fell short. However, they received instead $2,500 each for '1975's most extraordinary encounter.'