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?