Leslie Kean
Occupationinvestigative journalist
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationSpence School
Bard College
RelativesRobert Kean (grandfather)
Thomas Kean (uncle)
Website
www.lesliekean.com

Leslie Kean is an American investigative journalist and author who is most notable for books about UFOs and the afterlife.[2][3]

Early life and education

Kean is the daughter of environmentalist and philanthropist Hamilton Fish Kean (1925–2016)[4] and the granddaughter of Congressman Robert Kean.[5] Her uncle is former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, and her cousin is New Jersey State Senator Thomas Kean Jr. The New Yorker reported in 2021 that she has "a modest family income" (income derived from inherited wealth).[6]

She grew up in New York City and attended Spence School and Bard College, and helped "to found a Zen center in upstate New York".[6]

Career

Purported UFO photo over Lake Cote, Costa Rica form 1971
An aerial photo of Lake Cote with a purported UFO taken in 1971 by the Costa Rican National Geographic Institute and given to Kean by the Costa Rican government

Kean worked as a photographer at the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University.

After visiting Burma to interview political prisoners in the 1990s, she began working as an investigative journalist, producer, and on-air host at KPFA, a Berkeley, California-based radio station and the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network and for Flashpoints, a left-wing drive-time news program covering wrongful convictions, the death penalty, and other criminal-justice issues.[6]

Kean has published works relating to UFOs since 2000, and has been a guest on Coast to Coast AM.[7][8] Her book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record, published by Penguin Random House, was a New York Times best seller.[9] Kean belongs to the UFO organization UFODATA.[10]

On December 16, 2017, The New York Times featured an article written by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Kean, which revealed the fact that the U.S. Department of Defense had spent $22.5M on a secret program titled the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program that investigated UFOs.[11]

According to Gideon Lewis-Kraus in April 2021, Kean has a photo of a purported UFO hanging on a wall behind her desk that was gifted to her by the Costa Rican government. This photo was taken by the Costa Rican National Geographic Institute in 1971 over Lake Cote and is considered by Kean to be "the finest image of a U.F.O. ever made public".[12] On 5 June 2023, Kean and writer Ralph Blumenthal reported that former United States Air Force officer and intelligence official David Grusch claimed that the United States has a secret UFO retrieval program with multiple vehicles of non-human origin as well as records of dead pilots in its possession.[13][14][15][16]

Written works

References

  1. ^ "Los OVNIs son muy diferentes a los que se ven en la Guerra de los mundos".
  2. ^ "Leslie Kean Penguin Random House". Penguin Random House. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  3. ^ "Leslie Kean HuffPost". Huffington Post. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  4. ^ "HAMILTON KEAN Obituary (2016) - New York, NY - New York Times". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  5. ^ HAMILTON KEAN (obituary) Retrieved May 15, 2020
  6. ^ a b c Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (30 April 2021). "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously". The New Yorker magazine.
  7. ^ "Leslie Kean - Biography & Interviews Coast to Coast AM". Coast to Coast AM. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  8. ^ Cooper, Helene; Blumenthal, Ralph; Kean, Leslie (December 16, 2017). "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program". The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  9. ^ Blumenthal, Ralph (December 18, 2017). "On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2018. ...The journey began two and a half months ago with a tip to Leslie, who has long reported on U.F.O.s and published a 2010 New York Times best seller, "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record....
  10. ^ "UFO DATA Team". Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  11. ^ Cooper, Helene; Kean, Leslie; Blumenthal, Ralph (December 16, 2017). "2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen'". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  12. ^ Lewis-Krau, Gideon (30 April 2021). "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously". The New Yorker. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  13. ^ Stieb, Matt (6 June 2023). "Ex–Intelligence Official Says Government Is Hiding Alien Technology From Congress". New York Magazine. Intelligencer (New York Magazine). Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  14. ^ Coen, Susie (7 June 2023). "'Non-human spacecraft' found by US 'for decades'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  15. ^ Gabbatt, Adam (9 June 2023). "A whistleblower claims the US has alien vehicles. But where's the proof?". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  16. ^ KEAN, LESLIE; BLUMENTHAL, RALPH (5 June 2023). "INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS SAY U.S. HAS RETRIEVED CRAFT OF NON-HUMAN ORIGIN". The Debrief. Retrieved 6 June 2023.

External links

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