Leslie Kean
{{Short description|American investigative journalist and author}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Leslie Kean
| image =
| caption = Leslie Kean in 2012{{Cite web |title=Los OVNIs son muy diferentes a los que se ven en la Guerra de los mundos |url=https://www.theclinic.cl/2012/06/22/los-ovnis-son-muy-diferentes-a-los-que-se-ven-en-la-guerra-de-los-mundos/}}
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| occupation = investigative journalist
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| citizenship = American
| education = Spence School
Bard College
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| relatives = Robert Kean (grandfather)
Thomas Kean (uncle)
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| website = {{URL|https://www.lesliekean.com/}}
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Leslie Kean is an American investigative journalist and author of books about UFOs and the afterlife.{{Cite web |title=Los OVNIs son muy diferentes a los que se ven en la Guerra de los mundos |url=https://www.theclinic.cl/2012/06/22/los-ovnis-son-muy-diferentes-a-los-que-se-ven-en-la-guerra-de-los-mundos/}}{{cite web |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/114166/leslie-kean|title=Leslie Kean Penguin Random House| publisher=Penguin Random House |accessdate=October 1, 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/leslie-kean|title=Leslie Kean HuffPost| publisher=Huffington Post |accessdate=October 1, 2018}}
Early life and education
Kean is the daughter of environmentalist and philanthropist Hamilton Fish Kean (1925–2016){{Cite web |title=HAMILTON KEAN Obituary (2016) - New York, NY - New York Times |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/hamilton-kean-obituary?id=14867832 |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=Legacy.com}} and the granddaughter of Congressman Robert Kean.[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=hamilton-kean&pid=179587285 HAMILTON KEAN (obituary)] Retrieved May 15, 2020 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).
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".
Career
File:Cote ufo.jpg with a purported UFO taken in 1971 by the Costa Rican National Geographic Institute and given to Kean by the Costa Rican government|alt=Purported UFO photo over Lake Cote, Costa Rica form 1971]]
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.{{cite magazine|last1=Lewis-Kraus |first1=Gideon |title=How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously |magazine=The New Yorker magazine |date=30 April 2021 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously}}
Kean has published works relating to UFOs since 2000, and has been a guest on Coast to Coast AM.{{cite web |url=https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/kean-leslie/6917 |title=Leslie Kean - Biography & Interviews Coast to Coast AM |publisher=Coast to Coast AM |accessdate=October 1, 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html|title=Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program|last1=Cooper|first1=Helene|last2= Blumenthal|first2=Ralph|last3=Kean|first3=Leslie|work=The New York Times|date=December 16, 2017 |access-date=December 17, 2017}} Her book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record, published by Penguin Random House, was a New York Times best seller.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html |quote=...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....|title=On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program - The New York Times |work=The New York Times |date=December 18, 2017 |accessdate=October 1, 2018 |first=Ralph|last=Blumenthal}} Kean belongs to the UFO organization UFODATA.{{cite news|url= https://ufodata.net/team.html|title=UFO DATA Team |access-date=March 20, 2021}}{{Failed verification|date=March 2024}}
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.{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html|title=2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen'|last1=Cooper|first1=Helene| last2=Kean|first2=Leslie|authorlink2=Leslie Kean|last3=Blumenthal|first3=Ralph|work=The New York Times|date=December 16, 2017|access-date=December 21, 2017}}
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".{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously |title=How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously |last=Lewis-Krau |first=Gideon |date=30 April 2021 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=6 June 2023}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/ex-intel-official-government-hiding-alien-tech.html |title=Ex–Intelligence Official Says Government Is Hiding Alien Technology From Congress |last=Stieb |first=Matt |date=6 June 2023 |website=New York Magazine |publisher=Intelligencer (New York Magazine) |access-date=6 June 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/07/ufos-made-with-non-human-materials-found-by-us/ |title='Non-human spacecraft' found by US 'for decades' |last=Coen |first=Susie |date=7 June 2023 |website=The Telegraph |access-date=9 June 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/09/ufo-alien-vehicles-us-whistleblower-evidence-where-is-proof |title=A whistleblower claims the US has alien vehicles. But where's the proof? |last=Gabbatt |first=Adam |date=9 June 2023 |work=The Guardian |access-date=9 June 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/ |title=INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS SAY U.S. HAS RETRIEVED CRAFT OF NON-HUMAN ORIGIN |last1=KEAN |first1=LESLIE |last2=BLUMENTHAL |first2=RALPH |date=5 June 2023 |website=The Debrief |access-date=6 June 2023}}
Written works
- 1994. Burma's Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity – with Alan Clements. {{ISBN|978-0893815806}}.
- 2010. UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record - with a foreword by John Podesta, Harmony Books, New York. {{ISBN|978-0307716842}}.
- 2017. Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife. {{ISBN|978-0553419610}}.
References
External links
- [https://www.lesliekean.com/ Official website]
- [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1690024/ Leslie Kean] at IMDb
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kean, Leslie}}
Category:American investigative journalists