Leslie Kean

Overview
Investigative journalist with over 30 years of experience. Author of the bestseller 'UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record' (2010). Co-author of the groundbreaking NYT article of December 16, 2017 that revealed AATIP.

Key Role
The NYT article (together with Ralph Blumenthal and Helene Cooper) triggered the modern UAP wave. 2023: co-author of the Grusch article on alleged reverse engineering programs. 2024: book 'Surviving Death' on near-death experiences (Netflix series).

Strengths and Weaknesses
Decades of expertise, Pulitzer-worthy investigative depth. Access to top-level sources in the Pentagon and Intelligence Community. The 2017 NYT article changed the entire UAP landscape. However: Some critics see insufficient independent verification in the Grusch story. Kean's transition to near-death experiences blurs the boundaries between journalism and paranormal research.

Leslie Kean is an American investigative journalist and author specialising in UFOs and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). She combines rigorous reporting with first-person accounts from military and government sources and has shaped the modern UAP debate through three key texts: the New York Times bestseller UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (2010), the 2017 NYT front-page disclosure of the Pentagon's AATIP program and her 2023 reporting on whistleblower David Grusch.

• Author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (2010), a New York Times bestseller with first-person testimony from military officers and officials worldwide
• Co-author of the 2017 NYT front-page article disclosing the Pentagon's AATIP program
• In 2023 broke the David Grusch whistleblower story about alleged U.S. government possession of non-human craft
• Co-founder of the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFi) in 2002
• Won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against NASA, advancing transparency of government records
• Organised the 2007 International Declaration to the U.S. Government, signed by 22 officials from 11 countries
• Author of Surviving Death (Parapsychological Association Book Award, Netflix series 2021), contributor to History Channel and Hulu/Disney+ documentaries

Kean is the bridge between classical quality journalism and UAP research: without her NYT articles and books the Pentagon AATIP program would never have become as publicly tangible, and the Grusch story would not have carried the same leverage in the mainstream press. With CFi, the FOIA lawsuit and the international declaration she also embodies the transparency side of the movement — journalist and activist in one person.