# Leslie Kean

[View on uap.fun](<https://uap.fun/people/leslie-kean/>)

Investigative journalist & author

A journalist whose books and reporting brought military witnesses and government UFO investigations to a broad audience. She co-authored the 2017 New York Times story that helped reshape the modern public conversation about UAP.

![Portrait of Leslie Kean wearing glasses and a blue top.](<https://uap.fun/people/leslie-kean.jpg>)

Tatiana Daubek · Via Leslie Kean

[Photo source](<https://www.lesliekean.com/author-leslie-kean/>)

**Known for:** UFOs on the Record · The 2017 Pentagon story · Disclosure reporting

Sources reviewed September 16, 2026.

## A reporter focused on unresolved questions

Kean describes her work as independent investigative journalism. Her writing has covered UFO reports as well as other contested subjects, including the experiences explored in her 2017 book Surviving Death. Her UFO work is best understood through the particular witnesses, records, and institutions she brings into a story. A biographical overview on an author’s own website is useful for identifying publications and professional interests; independent reporting and the underlying documents are needed to assess the conclusions.

Sources: [Leslie Kean’s author biography](<https://www.lesliekean.com/author-leslie-kean/>)

## Putting named witnesses on the record

Her 2010 book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record assembled accounts and contributions from people willing to be publicly identified. Its emphasis on experienced military and aviation witnesses gave readers a route into a subject often encountered through anonymous stories. Professional experience can help establish what someone was trained to observe, but it cannot eliminate perceptual error or missing information. Each case still needs to be assessed through the available records, circumstances, and corroboration.

Sources: [UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record](<https://www.lesliekean.com/ufos/>)

## The December 2017 Pentagon story

With Helene Cooper and Ralph Blumenthal, Kean co-authored the New York Times report on a Pentagon effort described as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. Published online on December 16, 2017, the article reported funding, political sponsorship, and accounts of military encounters. Its significance was partly institutional: a major newspaper was treating government interest in UFOs as a reportable subject. Evidence that officials funded or investigated a subject establishes that activity. It does not settle the origin of the objects described in the reporting.

Sources: [The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program](<https://cdn.lesliekean.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The_New_York_Times_December_17_2017-extract.pdf>)

## The Grusch reporting and public testimony

In June 2023, Kean and Blumenthal published David Grusch’s allegations about concealed retrieval programs in The Debrief. Their report attributed the claims to Grusch and other sources, including assertions about information outside public access. The House Oversight hearing the following month heard from Grusch, Ryan Graves, and David Fravor. These are distinct records: a published investigation and testimony before a congressional committee. Neither publication nor a hearing converts an allegation into independently established physical evidence, particularly where the claimed supporting material remains unavailable to readers.

Sources: [Intelligence officials say U.S. has retrieved non-human craft](<https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/>) · [The July 26, 2023 UAP hearing](<https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/>)

## Reading the reporting in context

Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s 2021 New Yorker profile offers independent context on Kean, her sources, and the wider movement to bring UFO claims into mainstream institutions. It is a useful companion to her own descriptions of her work. For the reader, the central task is to separate three layers: what a source says, what documents or other witnesses corroborate, and what interpretation the story invites. Kean’s influence on the subject is substantial; the evidentiary strength of each article still rests on its particular reporting.

Sources: [How the Pentagon started taking U.F.O.s seriously](<https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously>) · [The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program](<https://cdn.lesliekean.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The_New_York_Times_December_17_2017-extract.pdf>) · [Intelligence officials say U.S. has retrieved non-human craft](<https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/>)

## Sources & further reading

- [Leslie Kean’s author biography](<https://www.lesliekean.com/author-leslie-kean/>) — Leslie Kean · Official website
- [UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record](<https://www.lesliekean.com/ufos/>) — Leslie Kean · Book overview and contributor accounts
- [The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program](<https://cdn.lesliekean.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The_New_York_Times_December_17_2017-extract.pdf>) — The New York Times · December 2017 · Print clipping hosted by Kean
- [How the Pentagon started taking U.F.O.s seriously](<https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously>) — Gideon Lewis-Kraus · The New Yorker · 2021
- [Intelligence officials say U.S. has retrieved non-human craft](<https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/>) — Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal · The Debrief · June 5, 2023
- [The July 26, 2023 UAP hearing](<https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/>) — U.S. House Oversight Committee · Hearing record

## Keep exploring

- [David Fravor](<https://uap.fun/people/david-fravor/>)
- [David Grusch](<https://uap.fun/people/david-grusch/>)
- [Luis Elizondo](<https://uap.fun/people/luis-elizondo/>)
- [The Nimitz encounter](<https://uap.fun/encounters/nimitz-encounter/>)

[All people](<https://uap.fun/people/>)

[Next profile: David Fravor](<https://uap.fun/people/david-fravor/>)