We used to joke that OSINT was just an excuse to surf the niprnet, check email, buy crap from amazon, etc.

We started to get reports that some bad guys in the area were going to meet with a reporter, and we were tracking that, trying to find out where and when.

We missed the meet, but got lots of reports about it after it happened. Sure enough a few days later an analyst from higher emails us some pics from Reuters showing a group of BG's meeting in a typical sit down. Weapons, unifroms ak's, commo etc. The main BG's had their faces covered but some did not.

OSINT, actually proved useful, and will continue to do so.

This is especially true considering the BG's effective use of IO, along with the "good" of getting their message, videos, etc out there they get increased exposure and may end up showing us something we need to know.