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Thread: OSINT: "Brown Moses" & Bellingcat (merged thread)

  1. #21
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    Yandex reveals Russian MLRS attack into Ukraine bigger than GRAD: Uragan, Smerch or Tochka-U?
    https://maps.yandex.com/?ll=38.35119...18&l=sat%2Cskl … pic.twitter.com/lmHJonUa1m

    Photo of the ad hoc Russian field ammunition depot south of Marynivka.
    pic.twitter.com/T5QfpwfKKR
    via @ravelin_by

    It turns out that Google Earth now also shows the Russian ammunition depot south of Marynivka. pic.twitter.com/fFYLLtC4CZ

    Yandex reveals a Russian field ammunition depot south of Marynivka
    https://maps.yandex.com/?ll=38.96378...18&l=sat%2Cskl
    via @ravelin_by pic.twitter.com/mlooUGdeTc

  2. #22
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    Perfect example of both informational warfare and OSINT--first clear breakout of a Russian Spetsnaz team by functions and mission sets.

    Two really well done POW videos from the two captured Russian Spetsnaz—target audience will be Russia and those that believe massively in the Russian disinformation.

    The videos are also a way for allowing their families know they are alive and well as they fully named their Russian addresses--these will definitely be broadcast by Radio Free Europe today and the families will then via radio reports get the notification. The Ukraine has indicated they will allow family contacts if the families approach them.

    Ukrainian POWS have been treated in a far more brutal fashion to even executions after capture and torture. Minsk 2 stated all for all must be exchanged and the Ukraine has provided Russia with a list of 401 that have not been exchanged and no info on their locations and or conditions.

    Kind of kills the Russia official line especially from Putin’s spokesperson and the Russian MoD that they were “former Russia service members”.

    It will be a potent response to the Russia countless statements "we ain't in the Ukraine or it's not us-- it is the mercenaries".

    The last comments by the SF CPT---the top is skimming the cream and the low are skimming the blood is a telling statement from a Russian professional officer and a Spetsnaz member.

    There is no pressure on the two and from all accounts Ukraine medical treatment saved the leg of the SGT.

    Security Service of #Ukraine posted NEW video of #Russian POWs with English subtitles!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qLqQL7YJiI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3khPZucwTQ

  3. #23
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    Reference the shot down of MH17.

    bellingcat @bellingcat
    Who to Trust, Google or the Russian MoD? A Guide to Verifying Google Earth Satellite Image via @bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/resources...-verification/

    bellingcat @bellingcat
    Does Ukraine Have 9M38M1 Missiles? via @bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-a...15/06/04/4010/ … pic.twitter.com/spTPihTgxC
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 06-05-2015 at 07:30 PM. Reason: Copied from Ukraine thread as useful update

  4. #24
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    Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
    Just been reviewing the Russian MoD images for our new report, just noticed this little issue

    pic.twitter.com/7SGuBxDXC2

    Note: appears to be a BUK missile launcher.

  5. #25
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    Inspired by @EliotHiggins, Google’s New YouTube App Crowdsources War Reporting with the help of @Storyful
    http://www.wired.com/2016/04/googles...war-reporting/ … via WIRED

    Social media open source analysis has now gone mainstream.....will be interesting to see if western MSM keeps up.....

    Eliot Higgins ‎@EliotHiggins
    Details about Montage, the new conflict video analysis platform
    https://medium.com/jigsaw/montage-th...aff#.nqpk2btk5
    Access it here http://montage.storyful.com
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 04-21-2016 at 10:05 AM. Reason: Copied from Ukr thread and edited down to suit here.

  6. #26
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Moderator adds

    There are numerous posts which show Bellingcat aka Eliott Higgins at work elsewhere. Notably a 100 plus on the Syria and Ukraine threads. This thread appears to be mainly about his early period and the tools he has developed.
    davidbfpo

  7. #27
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    Azor...you do realize and hopefully accept the simple fact that OSINT provides roughly 80% of ALL intel....the remaining 20% is the technical side that usually is used to confirm...deny and or to monitor further developments.


    If you have been following both this thread and Ukrainian thread you know that...it was the lonely Brit sitting on his sofa that did the world's first really solid OSINT reporting and analysis on the 2013 Assad CWs attack when the rest of the entire MSM still was doubting it was a CW attack...since then he and others around him have developed a number of analysis tools for social media and media in general that are rapidly outperforming even intel OSINT tools...and they are free and open source.

    Out of that came @bellingcat now a premier OSINT analysis team and trainers for investigative journalism and a heavy users of social media for a number of things....

    LIKE basically calling CENTCOM lairs when they claimed they hit IS/AQ in a mosque not civilians...which would be a war crime and it was a war crime...
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 04-29-2017 at 04:58 PM. Reason: Copied from Russian disinformation thread

  8. #28
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    Default Eliot Higgins talks

    If you get to Oxford, England he is giving a public talk on 22nd January 2018 @ Nuffield College, the hosts are Oxford Intelligence Group (OIG). From their announcement:
    Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins examines the way in which a wealth of open source information is changing the way we understand conflict, and the implications in a range of fields, from journalism to justice and accountability.
    Eliot Higgins is an award-winning investigative journalist, and founder of the Brown Moses Blog and Bellingcat. He publishes the work of an international alliance of fellow investigators using freely available online information. He has helped inaugurate open-source and social media investigations by trawling through vast amounts of data uploaded constantly onto the web and social media sites. His enquiries have revealed extraordinary findings on subjects such as the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine, and the 21 August 2013 Sarin attacks in Damascus.
    More details PM me please.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 12-18-2017 at 07:51 PM. Reason: 90,721v
    davidbfpo

  9. #29
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    Default Moderator adds

    There are a number of recent posts to Bellingcat's recent work on the attempted murder of a GRU defector in Salisbury, UK. See Posts 75, 77 & 80 on that thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...erations/page4
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 02-16-2019 at 10:20 AM. Reason: 117,246v today
    davidbfpo

  10. #30
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    Default What can we learn from Bellingcat?

    An exploration of Bellingcat in 'The Spectator' alas behind a paywall, which considers the allegations made it is a servant of the UK / US agencies. It ends with this:
    The real secret of Bellingcat is that they have stumbled upon a disturbing truth: that it has become impossible to tell analogue lies in a digital world. In an age where almost all personal data is searchable and every event photographed, the most secret information is often hiding in plain sight. All you need to know is where to look for it — even if that means delving into the internet’s darkest corners.
    Link:https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/10/...spy-agencies/?
    davidbfpo

  11. #31
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    Default A gap in the visa system

    The opening part of a Bellingcat investigation into the private operator of UK and other nation's visa issuing being subverted by the Russians, hence the two Skirpal suspects having visas for year to enter the UK and other European nations. It starts with:
    One of the unanswered questions lingering after Bellingcat’s unmasking of the identities of suspects in the botched-up poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal, is how two (or, likely, more) undercover GRU officers were able to obtain visas to travel to the UK. Securing a visa to the UK – as to most of EU destinations – is not a trivial procedure. A single-entry visitor visa is relatively straightforward to procure – it requires either an invitation from a UK resident or business, or a pre-arranged tourist trip.
    Link:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-a...l-visa-system/
    davidbfpo

  12. #32
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    Social media OSINT*.
    A warship of Russia's Northern fleet entered the Black Sea on Wednesday, January 9. The vessel in question is the Severomorsk (619) anti-submarine Udaloy-class destroyer, according to Andriy Klymenko, an expert with the Ukraine-based Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation. "For the first time since the start of Crimea occupation, a warship of the Russian Northern fleet – not just a landing ship of another fleet but the one that is part of the Russian navy's main strike force – has entered the Black Sea waters," * the expert wrote on Facebook, also posting the relevant photos of the destroyer.
    https://www.unian.info/politics/1040...sea-photo.html
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 02-16-2019 at 10:19 AM. Reason: 119,799v today
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

  13. #33
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    Default Third Suspect in Skripal Poisoning Id'd as Denis Sergeev, High-Ranking GRU Officer

    The latest Bellingcat update on the Skirpal attack in the UK; another apart will follow. A glimpse into "escape and evade":
    It is unclear what Fedotov’s role may have been, if any, in the preparation and execution of the poisoning operation. We could also not establish if he traveled to Salisbury on any of the days he was in the UK. He had booked a return flight on Aeroflot’s SU 2579 from Heathrow to Moscow in the afternoon of March 4, the day on which Sergey and Yuliya Skripal collapsed unconscious. However, he never boarded that flight. PNR records seen by Bellingcat and its investigative partners show that despite checking in to that flight around noon on March 4, “Fedotov” was a last minute no-show. Instead, using transportation that has yet to be identified by us, he made his way to Rome, and boarded a flight at 15:30 that same day back to Moscow.
    Link:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-a...ge-1/#comments
    davidbfpo

  14. #34
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    Next part on the investigation. Note some of the information gained came from archived Russian public records and the use of "helpers" to check existing public records which is not open source information.
    Link:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-a...phing-a-ghost/
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 06-29-2019 at 09:08 AM. Reason: 120,206v in Feb '19 and 124,367v today
    davidbfpo

  15. #35
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    Bellingcat continues to provide information, in this example they cannot confirm the identity of the "third man" or the officer in charge of the GRU mission. This final sentence should encourage you to read the article:
    The involvement of a GRU Major General would indicate the unusually high importance of the operation.
    Link:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-a...ission-london/
    davidbfpo

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