October 11, 2019
These findings were made by BBC open source investigator Benjamin Strick and Elise Thomas, a researcher with the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. A new open source investigation has analysed a well-funded and co-ordinated social media campaign aimed at distorting the truth about events in the restive Indonesian province of…
October 10, 2019
By Casey Michel
Last month, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), one of America’s leading think tanks, announced that it had received a substantial donation that would help round out the organization’s upcoming budget. As a statement on the CFR’s website detailed, a CFR member had graciously decided to help facilitate funding for CFR’s intern program. The donation,…
October 1, 2019
By Nick Waters
Iran says it can hack American drones operating in the Middle East and take control of them — and it has released a video purporting to back up its claims. Back in February 2019, Iran’s semi-official Fars News claimed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intercepted the broadcasts of U.S. UAVs above Iraq and…
October 1, 2019
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
In 2017, Bellingcat and Transparency International UK published their joint report, “Offshore in the UK”, describing the phenomenon of Scottish Limited Partnerships (“SLPs”) and their use as a mechanism in global money laundering scandals and a range of illicit activities. Since then, SLPs have continued to be implicated in further scandals, perhaps most notably the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a scheme where $2.9 billion was laundered through UK companies.
September 30, 2019
A shadowy group that supports Syrian dictator Bashar-al Assad is giving thousands of dollars to far-right activists, conspiracy websites, YouTube personalities, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — all under the guise of an award for “uncompromised integrity in journalism.” The Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, an umbrella nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay…
September 27, 2019
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
Joint investigation by Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, the Insider and the Dossier Center. In the first part of this joint investigation, we disclosed that the assassin of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili detained by German police traveled on a valid Russian passport issued under the fake identity of “Vadim Sokolov”. We concluded that the usage of a validly issued…
September 24, 2019
On the morning of April 4, 2017, the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, Syria, was hit by a chemical bomb filled with the deadly nerve agent Sarin, dropped from a Syrian aircraft. It killed dozens, and injured many more. Following the attack, the OPCW Fact Finding Mission (FFM) investigated the incident, confirming the suspected…
September 13, 2019
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
In the beginning of August 2019, the Tulsi Gabbard campaign published “Reports on Chemical Attacks in Syria”, expressing Gabbard’s views on the allegations of chemical weapons attacks in Syria — and based mainly on the work of Dr. Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology…
September 11, 2019
Research by Carlos Gonzales, Daniel Romein, Timmi Allen and “Bo” The following report contains reference to a child modelling studio producing child sexual abuse material in 2001. All names related to the studio are fictitious. The original source did not contain any explicit material. All the images accessed and used during the investigation were already…
September 10, 2019
By Aric Toler
On September 10, 2019, CNN reported that the United States helped a Russian government official flee after working as a spy for American intelligence in 2017 — all reportedly due to concerns regarding President Trump and his administration’s handling of “classified intelligence”. The CNN report was sparse on details, but it was enough to identify…
September 5, 2019
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
Bellingcat will hold a series of workshops this autumn and winter, including a new workshop in London (December) and two open spaces at a workshop in Washington D.C. in two weeks. If you are interested in being added to the London (October) or Copenhagen waitlists, please let us know. Washington D.C.: September 16-20 (1 seat…
September 2, 2019
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
Bellingcat will hold a series of workshops this autumn and winter, including open spaces at a workshop in Washington D.C. If you are interested in being added to the London or Copenhagen waitlist, please let us know. Washington D.C.: September 16-20 London: October 7-11 (Full, with short wait-list) Copenhagen: October 28 – November 1 (Full, with…
August 14, 2019
You can listen to the fifth episode of the Bellingcat Podcast on the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), “The Men on the Ground”, by subscribing on any major podcast application by searching “Bellingcat”, including at: iTunes Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn You can manually add the podcast RSS feed to your favorite podcast…
August 7, 2019
You can listen to the fourth episode of the Bellingcat Podcast on the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), “Manhunt”, by subscribing on any major podcast application by searching “Bellingcat”, including at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. You can manually add the podcast RSS feed to your favorite podcast app with the URL:…
July 31, 2019
You can listen to the third episode of the Bellingcat Podcast on the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), “The Murder Weapon”, by subscribing on any major podcast application by searching “Bellingcat”, including at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. You can manually add the podcast RSS feed to your favorite podcast app with…
July 24, 2019
You can listen to the second episode of the Bellingcat Podcast on the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) by subscribing on any major podcast application by searching “Bellingcat”, including at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. You can manually add the podcast RSS feed to your favorite podcast app with the URL: bellingcat.libsyn.com/rss…
July 17, 2019
You can listen to the first episode of the Bellingcat Podcast on the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) by subscribing on any major podcast application by searching “Bellingcat”, including at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. You can manually add the podcast RSS feed to your favorite podcast app with the URL: bellingcat.libsyn.com/rss…
July 15, 2019
By Bellingcat Investigation Team
Bellingcat will hold a series of workshops this summer and autumn, with the new workshops being Amsterdam (two in August) and Copenhagen (October/November). Munich: July 22-26 (Full, with no wait-list) London: July 29-August 2 (Full, with short wait-list) Amsterdam: August 12-16 Amsterdam: August 19-23 Berkeley (San Francisco): August 19-23 (Full, with lengthy wait-list) Zurich: August 26-30 (Full, with…
July 12, 2019
Many open source researchers rely on journalists to turn data into a narrative that will then reach a wider audience. Yet journalism today is in a crisis! You can trust me as a person who comes from a traditional journalism background — oh, the sheer amount of horror stories I can tell over whiskey. In…
June 21, 2019
To some researchers, TweetDeck might seem superfluous in a world where Twitter Advanced Search exists. The platform would appear to be just a prettier version of what you are already doing through Twitter. However, I am here to show you how TweetDeck can vastly simplify and organize your research while allowing you to collect a…
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