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Bellingcat @bellingcat
, 19 tweets, 10 min read Read on Twitter
We had a pretty big 2018, so we're going to recap our top 10 (by page views) investigations of the year in this thread:
10) @N_Waters89, our resident drone expert, analyzed footage of the attack on Maduro in Caracas from August 4th, finding that an attack with two drones loaded with explosives did indeed try to attack the Venezuelan president.
bellingcat.com/news/americas/…
@N_Waters89 9) @FoekePostma followed up the shocking findings from @Nrg8000 about the Strava fitness app revealing personal information about its users by finding a similar vulnerability in the fitness app Polar, which revealed the home addresses of soldiers & spies.
bellingcat.com/resources/arti…
@N_Waters89 @FoekePostma @Nrg8000 8) @IwriteOK analyzed thousands of posts from Discord servers from the alt/far-right and white supremacist groups (leaked by @UR_Ninja) to see how online radicalization worked through 4chan, YouTube, and other online platforms.
bellingcat.com/news/americas/…
@N_Waters89 @FoekePostma @Nrg8000 @IwriteOK @UR_Ninja 7) Our collective investigation team analyzed the initial digital materials surrounding the chemical attack in Douma, Syria from April 7th to separate fact from fiction in the early stages of reporting on the incident.
bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018…
@FoekePostma 6) @AricToler looked into the "investigative firm" SureFire Intelligence, created by certified genius Jacob Wohl, after it published fabricated allegations of sexual assault against Robert Mueller. Apparently Christoph Waltz was a "Financial Investigator"!
bellingcat.com/news/americas/…
5) The first of our Skripal investigations to make the list is our report unmasking the true identity of "Alexander Petrov" -- he is actually a GRU officer named Dr. Alexander Mishkin. The GRU didn't change his birthday or name/patronymic for his cover ID.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
4) 305 men between the ages of 27 and 53 registered their cars to one address: a military unit part of the GRU in central Moscow. All of these men, including a few implicated in attempts to hack the OPCW, were or are GRU officers.
bellingcat.com/news/2018/10/0…
3) In another Skripal article, we provided further proof that the two "Salisbury tourists" were actually GRU officers. In particular, it turns out that the passport number of "Alexander Petrov" was only 26 off from a GRU-linked Montenegro coup suspect.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
2) We obtained the passport files of Alexander Petrov, showing that it had bizarre markings and details completely incompatible with a normal Russian citizen. These findings would eventually lead us to the true identities of the two Skripal poisoners.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
1) Perhaps the most famous active GRU officer in the world is now Mr. Anatoliy Chepiga thanks to this investigation, which revealed the true identity of Skripal poisoner "Ruslan Boshirov". Chepiga was even awarded a "Hero of Russia" award at one time.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Honorable mention: Our May 2018 investigation revealing that a key figure sought after by the Dutch-led @JITMH17 is GRU commander Oleg Ivannikov, who also served as the Defense Minister of South Ossetia from 2004-8.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
(The Kremlin fervently denied this allegation; however, seven months later, Ivannikov has not been heard from or interviewed once by any Russian media outlet. For good reason -- he has an extremely distinct, high-pitched voice recorded in calls with the suspects tied to MH17)
Honorable mention: @kooleksiy's absolutely bonkers longread revealing how a number of Ukrainian and American analysts propped up a totally fake persona as credible -- “Senior Pentagon Russia Analyst LTC David Jewberg”. Yes, they gave him the name "Jewberg"
bellingcat.com/news/americas/…
(The person who is the most closely tied to the creation and running of this fake "Jewberg" persona is American millionaire David K. Rapoport, who hasn't publicly commented on this. A number of Rapoport's friends helped to prop up the illusion of "Lt. Colonel Jewberg" being real)
Honorable mention: @trbrtc's huge effort in identifying vehicle losses from the Turkish military near al-Bab, Syria. bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017…
Honorable mention: @Rebel44CZ's absolutely massive data set of armored vehicle losses from the Syrian army over the past seven years, detailed both meticulously and chronologically.
bellingcat.com/news/2018/03/2…
Honorable mention: Albania makes Russia's intelligence agencies look like complete geniuses, as they publicly shared financial details that reveal the personal information -- including foreign trips and car registrations -- of their spies. @VincentTriest bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
@trbrtc (Oops, this article was actually from 2017, but it got most of its views in 2018 after a few news articles/blog posts linked to it. Either way, it's worth reading!)
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More from @bellingcat see all

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We're running a (free) workshop in Bishkek, 26-28 January 2019. The training will be led in Russian by two Bellingcat trainers. Check the information in the post if you would like to participate.
We will also be leading a (not free) workshop in Toronto in May 2019. More details will come in January on that.
You can sign up to our mailing list with future workshop announcements here: eepurl.com/dMbczA
Read 3 tweets
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Bellingcat has now exposed the real identity of 4 GRU operatives. First, Oleg Vladimirovich Ivannikov, code name "Orion", linked to the downing of #MH17 bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Next, the first Skripal suspect we exposed, Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga of the GRU, aka sports nutrition salesman and international cathedral enthusiast "Ruslan Boshirov". bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Third was the other Skripal suspect, the GRU's Dr. Alexander Mishkin, aka snow fearing Russian tourist “Alexander Petrov”
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Read 6 tweets
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In the mostly isolated village of Loyga, Mishkin's old neighbors tell @tvrain that Mishkin was involved in the Crimean annexation somehow (they're unclear as to the how) and that they know this from his relatives 🤔
@tvrain And here is the Loyga school. @tvrain's correspondent reports that school children appear to have been warned to avoid speaking to the press. Hm. We wonder why.
@tvrain There are some new signs on the door of the local kindergarten. One reads: "Photos and video recording prohibited." We're guessing this one is *not* directed at proud parents coming to record fun kindergarten events.
Read 9 tweets

Related threads

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Today, I'm going to talk about the HIGH RANKING PROFESSIONS that are the most in demand today in Canada.
Before you finalize your decision to study in Canada please take time to read this (#THREAD).
Now, it is often said that no knowledge is a waste (which is true) but of what use is an acquired skill that can’t be practiced?
So today I'm going to share MY TOP 5 most sought-after professions in Canada!
a) Information Technology
b) Business Analysis
c) Power Engineering
d) Medicine
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#Thread on #Hindu #Hinduism & #Hindutva. I saw this as an imprudent need & hence the thread as below cc @vivekagnihotri @RatanSharda55 @Sanjay_Dixit @_NAN_DINI @GitaSKapoor @sankrant @DikshitSmita @Shubhrastha 👇🏼Pic: Trimurti Sadashiva sculpture on Gharapuri Island
2/n #Hinduism is a reduced nomenclature given to the Sanatana Dharma by British in 1830s. The word Hinduism is formed by adding suffix ISM to Hindu.

ISM is defined as a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement.
3/n It must be understood that Hindu term always had geo-cultural meaning covering for people residing amid Sindhu River, Himalayas & Indu Sagar. Then in this case adding suffix ISM is nothing but mocking English Language. Eg, u can’t add Ism to Japanese and call Japaneism.
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1. With @realDonaldTrump once again going after the Ninth Circuit (Happy Thanksgiving, I guess??), here's a medium-sized #thread on each of the five independent factual inaccuracies, analytical problems, and/or outright lies at the heart of his judicial temper tantrum:
1. Let's start with the easiest and most obvious flaw: The actual decision that has set off this tirade was by a federal district judge in San Francisco, _not_ the Ninth Circuit. Especially if he's relying on reversal rates (more on that shortly), that's a pretty key distinction.
2. As for the decision itself, the Executive Order the district court put on hold purports to redefine eligibility for asylum in a manner that is squarely inconsistent with the text of the relevant statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1158.

Odds are that _any_ judge would've ruled the same way.
Read 17 tweets
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.As @ThatsMrNeil points out: Let's take a walk down Veterans Affairs memory lane with the @CPC_HQ and Top Gun O'Toole. You remember the Top Gun, right? He claims to be a staunch defender of Veteran's right, yet he and the Conservative Party failed Canada's Vets. #thread #cdnpoli
.Remember when > Harper govt shut down 9 Veterans Affairs offices to save $3.78 million & the same year increased its advertising budget by more than $4 million to buy playoff hockey ads? We sure remember those crying, elderly vets looking to be heard by the VA minister. #cdnpoli
.@ThatsMrNeil makes a good point here: Remember when Auditor general Michael Ferguson found the Conservative government and Top Gun O'Toole was failing returning injured veterans by imposing up to eight months waiting time for mental health help?
nationalpost.com/news/politics/…
#cdnpoli
Read 8 tweets
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#Thread
Be very careful about what you read about #AhvazAttack.
There are many fake news, unconfirmed reports, fabricated photos and photos taken for propaganda use.
For example @bbcpersian journalist @BahmanKalbasi claims a group has taken responsibility when it is not true.1/8
.@guardian journalist @SaeedKD mislead public opinion by writing 'children' were killed by 'terrorists'. And when you read his piece you only see there was one child and not children. But what the headline of the article suggests is very different to its context.2/8
Director of Iran project at @CrisisGroup, @AliVaez jumps in to protect Iranian regime and asks US officials to condemn the attack. However, he has never asked US officials before to condemn Iranian regime for arresting, raping, torturing and executing political prisoners.3/8
Read 9 tweets
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THREAD: GET READY, IT'S GOING TO GET MUCH WORSE

Friends and followers, since early last year I've been warning not to underestimate Trump's uncanny ability to mold reality to his will. History is replete with authoritarian figures who can do this, and it NEVER ends well.
THREAD: Get ready...

The midterms are a chance to build a firewall against encroaching fascism by giving Democrats congressional majorities. It could happen if just a fraction of non-voters showed up. We should do everything possible to make that happen. But...
THREAD: Get ready...

The institutions that can provide a check on unlimited executive power are failing, spectacularly. Let's start with the national media, who tilted the election in Trump's favor by obsessing over emails and giving him BILLIONS worth of free airtime.
Read 11 tweets

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