Brecht Castel Profile picture
Jan 30, 2023 β€’ 18 tweets β€’ 14 min read β€’ Read on X
3.3M views for this video by @EuromaidanPress:

"American πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ infantry fighting vehicles M2 Bradley are spotted in Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡± [...] toward the Ukrainian border πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦. "

TRUE βœ… or FALSE ❌? Investigate! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡ 1/...

#OSINT πŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸŽ₯
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
@EuromaidanPress The exact location of the video is difficult to find due to the limited visual elements in the background. 😒

But it's admittedly plausible that the video was shot in Poland. How do we know this? πŸ‘‡2/...
@EuromaidanPress On the locomotive we read PKP Cargo 🟨, which is the largest rail freight carrier in Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡±.

We find a picture of a PKP-locomotive with the same serial number ST44-1232 πŸŸ₯.

The road sign in the video 🟩 corresponds to the Polish W9 sign for train signals. 3/...
@EuromaidanPress On the train, we can indeed see US armoured vehicles of the Bradley M2 type. βœ…

Visual characteristics 🟨🟩πŸŸ₯ between the video (left) and a photo of that type of armoured vehicle (right) match.

The type was confirmed by a military expert. 4/...
@EuromaidanPress On 5 January, US President Joe Biden πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ announced that the United States, along with France and Germany, would deliver armoured vehicles to Ukraine.

That delivery would take place "in the near future", without further specification. 5/...
@EuromaidanPress More videos of US military vehicles being transported across Europe πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί by train πŸš† have been circulating on social media in recent weeks. πŸ‘‡

My colleague @Lotte_Lambrecht and I examined 15 of these videos. πŸ“½οΈπŸ“½οΈ 6/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht Of 7 videos, we did manage to determine the exact location based on visual features in the footage (see map). πŸ“βœ…

We see them popping up in Germany πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ (Soest and Herne) and Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡± (Zielona GΓ³ra GΕ‚Γ³wna, Niewodnica, Skierniewice (2) and BiaΕ‚ystok).

Most trains run EAST. ➑️7/
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht Do they drive to Ukraine πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦? πŸ€”

We zoom in on a πŸš‚ that passed through the Polish cities of Skierniewice and BiaΕ‚ystok.

The exact same order of the military vehicles tells us this is the same transport: we see the vehicles with the Red Cross logo πŸŸ₯ at the same place. 8/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht In BiaΕ‚ystok, we see that the train slides through the picture from right to left. ⬅️

Looking at that spot via Google Streetview, we see that the train is thus heading northeast: not towards Ukraine πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ (that would be southeast), but towards Lithuania πŸ‡±πŸ‡Ή. 9/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht How can this be explained? πŸ€”

For that, we have to go back to where these US vehicles reached mainland Europe: the port ⛴️ of Vlissingen in the Netherlands πŸ‡³πŸ‡±. 10/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht A US delivery of some 1275 army vehicles docked in the port of Vlissingen on 9 January.

The delivery, which included Bradley vehicles, is part of a 'regular rotation of troops'. πŸͺ–

The vehicles departed for Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡± and Lithuania πŸ‡±πŸ‡Ή, the eastern flank of NATO territory. 11/..
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht How can we know if the armoured vehicles in the viral video are part of the changing of the guard in NATO member states Poland πŸ‡΅πŸ‡± and Lithuania πŸ‡±πŸ‡Ή?

Or whether they belong to the announced delivery to Ukraine πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦? 12/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht Both are Bradley M2s, but NATO forces have the version A3 (right) while the delivery to Ukraine is of the slightly older A2 (left).

The most obvious difference is the Commander's Independent Viewer (CIV) at the right rear πŸŸ₯ which is on the A3. It is NOT found on the A2. 13/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht So in our video, we see the Bradley M2A3 and that type is not supplied to Ukraine.

Moreover, we see platoon numbers 30, 32, 33 and 34 πŸŸ₯🟨🟦🟩 painted on the vehicles in the video.

We see those same platoon numbers popping up on drone footage of NATO troops in πŸ‡³πŸ‡±. 14/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht CONCLUSION: We find NO evidence for the claim that these are being transported 'to the Ukrainian border'. ❌

Rather, the M2A3 type Bradleys appear to be part of a US cavalry unit stationed in Poland and Lithuania for a NATO mission. 15/...
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht What have we learned? πŸ‘©β€πŸ«

1) Mapping multiple videos gives a good overview. πŸ—ΊοΈ
2) Be careful of confirmation bias. πŸ€¦β€β™€οΈ
3) Every new video or image gives you new clues and a better understanding of a situation: keep digging. πŸ“½οΈ 16/..
@EuromaidanPress @Lotte_Lambrecht I thank @Knack colleague @Lotte_Lambrecht
for helping in this investigation. πŸ™

You can read our full article with all sources used here (@Knack) for FREE. πŸ‘‡17/...

knack.be/factcheck/fact…
Did you learn something from this #OSINT for #FactChecking?

Follow me (@brechtcastel) and check out my channel on #YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCMBPt… πŸ™

Older 🧡🧡underneath this tweet: 18/END

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More from @brechtcastel

May 4, 2023
You come across a video in a language you don't understand. Annoying. 😠

Wouldn't it be great if you could watch that video with English subtitles? 😍

You can! With a little help from AI!
#OSINT #tutorial πŸ‘‡1/...

(got the idea from @matt0177 πŸ™) Image
@matt0177 First thing you have to do is install Whisper (this is software from #OpenAI, same guys from #ChatGPT).

It's FREE, but not so easy to install. I used this tutorial:

All info on Whisper here: github.com/openai/whisper 2/...
@matt0177 If you installed Whisper correctly, you download the video on your PC and go to the folder where the video is.

Now you type "cmd", to open command-line-interface. 3/... Image
Read 11 tweets
Nov 24, 2022
"Ukrainians πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ in the World Cup of Qatar πŸ‡ΆπŸ‡¦ arrested for spreading Nazi symbols."

This "report from Al Jazeera" gets 391K views on Telegram. 😲

Fake or real? Let's investigate!πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
#WorldcupQatar2022 ⚽️ Image
"Three drunken Ukrainian supporters were arrested in Qatar. The reason? They made a Nazi salute and vandalised posters at the Al Bayt stadium by drawing a Hitler moustache on the World Cup mascot La'eeb. When arrested, they showed no resistance."

Source: @AlJazeera Really? πŸ€”2/ Image
@AlJazeera The video features Al Jazeera's official logo πŸ‘†, has high quality and looks professionally made.

Any video on aljazeera.com (right) has an almost identical layout to the video circulating on social media (left). 3/... Image
Read 22 tweets
Oct 18, 2022
"Happy Birthday for Vladimir Putin from Belgium πŸ‡§πŸ‡ͺ" from men in army uniform with guns. πŸ€”

Let's investigate this deleted TikTok-video. πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
This is the video. πŸ“½οΈπŸ‘€ 2/...

Is this a real video shot in Belgium❓

The video was previously uploaded on the social networking site TikTok on the account '@batyab.e.a.r', we can tell by the caption with the TikTok logo 🟨. 3/...
Read 23 tweets
Sep 21, 2022
11.8M views for a TikTok of "a mosquito 🦟 with a number on its back". 😲

Is Bill Gates involved? (Spoiler: no.) Investigate! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸŽ₯
#HowToOSINT 🧐

#BillGates #TikTok #FactCheck #Weird
The Russian caption (albeit with typo) on this viral video reads: 'Guys who know where the numbers on mosquitoes come from (?)'.

Good question! Let's start with some basic Google... 2/...
tiktok.com/@dyunh519yip1/…
To find out the origin of the images, we google part of the Russian inscription.

So we come to an article on the Kazakh news site Ekspress.

That article features the same video and situates it in Kazakhstan. πŸ‡°πŸ‡Ώ3/...
Read 19 tweets
Sep 9, 2022
On Facebook and Twitter hundreds of thousands saw a video of "Queen Elizabeth feeding vulnerable kids...😭😭😭"

Is this #QueenElizabeth "feeding humans as if they are animals"?

Let's find out! πŸ‘‡πŸ§΅1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#HowToOSINT 🧐
We take a screenshot of the video and load it into the Russian search engine Yandex. #ReverseImageSearch

This brings us to a site with film recommendations. πŸŸ₯2/...
The French title of that page πŸ‘‡ reads 'Annamite children collect sapΓ¨ques for the pagoda of the ladies'.

SapΓ¨que is an ancient Chinese coinage. πŸͺ™

Annamite refers to a mountain range ⛰️ on the border of Vietnam πŸ‡»πŸ‡³ and the neighbouring countries of Laos πŸ‡±πŸ‡¦ and Cambodia πŸ‡°πŸ‡­. 3/
Read 13 tweets
Sep 9, 2022
πŸ—£οΈKomende maanden geef ik een aantal lezingen en workshops over #OSINT. Zin in!πŸ‘‡Zie ik je daar? πŸ‡§πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡³πŸ‡±

17 sep Brussel @Aanstokerij
19 sep Kortenberg @Similesvzw
30 sep Antwerpen @BENEDMO_hub

11 okt Bussum

18 nov Breda
19 nov Leiden @VVOJ
29 nov Hasselt @HogeschoolPXL
@Aanstokerij @Similesvzw @BENEDMO_hub @VVOJ @HogeschoolPXL Voor @Similesvzw bespreek ik de film Les Intranquilles. Een aangrijpende prent over bipolariteit. Warm aan bevolen.

activiteiten.similes.be/activiteiten/a…
@Aanstokerij @Similesvzw @BENEDMO_hub @VVOJ @HogeschoolPXL Factcheckers uit πŸ‡§πŸ‡ͺ en πŸ‡³πŸ‡± kunnen niet ontbreken op deze conferentie van @BENEDMO_hub.

benedmo.eu/event/save-the…
Read 5 tweets

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