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Nick Waters Profile picture
Nick Waters
@N_Waters89
This account is inactive. “اِسمي ليسَ “نيك
4 subscribers
May 22, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Confident that this picture claiming to show an "explosion near the pentagon" is AI generated.

Check out the frontage of the building, and the way the fence melds into the crowd barriers. There's also no other images, videos or people posting as first hand witnesses. ImageImageImage Whenever an event like this takes place, it will affect a large number of people. Even leaving aside that fact this picture is clearly AI generated, it's immediately possible to identify this as a fake by geolocation and conducting searches on social media.
May 12, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Finally, a good article which actually discusses the nuances of AI generated imagery and doesn't baselessly hype it as some kind of catastrophic end to the concept of objective truth.

thenewatlantis.com/publications/s… Want to know the real threat from this kind of imagery right now?

It's the false assumption that anything can and will be faked, which is 1. not true and 2. allows powerful actors to get away with stuff by waving their hand crying "fake".
npr.org/2023/05/08/117…
Jan 27, 2023 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
The OPCW IIT has released its report on the 2018 chemical attack at Douma, concluding there are reasonable ground that it was carried out by the Syrian regime. This thread will highlight some important points.

The full report can be read here: opcw.org/sites/default/… Chemistry

The core is the chemistry section from p.25 onwards. The report makes clear that samples taken from the scenes are consistent with the presence of chlorine gas, originating from the two cylinders at Location 2 (cylinder on the roof) and Location 4 (cylinder on the bed) ImageImage
Oct 8, 2022 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
I’ve been looking at the Kerch Strait bridge explosion and thought I’d make a thread of things I’ve noticed.

Firstly: the explosion affected the Ukraine-bound lane of the bridge at approximately 45.300105, 36.513240. It seems at least three spans of the bridge have collapsed. Two at the location where a train is burning (location 1), and another further to the east (location 2).
Aug 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
This reminds me of this 2018 paper by @Verleza @megankmcbride and @kate_hberg examining the potential application of "memetic warfare".

cna.org/archive/CNA_Fi… One important note is that the NAFO, like so many other similar efforts, is not state-run campaign.

I feel that literature of the last few years has missed how impactful a bunch of pissed-off people can be, instead focusing on state-level efforts which are mostly pretty lame.
Aug 20, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Ah, I see @thenation is publishing straight-up atrocity denial again.

I wonder how long before people realise that a not insignificant reason this publication exists is to cover up mass-murder committed by the worst regimes in the world. It is disgraceful that this kind of hateful and objectively incorrect statement is published by what is still regarded as a stalwart of the left in the US.

The “research” conducted by Maté on CW use in Syria included work done by a magic AI machine and a vicious anti-semite.
May 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
We @bellingcat examined the open source information regarding the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

In short, this information supports witness testimony claiming the shots were fired by the IDF.

bellingcat.com/news/mena/2022… We established the locations of different actors in this incident, including Shireen, the IDF and Palestinian militants.

A key piece of information was audio forensic analysis indicating shots fired at a man trying to rescue Shireen were fired from around 180 meters away.
Apr 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Imagine going back to 2005 and telling someone that the Crazy Frog cover of Axel F would one day be used in an official video released by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces showing invading Russian units being destroyed by artillery. Original here: facebook.com/watch/?v=53052…
Feb 21, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
So the video that's reported to be of Ukrainian armoured vehicles intruding into Russia was filmed at the same place as the video which reported to show a Russian border post which had been blown up by Ukrainian artillery. The video of the Ukrainian intrusion into Russia is clearly dumb: this location is well within separatist territory.

The video of the destroyed border post was also questionable.

Needless to say, the reports of the destroyed border post has now become even more questionable.
Feb 1, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Fact Finding Mission of the OPCW have concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that chlorine was used as a weapon on 1st October 2016 at Kafr Zita in Syria, attacking a cave system which included a hospital and the command post of an armed group.

🧵 The attack fits the pattern of industrial chlorine cylinders, modified with a distinctive frame & fins, being used to attack opposition held areas of Syria in 2016-2018.
This modification is clearly designed to enable a chlorine cylinder to be dropped from the air by helicopter.
Jan 27, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
The Fact Finding Mission of the @OPCW has released its report into the use of a suspected chemical weapon on the town of Marea, Syria on the 1st and 3rd September 2015.

Thread.

opcw.org/sites/default/… The mandate of the FFM is to establish whether there are reasonable grounds to believe a chemical weapon has been used.

In this case they conclude that a chemical weapon was used. Samples taken from the scene contained degradation products of Sulfur Mustards.
Jan 27, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
27 people being killed in what is claimed to have been a cross border smuggling operation is odd; I'd expect those kind of fatality numbers in a large battle. At least one report claiming there was a clash between Iranian militias and the Jordanian Army last night. h/t @putintintin1.

Nov 23, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Urgh, I hate being dragged back into this dribble, but Maté is, once again and entirely unsurprisingly, lying here.

Professor Paul Blanc was even cited (likely by Whelan) in the drafts of the FFM report. All this crap is based on assumptions and a deliberate and obtuse failure to understand the facts of the case.

This has all been talked about before. You can read the specifics in relation to this subject here, which we published almost 2 years ago.

bellingcat.com/news/mena/2020…
Jul 8, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
So someone on Reddit posted new footage of the MOAB strike in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan back in 2017.

Although I haven't yet confidently geolocated the exact location it was filmed from, I am sure this is the MOAB strike. Comparison of the mountain as seen in @PeakVisor_app (which is mega)
May 18, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Did you know that you can use the proportional length of a shadow, and not just its angle, to establish the time of a photo or video?

My latest guide for @bellingcat

bellingcat.com/resources/2021… Using the angle of a shadow is already a well-established method for telling the time in a still image, but it’s also possible to use the proportional length of a shadow compared to the object that’s casting it.

This tells us the altitude of the sun in the sky, and so the time.
May 14, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The latest group to try to undermine the OPCW, Berlin Group 21, has connections to a group of academics & bloggers who have pushed conspiracy theories about 9/11, MH17 and chemical weapons attacks, despite claiming to be “entirely independent”.

bellingcat.com/news/2021/05/1… The claimed founders of the group, namely Hans von Sponeck, José Bustani and Richard Falk, are respectable people.

However, Piers Robinson, a co-founder of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and the Media, and a noted conspiracy theorist, has also been involved.
May 13, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This looks very much like an Ababil 2, or, as it’s known in Yemen, a Qasef. Hamas have just released a video of their drone ops and yeah, their drone looks very similar, but not identical to a Ababil 2.
May 11, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
I believe I've found the location of one of the strikes that appears to have killed or injured multiple children in Gaza yesterday: 31.534083, 34.549598.

It’s a useful case study in the lack of quality sat imagery from Israel and Palestine. Thread. Yesterday there were reports of strikes in Gaza having killed multiple civilians and children.

A video, claimed to be from outside Beit Hanoun, showed the aftermath of one of these strikes. I won't link directly because it is extremely graphic.

youtube[.]com/watch?v=WJl3MFyo6HE
Apr 13, 2021 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
A thread on the IIT report.

The @OPCW IIT, which can assign responsibility for chemical weapons attacks, has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that a helicopter of the Syrian Air Force attacked eastern Saraqib with chlorine on 4 Feb 2018. opcw.org/sites/default/… This attack, which was carried out under the control of the Tiger Forces, resulted in at least one cylinder of chlorine impacting the town, injuring 12 people due to the effects of chlorine gas.

The report also contains significant information relating to the 2018 Douma attack.
Apr 7, 2021 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
Three years ago today, two Mi-8 helicopters took off from Dumayr Airbase and flew towards Douma.

Reported as “barrel bomb” helicopters by local observers, they in fact carried a payload of chlorine in modified gas canisters. Image Shortly after, reports of a chemical attack started flooding out of Douma. Accompanying these reports were videos of a house full of dead men, women and children, many of whom were foaming at the mouth. Image
Mar 12, 2021 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
I suppose it's time again to emphasise that the use of chemical weapons against the civilian population Syria by the govt is the most well-recorded CW campaign since WW1.

That there's so much focus on a single incident in 2018 is indicative of how little this is appreciated. It is therefore frustrating when someone like @DanielEllsberg, who published the Pentagon Papers, puts his name alongside conspiracy theorists and worse who insist Douma was a "false flag". By doing so he is helping to cover the use of horrific weapons on civilians.