Publication
Bloomsbury Publishing (2021), Edition: 1, 272 pages
Description
"In 2018, Russian exile Sergei Skripal and his daughter were nearly killed in an audacious poisoning attempt in Salisbury, England. Soon, the identity of one of the suspects was revealed: he was a Russian spy. This huge investigative coup wasn't pulled off by an intelligence agency or a traditional news outlet. Instead, the scoop came from Bellingcat, the open-source investigative team that is redefining the way we think about news, politics, and the digital future. We Are Bellingcat tells the inspiring story of how a college dropout pioneered a new category of reporting and galvanized citizen journalists-working together from their computer screens around the globe-to crack major cases, at a time when fact-based journalism is under assault from authoritarian forces. Founder Eliot Higgins introduces readers to the tools Bellingcat investigators use, tools available to anyone, from software that helps you pinpoint the location of an image, to an app that can nail down the time that photo was taken. This book digs deep into some of Bellingcat's most important investigations-the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria, the identities of alt-right protestors in Charlottesville-with the drama and gripping detail of a spy novel."--Amazon.… (more)
Collection
User reviews
LibraryThing member DavidWineberg
Bellingcat is a lovely invented word that perfectly describes a new discipline- tracking down the hidden truth and lassoing the culprits - the powerful - using open source data. In We Are Bellingcat, founder Eliot Higgins tells the remarkable and always fascinating – when not totally gripping –
With no training, and out of a combination of curiosity and boredom, with nothing grand in mind, Higgins began to explore open source databanks to fill in some blanks. He found that not only were significant data freely available, but that social media went far above and beyond its claims to level the playing field. Untold millions of people are forever uploading images and videos to various websites and services. And though it is not in any way organized for retrieval, a little screen time can help pinpoint an unidentified location, name the unnamed, and track the untraceable. It’s a true detective story unfolding daily, right now.
In story after story, from Syrian chemical warfare to downed passenger planes, Bellingcat has employed tools freely available to all to expose the truth and the coverup lies around newsworthy incidents. Given a photo of an intersection, they were able to place it perfectly on a map, using the image/satellite function of Google Earth. Elements in the background, from buildings under construction to a row of trees or a billboard allow them to zero in on the exact location. The color of the ground, the style of the neighborhood and numerous other factors allow researchers to narrow the otherwise infinite possibilities. The angle of the shot can sometimes be traced to the specific apartment window it was taken from. Software fed with a precise location can interpret shadows and light to tell the exact time of day. Doing all this repeatedly can establish a timeline.
Bellingcat was able to trace the path of the gun used to shoot down an Air Malaysia passenger plane over Ukraine. They traced it right back to its home base in Russia, and identified the actual gun out of a flotilla of eight of them sent to Ukraine, because later photos showed one missile newly missing from the unit. Some things as simple as dents and scratches on the wheel skirt allowed them to follow individual launchers as they trundled towards and through the country. Fingerprints come in many guises.
People today take thousands of times as many photos as they used to when they required printing from negatives. And they upload them to all kinds of social media, with no specific intent in doing so because it is easy and free. But it all becomes data and evidence if someone wants to use them that way. Reverse image searches are becoming reliable if not universal. And once uploaded, images are generally out of the reach of those with something to hide. Bellingcat takes no chances though. They download their evidence to preserve it.
Among the cases Bellingcat has solved, the book describes in great detail the path to truth of Syrian chemical warfare, Charlottesville white supremacists, downed passenger airliners, the Yemen proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Novichok poisonings. The investigators fear nothing and no one; no story is off limits. Thanks to the internet, language is no longer a barrier, and the internet itself, often accused of promoting lies, has proven to be a remarkable tool for outing the truth.
In the case of the Malaysian airliner (flight MH17 from Amsterdam), Bellingcat was able to identify and track down the Russian military unit responsible, and profile its officers, using social media. When there is no profile of someone who needs to keep his identity secret, Bellingcat goes after everyone around them, from soldiers and classmates to family. Their social media profiles and posts provide the missing clues, including photos of the now secretive, which can be used to identify them in the field today. Young soldiers are more social and chatty. So are younger sisters and daughters. False passports are a hindrance but not a dead end. With open source databanks, real names can be found, home addresses, auto registrations, voter registrations and on and on. It just takes work to find them.
And all the while, Russia maintained it had nothing to do with any of it, and that is was a Ukrainian gun and gunner that brought it down. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, it still holds to that total fabrication.
Which brings up the issue of why no one else is doing this. Why is Bellingcat able to get to the bottom of events when police, newspapers, commissions and detectives cannot? Higgins has been amazed to learn that with all the money and resources available to others “we were the only ones doing this.” With no money at all.
He has been asked several times to testify before tribunals, not so much for the stunning facts he has uncovered and the crimes he has solved, but how he does it. He always gets a receptive audience, simply fascinated by it all. The book works the same way.
His answer is obsession and passion. It’s not often easy, though sometimes a puzzle piece just presents itself in less than hour. In many other cases, sleuths have to keep monitoring for years. But if it’s in you to dig, the rewards can be exhilarating, and the book reflects that wonderfully. Bellingcat findings have graced the front page of the New York Times, and Bellingcat alums have been hired by the paper to set up its own investigative unit. More and more organizations want to partner.
But as much as journalism is in thrall, criminals and politicians are aghast. Outsider Bellingcat is playing in the top leagues. Making a liar out of Vladimir Putin (several times) leads to hacking, harassment, shaming, doxxing, outside pressure and death threats. And we are now certain Russia will not hesitate to poison anyone it dislikes, with chemical compounds it has invented itself. Some Bellingcat alumni suffer from PTSD as if they had been in a shooting war.
In getting to the bottom of the Skripal Novichok poisoning case, Bellingcat proved the Russians to be total frauds and liars. The two accused poisoners claimed to be simple tourists, visiting Salisbury England to admire the steeple of the cathedral. Only Bellingcat was able to prove they were from the military intelligence service GRU. They traced auto registrations back to the GRU building, and their apartments just across the street. They went back to their hometowns to get corroboration, and even found the rest of the hit team, because it was not just the two wildcat poisoners themselves. No other publication or service knew that. The leader was involved in numerous assassinations in the UK and throughout Europe, eliminating critics of the Putin regime one by one. He would arrive beforehand, and leave early, escaping all scrutiny. Higgins’ team got cellphone numbers and called to get voice samples to verify identity, plus mentions by neighbors, and evidence of false passports. Flight tracking going back years showed the same team members doing Putin’s work repeatedly. If not for Bellingcat, there would still be the usual diplomatic niceties peppered with unsubstantiated allegations. Higgins cut through it all with a bunch of volunteers in an open-source investigation.
Higgins faces the same alternative facts from extremists that we all see daily. They lie, make up stories, and when the stories don’t stick, they make up new ones. ”What strikes me most is their (the Counterfactual Community’s) lack of dissonance: they failed to prove the previous claim, or the one before, yet make the next with equal certainty,” he says.
Those with something to hide continually lash out at Bellingcat in an attempt to shred its reputation. They get called armchair detectives, rank amateurs, unprofessional with zero credibility, and just playing dangerous games -badly. Higgins brushes it off and gets back to his screen, where the truth lies, hiding in plain sight. He says: “We are not exactly journalists, nor human rights activists, nor computer scientists, nor archivists, nor academic researchers, nor criminal investigators, but at the nexus of all those disciplines.”
Higgins’ writing style is delightfully simple and free of fluff. He is direct and clear about everything. It is a pleasure to read and it moves smoothly and quickly, taking readers to places unheard of in the news media.
He is taking his show on the road too, teaching others to do the same thing Bellingcat does, all over the world. It doesn’t require a four year degree, a license or 15 years’ training. It requires dedication and persistence, making 100% sure of claims by getting at the same fact from multiple angles. The more widespread such research spreads, the better protected everyone in the world would be. It doesn’t make you rich, but its reward is true accomplishment and pride in the achievement of solving a real mystery. As time goes on, Bellingcat is proving to be the single most credible and valuable news source there is. It derives real value from the dross of social media. For that alone it deserves a medal.
In this era of ever more sophisticated fabrications, Bellingcat, both the service and the book, are most worthy of readers’ attention. This, for once, is an optimistic vision of the future – of journalism if not justice.
David Wineberg
Show More
story of how it came to be, how it found itself front and center on the world stage, and how it achieved its numerous, significant accomplishments. It’s an exciting book, because all of their campaigns will be familiar to all readers. The process of uncovering the truth is worthy of the finest spy fiction.With no training, and out of a combination of curiosity and boredom, with nothing grand in mind, Higgins began to explore open source databanks to fill in some blanks. He found that not only were significant data freely available, but that social media went far above and beyond its claims to level the playing field. Untold millions of people are forever uploading images and videos to various websites and services. And though it is not in any way organized for retrieval, a little screen time can help pinpoint an unidentified location, name the unnamed, and track the untraceable. It’s a true detective story unfolding daily, right now.
In story after story, from Syrian chemical warfare to downed passenger planes, Bellingcat has employed tools freely available to all to expose the truth and the coverup lies around newsworthy incidents. Given a photo of an intersection, they were able to place it perfectly on a map, using the image/satellite function of Google Earth. Elements in the background, from buildings under construction to a row of trees or a billboard allow them to zero in on the exact location. The color of the ground, the style of the neighborhood and numerous other factors allow researchers to narrow the otherwise infinite possibilities. The angle of the shot can sometimes be traced to the specific apartment window it was taken from. Software fed with a precise location can interpret shadows and light to tell the exact time of day. Doing all this repeatedly can establish a timeline.
Bellingcat was able to trace the path of the gun used to shoot down an Air Malaysia passenger plane over Ukraine. They traced it right back to its home base in Russia, and identified the actual gun out of a flotilla of eight of them sent to Ukraine, because later photos showed one missile newly missing from the unit. Some things as simple as dents and scratches on the wheel skirt allowed them to follow individual launchers as they trundled towards and through the country. Fingerprints come in many guises.
People today take thousands of times as many photos as they used to when they required printing from negatives. And they upload them to all kinds of social media, with no specific intent in doing so because it is easy and free. But it all becomes data and evidence if someone wants to use them that way. Reverse image searches are becoming reliable if not universal. And once uploaded, images are generally out of the reach of those with something to hide. Bellingcat takes no chances though. They download their evidence to preserve it.
Among the cases Bellingcat has solved, the book describes in great detail the path to truth of Syrian chemical warfare, Charlottesville white supremacists, downed passenger airliners, the Yemen proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Novichok poisonings. The investigators fear nothing and no one; no story is off limits. Thanks to the internet, language is no longer a barrier, and the internet itself, often accused of promoting lies, has proven to be a remarkable tool for outing the truth.
In the case of the Malaysian airliner (flight MH17 from Amsterdam), Bellingcat was able to identify and track down the Russian military unit responsible, and profile its officers, using social media. When there is no profile of someone who needs to keep his identity secret, Bellingcat goes after everyone around them, from soldiers and classmates to family. Their social media profiles and posts provide the missing clues, including photos of the now secretive, which can be used to identify them in the field today. Young soldiers are more social and chatty. So are younger sisters and daughters. False passports are a hindrance but not a dead end. With open source databanks, real names can be found, home addresses, auto registrations, voter registrations and on and on. It just takes work to find them.
And all the while, Russia maintained it had nothing to do with any of it, and that is was a Ukrainian gun and gunner that brought it down. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, it still holds to that total fabrication.
Which brings up the issue of why no one else is doing this. Why is Bellingcat able to get to the bottom of events when police, newspapers, commissions and detectives cannot? Higgins has been amazed to learn that with all the money and resources available to others “we were the only ones doing this.” With no money at all.
He has been asked several times to testify before tribunals, not so much for the stunning facts he has uncovered and the crimes he has solved, but how he does it. He always gets a receptive audience, simply fascinated by it all. The book works the same way.
His answer is obsession and passion. It’s not often easy, though sometimes a puzzle piece just presents itself in less than hour. In many other cases, sleuths have to keep monitoring for years. But if it’s in you to dig, the rewards can be exhilarating, and the book reflects that wonderfully. Bellingcat findings have graced the front page of the New York Times, and Bellingcat alums have been hired by the paper to set up its own investigative unit. More and more organizations want to partner.
But as much as journalism is in thrall, criminals and politicians are aghast. Outsider Bellingcat is playing in the top leagues. Making a liar out of Vladimir Putin (several times) leads to hacking, harassment, shaming, doxxing, outside pressure and death threats. And we are now certain Russia will not hesitate to poison anyone it dislikes, with chemical compounds it has invented itself. Some Bellingcat alumni suffer from PTSD as if they had been in a shooting war.
In getting to the bottom of the Skripal Novichok poisoning case, Bellingcat proved the Russians to be total frauds and liars. The two accused poisoners claimed to be simple tourists, visiting Salisbury England to admire the steeple of the cathedral. Only Bellingcat was able to prove they were from the military intelligence service GRU. They traced auto registrations back to the GRU building, and their apartments just across the street. They went back to their hometowns to get corroboration, and even found the rest of the hit team, because it was not just the two wildcat poisoners themselves. No other publication or service knew that. The leader was involved in numerous assassinations in the UK and throughout Europe, eliminating critics of the Putin regime one by one. He would arrive beforehand, and leave early, escaping all scrutiny. Higgins’ team got cellphone numbers and called to get voice samples to verify identity, plus mentions by neighbors, and evidence of false passports. Flight tracking going back years showed the same team members doing Putin’s work repeatedly. If not for Bellingcat, there would still be the usual diplomatic niceties peppered with unsubstantiated allegations. Higgins cut through it all with a bunch of volunteers in an open-source investigation.
Higgins faces the same alternative facts from extremists that we all see daily. They lie, make up stories, and when the stories don’t stick, they make up new ones. ”What strikes me most is their (the Counterfactual Community’s) lack of dissonance: they failed to prove the previous claim, or the one before, yet make the next with equal certainty,” he says.
Those with something to hide continually lash out at Bellingcat in an attempt to shred its reputation. They get called armchair detectives, rank amateurs, unprofessional with zero credibility, and just playing dangerous games -badly. Higgins brushes it off and gets back to his screen, where the truth lies, hiding in plain sight. He says: “We are not exactly journalists, nor human rights activists, nor computer scientists, nor archivists, nor academic researchers, nor criminal investigators, but at the nexus of all those disciplines.”
Higgins’ writing style is delightfully simple and free of fluff. He is direct and clear about everything. It is a pleasure to read and it moves smoothly and quickly, taking readers to places unheard of in the news media.
He is taking his show on the road too, teaching others to do the same thing Bellingcat does, all over the world. It doesn’t require a four year degree, a license or 15 years’ training. It requires dedication and persistence, making 100% sure of claims by getting at the same fact from multiple angles. The more widespread such research spreads, the better protected everyone in the world would be. It doesn’t make you rich, but its reward is true accomplishment and pride in the achievement of solving a real mystery. As time goes on, Bellingcat is proving to be the single most credible and valuable news source there is. It derives real value from the dross of social media. For that alone it deserves a medal.
In this era of ever more sophisticated fabrications, Bellingcat, both the service and the book, are most worthy of readers’ attention. This, for once, is an optimistic vision of the future – of journalism if not justice.
David Wineberg
Show Less
LibraryThing member basilisksam
I’ve awarded this book 5 stars not because it’s perfect but because it’s that important. Should be on the syllabus for every school and every university everywhere as a guide to understanding, not just the pitfalls of social media sites and news media in general, but as a primer on how to use
My criticisms of the book are that:
a) a lot of the detail should have gone into an appendix to give space for a higher level analysis of open source and what it can do and
b) like many authors he attributes too much to so-called AI when what he’s really referring to is advanced algorithms used in modern software. I am not arguing that we shouldn’t be worried about deepfakes and programs using complex algorithms but that AI has become a meaningless term used by everybody to describe programs that have zero intelligence. Name me a modern piece of software that does not claim to be AI-based. This is not a trivial point as it feeds into a mindset that blinds people as to what is really going on: there are no AI machines, only corporations that want us to think what they are doing is cleverer than it really is. AI is merely the prejudices of programmers and their sponsors built into code.
My reservations aside I still think this is an important book that deserves not just to be on everyone’s bookshelf but to be read, understood and acted upon.
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open source materials to investigate what’s going on in the world.My criticisms of the book are that:
a) a lot of the detail should have gone into an appendix to give space for a higher level analysis of open source and what it can do and
b) like many authors he attributes too much to so-called AI when what he’s really referring to is advanced algorithms used in modern software. I am not arguing that we shouldn’t be worried about deepfakes and programs using complex algorithms but that AI has become a meaningless term used by everybody to describe programs that have zero intelligence. Name me a modern piece of software that does not claim to be AI-based. This is not a trivial point as it feeds into a mindset that blinds people as to what is really going on: there are no AI machines, only corporations that want us to think what they are doing is cleverer than it really is. AI is merely the prejudices of programmers and their sponsors built into code.
My reservations aside I still think this is an important book that deserves not just to be on everyone’s bookshelf but to be read, understood and acted upon.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SChant
A fascinating look at the rise of citizen journalists using open-source channels and tools to uncover some of the worst war atrocities and unmasked state misinformation and lies in the past decade. A well written, lively and optimistic counterblow to the acres of dismal “fake news” we see
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gushing across social media. Show Less
LibraryThing member breic
I'm embarrassed to say that, going into this, I had never heard of Bellingcat. Higgins goes into great detail as to how they started online sleuthing, based largely on social media, Youtube, and some bought or stolen Russian databases. I loved all the detail. And what successes they have achieved!
> RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan (who conducted the infamous interview with the two Skripal poisoning suspects), said in 2012 that she did not believe in journalistic objectivity, and characterised her operation as an arm of Russian information warfare. ‘It’s impossible to start making a weapon only when the war has already started!’ she told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. ‘The Defense Ministry isn’t fighting anyone at the moment, but it’s ready for defense. So are we.’
> So here’s what we do,” the mouse says. “We hang a bell around the cat’s neck, and he’ll never catch us again.” The other mice burst into applause. They have a plan; they’ll be saved. Only one problem. Who’ll put a bell on the cat?’ That was it: our name and our mission. Belling the cats.
> Most damning were the local’s close-ups of the car-dealership billboard. The Russian generals had said the corner of the sign contained an address in Ukrainian-held territory. On the actual billboard there was no address whatsoever. They had simply falsified it
> Another insight of Henk’s is that users of Facebook who click ‘love’ on a post rather than simply ‘like’ tend to have open personalities: they probably have not locked down their privacy settings.
> As for the elite murder and subversion team, we suspect that our investigations led to its disbandment. Since our reports, we have tracked members’ locations and found several reassigned to remote areas, given important-sounding administrative jobs but with all signs pointing to them being demoted.
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The presentation feels a bit scattershot, with lots of mostly anecdotal stories, told chronologically, with larger morals mixed in. Overall, though, much in the same way that the name "Bellingcat" doesn't resonate with me, the writing just felt a bit dull. Perhaps this is somewhat inevitable, given the tedious nature of much of the work—browsing online videos, geolocating images based on Google Earth—but I still think that the book could have been more exciting. > RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan (who conducted the infamous interview with the two Skripal poisoning suspects), said in 2012 that she did not believe in journalistic objectivity, and characterised her operation as an arm of Russian information warfare. ‘It’s impossible to start making a weapon only when the war has already started!’ she told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. ‘The Defense Ministry isn’t fighting anyone at the moment, but it’s ready for defense. So are we.’
> So here’s what we do,” the mouse says. “We hang a bell around the cat’s neck, and he’ll never catch us again.” The other mice burst into applause. They have a plan; they’ll be saved. Only one problem. Who’ll put a bell on the cat?’ That was it: our name and our mission. Belling the cats.
> Most damning were the local’s close-ups of the car-dealership billboard. The Russian generals had said the corner of the sign contained an address in Ukrainian-held territory. On the actual billboard there was no address whatsoever. They had simply falsified it
> Another insight of Henk’s is that users of Facebook who click ‘love’ on a post rather than simply ‘like’ tend to have open personalities: they probably have not locked down their privacy settings.
> As for the elite murder and subversion team, we suspect that our investigations led to its disbandment. Since our reports, we have tracked members’ locations and found several reassigned to remote areas, given important-sounding administrative jobs but with all signs pointing to them being demoted.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I had been largely unaware of the work, or even, indeed, the existence of Bellingcat until I read in the press of their research into the Novichok poisonings of Alexei Navalny and then the Skripals in Salisbury.
This account of the origins and growth of Bellingcat is fascinating. One of the
Belllingcat was founded by Eliot Higgins. Working in a job that did not engage him fully, he started following news stories and in particular YouTube clips about events in the Syrian Civil War. Higgins found that by dextrous use of applications such as Google Earth, he could pinpoint the locations of some of the clips that were being published. From these he was able to validate or challenge many of the claims being made in social media. He expanded his findings into a blog, which in turn put him in contact with other fact checkers, and developed a network of likeminded associates who could review and geolocate the site of apparent atrocities. From this start, the work of Bellingcat developed into an independent fact checking agency, always making a point of using open-source material to ensure transparency.
Higgins is frank and modest about the manner in which he worked, which adds to the charm of the story. His work has not always been popular, and he has received many threats, which he takes as validation of the importance of his work, and the veracity of his reporting. There is always a risk that such a work might descend into self-justification or self-righteousness, but Higgins avoids such traps. This account is a fine exemplar of the transparency and clarity that Bellingcat espouse.
This account of the origins and growth of Bellingcat is fascinating. One of the
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reviewer’s comments splashed across the cover of the book says that it ‘reads like a thriller’, and that is no exaggeration.Belllingcat was founded by Eliot Higgins. Working in a job that did not engage him fully, he started following news stories and in particular YouTube clips about events in the Syrian Civil War. Higgins found that by dextrous use of applications such as Google Earth, he could pinpoint the locations of some of the clips that were being published. From these he was able to validate or challenge many of the claims being made in social media. He expanded his findings into a blog, which in turn put him in contact with other fact checkers, and developed a network of likeminded associates who could review and geolocate the site of apparent atrocities. From this start, the work of Bellingcat developed into an independent fact checking agency, always making a point of using open-source material to ensure transparency.
Higgins is frank and modest about the manner in which he worked, which adds to the charm of the story. His work has not always been popular, and he has received many threats, which he takes as validation of the importance of his work, and the veracity of his reporting. There is always a risk that such a work might descend into self-justification or self-righteousness, but Higgins avoids such traps. This account is a fine exemplar of the transparency and clarity that Bellingcat espouse.
Show Less
Original publication date
2021
ISBN
1635577306 / 9781635577303