In his living room, blogger in UK manages to trace arms trafficking to Syria despite no expertise on - Polidicks

[quote]Leicester, England (CNN) -- Elliot Higgins has never been to Syria. He has no friends and family there. Nor does he have any military experience or background in weapons analysis. But when he lost his job last year, he used the extra hours to indulge an interest in current events, particularly the Arab Spring. Sitting in his living room in Leicester, England, he started a blog under the handle Brown Moses, after a Frank Zappa song. "I literally thought: No one is going to read this. But I'm doing it for my own entertainment." In fact, by sifting through hundreds of battle videos posted online, Higgins has shown the Syrian army's use of cluster bombs -- now documented by Human Rights Watch -- although Syria has denied using cluster bombs. He's also showed a trail of Croatian weapons supplied to Syria's rebels by Saudi Arabia with the consent of Western allies -- an investigative expose published in the New York Times. "It's really about finding the patterns of what's going on," Higgins says. "With the cluster bombs the Syrian government still seems to have the official policy of refusing to state that they are using them. And I've collected a vast amount of evidence of cluster bombs in Syria. There is video of cluster bombs dispersing from helicopters. That's something that can't really be faked." He tracks the weapons of the war in Syria on his laptop from a cream-colored sofa in his living room. "When the Syrian air force started using helicopters, I was looking at that," he recalls. "Then I saw my first partly exploded bomb and identified that. That was really the start of weapons identification."[/quote] [url]http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/29/world/europe/syria-weapons-blogger/index.html?hpt=hp_c1[/url]

Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to find the missing pieces.

man do i wish i had the energy to do something cool like that or something at all

[QUOTE=Fangz;40100513]Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to find the missing pieces.[/QUOTE] And maybe some boredom.

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;40100553]And maybe some boredom.[/QUOTE] And a strong stomach.

Well now I feel like I've got no excuse for not accomplishing anything

A British man solving mysteries in his living room. Where have I seen this before...

[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;40100875]A British man solving mysteries in his living room. Where have I seen this before...[/QUOTE] An early star trek TNG season 2 episode.

[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;40100905]An early star trek TNG season 2 episode.[/QUOTE] the only thing that damned holodeck ever did was create plot conficts i swear

Supplied by Saudi Arabia, with the consent of Western Allies. The CIA has their hands in everything, eh? I wonder to what degree they engineered the current Syria conflict. [editline]31st March 2013[/editline] And before anyone starts getting pissy about ridiculous conspiracy theories, consider the fact that the CIA, MI6 and Mossad (But mostly the CIA) have been implicated in nearly every major conflict in the last forty years.

[QUOTE=archangel125;40103775]Supplied by Saudi Arabia, with the consent of Western Allies. The CIA has their hands in everything, eh? I wonder to what degree they engineered the current Syria conflict. [editline]31st March 2013[/editline] And before anyone starts getting pissy about ridiculous conspiracy theories, consider the fact that the CIA, MI6 and Mossad (But mostly the CIA) have been implicated in nearly every major conflict in the last forty years.[/QUOTE] anyone who doesn't acknowledge, at least in part, that the CIA has played a huge role in history in the last 50 years is just naive.

[QUOTE=Fangz;40100513]Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to find the missing pieces.[/QUOTE] Deep

[QUOTE=Tomthetechy;40104397]Deep[/QUOTE] Edgy~

[QUOTE=archangel125;40103775]Supplied by Saudi Arabia, with the consent of Western Allies. The CIA has their hands in everything, eh? I wonder to what degree they engineered the current Syria conflict. [editline]31st March 2013[/editline] And before anyone starts getting pissy about ridiculous conspiracy theories, consider the fact that the CIA, MI6 and Mossad (But mostly the CIA) have been implicated in nearly every major conflict in the last forty years.[/QUOTE] i thought it was pretty much expected that intelligence organizations do this sort of shit i mean what else would they do

[QUOTE=Ezhik;40100522]man do i wish i had the energy to do something cool like that or something at all[/QUOTE] Here's a start Get off your computer Put the HDD somewhere obscure (leave a note or give it to someone you can trust) Stay off it Bam, suddenly time and energy

[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;40100988]the only thing that damned holodeck ever did was create plot conficts i swear[/QUOTE] [url=http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/blue-stripe-life-4.php]Imagine being the one to clean up after them.[/url] :v:

Well, Brown Moses certainly seems to have forensic talent. Someone should probably hire that guy.

[QUOTE=JgcxCub;40104509]Here's a start Get off your computer Put the HDD somewhere obscure (leave a note or give it to someone you can trust) Stay off it Bam, suddenly time and energy[/QUOTE]This guy did all of this using his computer.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;40103812]anyone who doesn't acknowledge, at least in part, that the CIA has played a huge role in history in the last 50 years is just naive.[/QUOTE] Mainly in that it is utterly incompetent.

[QUOTE=Fangz;40100513]Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to find the missing pieces.[/QUOTE] We should steal eyes from people! :v:

Damn. When I was unemployed I just cried a lot.

[QUOTE=Fine Hats;40105204]Damn. When I was unemployed I just cried a lot.[/QUOTE] hence why you are not featured in the prestigious sensationalist headlines section on the world-renowned academic forum that is Facepunch

I seen a load of rebels running around with Augs, it's clear as day that they are Saudi supplied.

I wonder, does this mean the USA and NATO implicitly support the current Syrian administration?

Dude should be a journalist

[QUOTE=prooboo;40107107]Dude should be a journalist[/QUOTE] too bad no news agencies want investigative reporters because it doesn't sell

I've seen evidence of all his claims just by watching liveleak every day for the past few years, but I had always figured the government was doing a better job at finding that stuff...guess not. I wonder if its news that bosnian arms dealers have been sending anti-aircraft manpads to the rebels for a couple months now, or that assad's loyal brigades are being outfitted with chemical warfare gear right now. There's also that pretty shady leak from a Malaysian hacker that broke into a private security company's servers in a few different country's and found emails between a contact in Washington and them describing how they were going under contract to smuggle a chemical weapon artillery shell into Jordan and fire it across the border and blame it on assad's forces to justify nato intervention, then a week or so ago that exact thing happened with a non-lethal CW that the israeli's are saying was a test run by assad.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;40104901]This guy did all of this using his computer.[/QUOTE] That's because he's capable of dedicating himself to a task. Unlike most of facepunch. Don't take what i'm saying out of context. Computers can do many things, but many people (me included) get so hooked on them that they lose the energy to do much else.

[QUOTE=Mabus;40105532]I seen a load of rebels running around with Augs, it's clear as day that they are Saudi supplied.[/QUOTE] No, you got it all wrong; Britain is supplying the rebels while this british guy traced where the syrian army's weapons came from.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;40103812]anyone who doesn't acknowledge, at least in part, that the CIA has played a huge role in history in the last 50 years is just naive.[/QUOTE] CIA does spread around alot of guns and money hoping it will buy them favors. CIA is greatly overrated though, mostly due to popular culture. Yeah I bet they do their job nowadays, even though they were once fresh with no experts, no experience and little resources while most allied and competetive counterparts were superior. They had kind of a cascade of failures towards the start that's either thinned down nowadays or is yet partly hidden. [QUOTE=Jeep-Eep;40105157]Mainly in that it is utterly incompetent.[/QUOTE] When they screw up they do it royally, archive it quickly, put a big top secret stamp on top of it.