4 ms·

another fantastic piece of work by bellingcat! i am starting to worry for their health, however. bellingcat is basically the opposite of wikileaks. rather than

another fantastic piece of work by bellingcat! i am starting to worry for their health, however. bellingcat is basically the opposite of wikileaks. rather than repackaging leaks from insiders, they just repackage information that is there for everyone to see. can't fault em for that.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
>I am starting to worry for their health, however. Are you implying that someone might slip some polonium into the punch at the office holiday party?
- cryoshon 8y ago
  unfortunately, yes. while i have no idea whether they are intentionally partisan or not, their analyses so far have been highly damaging to russian interests, going all the way back to when they found the russian proxy group in ukraine that shot down that airliner. they're also stepping on russia's toes in their analyses on the syrian war. the thing that worries me is that bellingcat reports on strategically relevant tactical-level things. if they just reported on everyday tactical stuff -- which they do too -- it might disrupt russian narratives regarding their involvement in certain conflicts or whatever, but that wouldn't ever be a problem for bellingcat itself. russia couldn't give a damn if bellingcat ruins their narratives regarding who is fighting where because they can maintain deniability, but if it's ruining their operational capabilities i assume they take it more seriously.
qaq 8y ago
It looks like they most likely have photos of most GRU agents at this point so will not be easy for them to travel now.
- baybal2 8y ago
  There is a KGB hitman who was detained more than 10 (!) times all over Eastern Europe, and Middle East, but was coming back again and again under new passports
  - nyolfen 8y ago
    i think we can assume this was before facial recognition software was available. if you get burned now it’s probably forever.
    - TrainedMonkey 8y ago
      There are a number of ways to fool facial recognition.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

>I am starting to worry for their health, however. Are you implying that someone might slip some polonium into the punch at the office holiday party?

cryoshon 8y ago
unfortunately, yes. while i have no idea whether they are intentionally partisan or not, their analyses so far have been highly damaging to russian interests, going all the way back to when they found the russian proxy group in ukraine that shot down that airliner. they're also stepping on russia's toes in their analyses on the syrian war. the thing that worries me is that bellingcat reports on strategically relevant tactical-level things. if they just reported on everyday tactical stuff -- which they do too -- it might disrupt russian narratives regarding their involvement in certain conflicts or whatever, but that wouldn't ever be a problem for bellingcat itself. russia couldn't give a damn if bellingcat ruins their narratives regarding who is fighting where because they can maintain deniability, but if it's ruining their operational capabilities i assume they take it more seriously.

qaq 8y ago

It looks like they most likely have photos of most GRU agents at this point so will not be easy for them to travel now.

baybal2 8y ago
There is a KGB hitman who was detained more than 10 (!) times all over Eastern Europe, and Middle East, but was coming back again and again under new passports
- nyolfen 8y ago
  i think we can assume this was before facial recognition software was available. if you get burned now it’s probably forever.
  - TrainedMonkey 8y ago
    There are a number of ways to fool facial recognition.