They are very open about being funded by CIA cut outs like the National Endowment for Democracy [1]. If you're not familiar with the NED then you should read Wi

They are very open about being funded by CIA cut outs like the National Endowment for Democracy [1]. If you're not familiar with the NED then you should read William Blum's description of them [2]. Radio War Nerd recently did an excellent two part series on the NED and spent a good amount of time talking about Bellingat, too. [3] And as to them being a "limited hangout sock puppet" you're of course not going to find any source on this - because it's not known for certain - but in my opinion they are most likely something akin to that. They frequently get leaked information from US/UK intelligence organizations and they launder stories for CIA/MI6s. They might not know they are a limited hangout sock puppet for western intelligence but they certainly function as such. A good example is their actions around the OPCW leaks and claims of chemical weapons in Douma, Syria [4]. A lot of these stories unfold on Twitter so you'll have to search around You can also search on HN - there's comments from many years past calling out Bellingcat as a front for western intelligence. [1] https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3AEliotHiggins%20ned https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3AEliotHiggins%20ned [2] https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/trojan-horse-the-national-endowment-for-democracy https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/trojan-horse-th... [3] https://podcastaddict.com/episode/121232504 https://podcastaddict.com/episode/121232504 [4] https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/24/author-bellingcat-opcw-whistleblower/ https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/24/author-bellingcat-opcw-wh...