OSINT for Dummies: How to Mount a Fake Investigation

Since 2012, western political and media establishments have been aggressively propping-up cutout organizations like Bellingcat, portraying them as the ‘unlikely amateur’ sleuth-heroes, running their world-beating ‘open source’ (OSINT) investigations from their laptops in the UK and the Netherlands. In every instance, their OSINT ‘findings’ will implicate the geopolitical adversaries of the US and its allies.

The process requires that OSINT operatives frame their ‘investigations’ by starting with a conclusion of guilt (ie. Russia, Syria, Iran) and then work to assemble ‘open source evidence’ (things found on the internet) in order to reinforce their initial conclusion.
They are marketed as ‘independent’ sources. The only problem is these organizations are not independent at all. Fronted by operatives like Eliot Higgins, their reputations are constantly laundered with media praise from corporate media giants like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and BBC – and all the while the media continually downplay their dubious funding sources and affiliations with military and intelligence networks within the NATO sphere.
However, by boosting the likes of Bellingcat, the western media and political networks are really promoting a fraudulent method of conducting ‘investigations’.
South Front reports…
On July 13, Russian state media reported citing a military diplomatic source that UK and US intelligence services are in an active phase of the anti-Russian campaign aiming to discredit individuals from the leadership of the Defence Ministry and the inner circle of Russian Ppresident Vladimir Putin. The report said that the disinformation will wind up in the media controlled by foundations established by influential financiers such as George Soros and William Browder. The campaign will also involve media outlets funded by US authorities, naming Radio Freedom and Current Time among others.
The interesting fact is most of so-called open source investigations designed to fuel various anti-Russian, anti-Syrian, anti-Chinese and other campaigns do have similar structure and are created under same guidelines:

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