BLUF: Media continues to be an unreliable source of actively occurring events. Alternative options must be deployed to observe incidents as they emerge. Use contingency options when the Area of Interest is expected to have a high probability of violence, or has a risk of being a staged false flag, or reporting of outcome may be biased. If a riot, mass shooting, or town hall meeting is taking place; it’s vital to reference multiple sources to determine what is happening. This is especially important if it is a Life Altering Event (LAE) or politically motivated incident.
1. Use livestream public traffic cams to get real-time information in an area that may be dangerous or may be used as a manipulated occurrence of events. An example would be the Washington DC Traffic Cams as viewed here, http://app.ddot.dc.gov/ . Another great resource is https://www.earthcam.com which gives you live views of popular tourist locations.
2. By monitoring Social Media Outlets (SMO) you can anticipate threatstreams and violent events before and as they occur.
Follow (infiltrate) hate groups, terrorist organizations, and news stations on SMO. This is the platform most often used to plan and schedule attacks, protests, and other events that could affect your safety and movement. A sudden uptick in chatter or even specific dates and coordinates can be observed on SMO. Use this intel to avoid areas, bugout, or prepare prior to an event’s occurrence.
Two aspects of SMOs are the livestream and video features. A livestream is difficult to alter, deepfake, or otherwise negate the facts of what is being seen. Many SMOs allow you to filter livestreams by location. Videos that must be recorded via the app can deter manipulation. Consider the maps feature on Snapchat. Access non-private “snaps” via the mapping system behind Snapchat at maps.snapchat.com and view videos in near real-time.
3. Garnering of information from various Intelligence (INT) sources is a bit more complex but also proves reliable.
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether communications between people (communications intelligence abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication (electronic intelligence abbreviated to ELINT). These nonspace capabilities, such as cyber and ground-based systems, could be commercial, illicit, or do-it-yourself
(DIY) DIY capabilities include devices that could be built with minimal technical expertise using inexpensive components. Think keyloggers, eavesdropping software, or surreptitiously granting yourself access to someone’s “find my friends” app. A common and easy method of SIGINT is simply listening to a radio scanner of first responders activity.
HUMINT or human intelligence can involve a combination of the above. Basically you have a trusted source planted (or located by happenstance) at the Area of Interest. Intel collected from these sources is reliable if you have a vetted human source.
OSINT or open source includes all publicly available data. This requires cross referencing with other sources to verify validity but it can point you in the right direction of what to dig further into or ignore.
The end goal is to have multiple outlets of intel collection so you can observe and interpret what actually occurred rather than be told by CNN or Newsmax.
YouTube as OSINT Tool
Youtube offers various methods to search for live stream videos.
You can visit the Live Hub at https://www.youtube.com/live which will give you curated results based on your interests.
The best way to get specific results for an occurring event is to use the search and filter feature. For instance you could type in, “BLM protest boston” or “Virginia confirmation hearing, director board of health”. Then simply filter it for LIVE videos only.
- Open YouTube on your phone or tablet.
- Run a keyword search and generate a list of results.
- Tap the filter icon, select LIVE, apply filter.
This article was originally written by the Grayman Briefing. Stay in the know, sign up for Intel and Situational Awareness alerts pushed to your phone on emerging threats and preparedness warnings. Click HERE to subscribe to the Grayman Briefing.
