Editing Open-source intelligence

'''Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)''' is the practice of collecting, analyzing, and utilizing information that is publicly available (either online or offline) to produce actionable insights or knowledge. Unlike covert intelligence gathering, OSINT relies exclusively on sources that are accessible to the general public—anyone with internet access or the ability to obtain public documents can engage in OSINT, including [[imperialist]] state agencies (such as the [[CIA]] or [[FBI]]).

Due to the relationship between OSINT groups and the [[intelligence community]] (the umbrella term regrouping [[Imperial core|western]] [[State]] intelligence agencies), it is possible to consider that OSINT is simply a keyword to shift blame away from intelligence agencies when they want to perform deadly operations, and it is likely that most of the "open-source" documents, images and other data 'researchers' publish is not actually open-source, but was handed to them by agencies. However, some resources exist that can be used by [[communists]] as well.

== Examples ==
Although it has existed since the 1990s, the [[Pizza Index]] has become open-source thanks to public databases such as Google Maps. Prior to Maps, only restaurant employees could know how many pizzas their store sold in one night and if it was higher than average - and indeed, the term originally came from Frank Meeks, who owned 70 Domino's Pizza franchises in New York at the time.

It is possible to use [[social media]] platforms such as [[Linkedin]] to track key figures' jobs (and thus level of importance and responsibilities), movement (through their posts or photos posted of them), or habitual location (through googling the employer's office). For this reason, communists should make their social media profiles private and be careful about what they share.

By finding a person's employer, it is also very easy to find their professional email address (usually a combination of firstname.lastname at business.com). This makes it easy for someone to then send them a [[phishing]] or other malicious email.

[[Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations|Mossad]] and [[Shin Bet]] uses this type of information a lot. They purposely target [[LGBT+|gay]] people in the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza]] (a form of [[pinkwashing]]), or people with gambling debts, to recruit them as informants or double agents.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Joseph Fitsanakis|newspaper=Intel News|title=Analysis: How does Israel recruit Palestinian informants in Gaza?|date=2014-09-19|url=https://intelnews.org/2014/09/19/01-1558/}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Ali Abunimah|newspaper=The Electronic Intifada|title=How Israel blackmails Palestinians into treason|date=2023-04-12|url=https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-blackmails-palestinians-treason}}</ref> In [[Iran]] and [[Republic of Türkiye|Turkey]], Mossad runs ads and job listings openly on online platforms to recruit informants.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Daily Sabah|title=Mossad used job ads to recruit staff in Türkiye, to track Palestinians|date=2024-01-02|url=https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/mossad-used-job-ads-to-recruit-staff-in-turkiye-to-track-palestinians}}</ref>

== Link between imperialist agencies "non-state" outlets ==
State agencies (particularly in the [[United States of America|United States]], but also in [[Europe]]) often work alongside OSINT researchers, sometimes feeding them information, and at other times acting on their findings. Due to this, OSINT has a high rate of false positives, and sometimes outright fabricates data to justify war or propaganda.

=== Bellingcat ===
[[Bellingcat]], is a media outlet which purports to be an "independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists" often uses OSINT resources in their research. While Bellingcat claims to be independent, investigations have found that Bellingcat is an organisation largely funded by various European, UK and US intelligence agencies — including the [[National Endowment for Democracy]], the [[European Union]] itself, and the [[Human Rights Foundation]] (an imperialist organisation that solely targets governments outside the imperial core). A CIA official has declared that they "love" Bellingcat.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Foreign Policy|title=Bellingcat Can Say What U.S. Intelligence Can’t|date=2020-12-17|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/17/bellingcat-can-say-what-u-s-intelligence-cant/}}</ref>

Since the [[Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa]], Bellingcat has published six reports minimizing the genocide of the [[Palestinian]] people perpetrated by the [[Zionist Entity]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Bellingcat|title=Israel|url=https://www.bellingcat.com/tag/israel/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302015210/https://www.bellingcat.com/tag/israel/|archive-date=2024-03-02|retrieved=2024-03-02}}</ref>

=== Uyghur genocide propaganda ===
During the [[Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers|Uyghur genocide]] [[propaganda war]] in 2019, [[Buzzfeed]] reported supposed 'forced internment camps' they had found on Google Maps<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Buzzfeed|title=China Secretly Built A Vast New Infrastructure To Imprison Muslims|date=2020-08-27|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-new-internment-camps-xinjiang-uighurs-muslims}}</ref> that turned out to be factories and schools. Buzzfeed's investigation was supported by the [[Open Technology Fund]], an offshoot of the CIA mouthpiece [[Radio Free Asia]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Wyatt Reed|newspaper=The Grayzone|title=US regime change activist named Web Summit CEO after founder forced out for condemning Israeli ‘war crimes’|date=2023-10-31|url=https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/31/regime-change-web-summit-ceo-israeli-war-crimes/|quote=Millions of dollars of the initial funding used to create the application were delivered via the Open Technology Fund, an offshoot of CIA-founded propaganda mill Radio Free Asia.}}</ref> In this way, the media performs a "free and unbiased" investigation delivered to them by the CIA or other intelligence agencies which effectively launder the findings. Then, these intelligence agencies use the findings to promote more regime change propaganda. The three journalists received a [[Pulitzer prize]] for their investigation, which further solidified the validity of their findings in the eyes of the public. The Pulitzer Center, a sister foundation to the Prize, receives funding from the [[Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation|Gates Foundation]], the [[Open Society Foundations]], the [[Ford Foundation]] and the [[Clinton Family Foundation]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Pulitzer Center|title=Pulitzer Center 2024 Annual Report|date=2024|url=https://report.pulitzercenter.org/annual-reports/2024-annual-report?utm_source=chatgpt.com|quote=Support for the Pulitzer Center this year came from [...] Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Clinton Family Foundation, [...] Ford Foundation, [...] Open Society Foundations, [...]}}</ref> In 2024, most of the Prize board consisted of mainstream, US-based [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] journalists (such as Anne Applebaum, herself a prize winner) from outlets aligned with the US government's foreign policy. Minouche Shafik, the President of [[Columbia University]], was also on the board.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Pulitzer Prize Board 2023-2024|date=2024|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/board/2024|quote=Anne Applebaum, Author and Staff Writer, The Atlantic, Nancy Barnes, Editor, The Boston Globe, [...] Carlos Lozada, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times, [...] Kevin Merida, Former Executive Editor, Los Angeles Times, David Remnick, Editor and Staff Writer, The New Yorker, Minouche Shafik, President, Columbia University}}</ref> That same year, she sided with the police against her university's students during the protests and encampments for Palestine, and let New York police use violence against the unarmed and peaceful students, arresting over 100 of them.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Al Jazeera|title=Minouche Shafik resigns as Columbia president after Gaza war protests|date=2024-08-15|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/15/minouche-shafik-resigns-as-columbia-president-after-tumultuous-year|quote=The next day, [Minouche Shafik] allowed New York City police onto the campus to clear the protests and about 100 people were arrested, triggering outrage from protesters and some academics and calls for her resignation. Tensions rose further at the end of April, when police returned again to campus, arresting some 300 people and removing the encampment.}}</ref>

[[Adrian Zenz]] was also a prominent figure during the height of the myth. He also relied on open-source intelligence, particularly leaked or even fabricated documents. In one instance, after he admitted that he couldn't read Chinese, Zenz then went on to claim that he calculated, from official statistical data from China, that 80% of all IUDs in China had been performed in Xinjiang, but the actual number was 8.7%.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Lin Fangfei|newspaper=The State Council Information Office|title=Responding to Adrian Zenz's lies on Xinjiang's birth control: A survey on fertility willingness of ethnic minority women in Xinjiang|date=2020-09-14|url=http://english.scio.gov.cn/m/xinjiangfocus/2020-09/14/content_77200391.htm}}</ref> He was employed as a "senior fellow" by the [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]] as per his own Twitter page.<ref>https://archive.is/esnu5</ref> Then-secretary of State [[Mike Pompeo]] used Zenz's report in an official government press statement.<ref name=":0" />

=== Gaza genocide campaign ===
In 2025, during the "[[State of Israel|Israeli]]"-conducted [[Israel-Gaza war and genocide|genocide of Gaza]], user @VleckieHond posted a satellite image she obtained online, of what she claimed to have analyzed as a "possible [[Ansar Allah|Houthi]] military site". The site was subsequently bombed a few days after the post by the US military. Afterwards, [[Republic of Yemen|Yemeni]] media reported that the strike killed 28 civilians in their homes in Sana'a, including children. VleckieHond had been publicly cited by the ''Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Sentinel'', a US army office, as an "ever-resourceful analyst".<ref>{{Web citation|author=Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain|newspaper=Drop Site|title=Pentagon May Have Drawn on Anonymous Social Media Accounts in Planning Deadly Yemen Attack|date=2025-05-01|url=https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/us-yemen-bombing-x-osint}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />