Longlisted for theCWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2022
How did a collective of self-taught internet sleuths end up solving some of the biggest crimes of our time
Bellingcat,the home-grown investigative unit,is redefining the way we think about news,politics and the digital future. Here,their founder - a high-school dropout on a kitchen laptop - tells the story of how they created a whole new category of information-gathering,galvanising citizen journalists across the globe to expose war crimes and pick apart disinformation,using just their computers.
From the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 over the Ukraine to the sourcing of weapons in the Syrian Civil War and the identification of the Salisbury poisoners,We Are Bellingcat digs deep into some of Bellingcat's most successful investigations. It explores the most cutting-edge tools for analysing data,from virtual-reality software that can build photorealistic 3D models of a crime scene,to apps that can identify exactly what time of day a photograph was taken.
In our age of uncertain truths,Bellingcat is what the world needs right now - an intelligence agency by the people,for the people.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLCISBN: 9781526615718Number of pages: 288Weight: 206 gDimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'It is strange that Eliot Higgins's We Are Bellingcat should be such an uplifting book...Riveting...It is quite a story...Spare,elegant . . .What will fire people through these pages,gripped,is the focused,and extraordinary,investigations that Bellingcat runs...Each runs as if the concluding chapter of a Holmesian whodunit,in which the scientific sleuth explains in crystalline manner his inescapable conclusions...Ultimately,the book consoles,reassuring readers that in a world where everyone has an opinion and objectivity feels extinct,the tools to prove and verify have never been more accessible'-Telegraph
'In a world of disrupters,Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat have turned the world of intelligence gathering on its head and put to shame the intelligence services of the biggest and most powerful countries in the world. We Are Bellingcat tells the gripping story of how Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat used innovative investigation techniques to expose some of the gravest state crimes of our era,from war crimes in Syria to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Their success is a wake up call to governments who have been asleep at the wheel about what is needed to fight dictators and kleptocrats'- Bill Browder,bestselling author of Red Notice
'Bellingcat has pioneered a new field of investigation that has proven key to understanding the clandestine criminal actions of Russia and other nations both at home and abroad. They have exposed numerous war crimes,human rights violations,and much more...If there were a Nobel Prize in uncovering war crimes,Bellingcat would receive it. No wonder authoritarian and criminal regimes hate them so'- Toomas Hendrik Ilves,former President of Estonia
'In a time of unprecedented disinformation and disruption,Eliot Higgins and Belingcat deploy the latest technologies and the very highest journalistic values in a profoundly important pursuit of objective truth. It is impossible to exaggerate the urgency and the power of their work. It can sometimes seem as if the demagogues and despots hold all the cards at the moment. Higgins and Bellingcat are a crucial and courageous corrective'- James O'Brien
'If you don't know what Bellingcat is,this is your chance to learn. We Are Bellingcat tells the story of the most innovative practitioners of open-source intelligence and online journalism in the world. They have told the true stories of the missiles that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine and the chemical weapons used by the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. They have identified the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville,exposed Kremlin hit teams,and found ISIS supporters in Europe. In We Are Bellingcat their founder,Eliot Higgins describes how and why they do it'- Anne Applebaum
'The blogger who tracks Syrian rockets from his sofa'- Daily Telegraph
'Taking on the Krelim from his couch...Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat are fighting Vladimir Putin and his ilk,using little more than computers and smartphones'- Foreign Policy
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