Kind: captions
Language: en
I found this video online and I don't
know where it was filmed or when it was
filmed but I'm going to change that by
using what we see in the footage such as
the logos language spoken by the
fighters the roads the buildings and the
direction of sunlight I'm not only going
to find out exactly where it was filmed
but I'm also going to find out when this
building was
destroyed and I'm going to show you each
step of the way so that you can do this
with any other video or photo that you
find on the
[Music]
internet hi everyone I'm Ben and welcome
back to my channel on open source
investigative techniques if you want to
follow along on this tutorial and you
want to check out the video you can find
a link to it in the description below
otherwise let's get
started all righty here we go the
building that I mentioned that we're
going to find is this one it's at 1
minute 13 we're able to see this
building right here so what I'm doing
right now is scrubbing through the video
just thinking about what kind of
features we'd be looking for knowing
that inevitably we're going to be
looking at Google Earth at some point
one of the things I I keep seeing from
different angles as well are these two
things not really too sure what they are
we can see them a little bit closer here
I see this one here it's it's got little
things hanging off it I actually think
they might be lights on a billboard
which would make a lot of sense uh if we
go through over here and and be mindful
that we've got these lights on on the
sides of this road up here as well going
both sides they're shining down off the
road and they're shining onto this road
and because this goes up it almost makes
me think that this might be a road going
over something we can also see this kind
of turn off here um and it almost makes
me think that where
at like a a crossover section or an
intersection of a highway where you you
drive underneath here and you've got the
road that goes over it and you've got
Billboards either either side of it and
that would also explain some of these
lights going off the road uh but also
the the height of the Billboards in
comparison to the road here as well so a
lot of little features that we can just
start to pick up okay so I think we've
spent enough time really going through
uh all of the content some of the other
things that I'd probably listen out for
is what people are are actually saying
by listening out to some of the audio
not only can we hear gunshots and things
like that but at
244 we can hear what appears to be the
person uh actually filming I'll play
that
now to me it sounds SS Arabic and for me
that that sounds like at least we're
able to pin that down to some idea of of
a region uh within the world that is
likely a warm temperature it's a very
sunny day it seems to be quite a kind of
Sandy Dusty uh but also dry area we can
see from the the roads the roads are
paved this is also in a in a conflict
area so we we're kind of thinking of
this as we go through what we can also
see on the video and many of you would
have seen this already is is two
sections of what appears to be text on
the
video so we've got this one up on the
top left we can actually see that quite
clearly at the start and then we have
this one down here uh this one down here
also has a logo but it has more text so
what I'm going to do is I'm going to
screenshot that and this is just a use
ful little technique that we have I'm
going to go to Google Translate and
Google translate allows me to select
text images documents and even websites
I'm actually going to use the image one
and I'm going to drop my screenshot that
I just made into there I'm going to
choose Arabic as the translation and
it's actually translated that for me as
Libyan Arab Armed Forces what I'm going
to do is I'm actually going to copy the
text and do a quick search on that so
here we are uh Libyan Arabic Armed
Forces we've also got the Wikipedia
entry there so I could just go back to
Wikipedia and just double check with the
screenshot as to that being the text
that looks very accurate as to what
we've just copied out of there and it's
always good to double check so it
appears that this video at least this
text down here is Libyan um forces what
we can also do is do a little screenshot
of this unique little in the gold and
black with what appears to be like a a
little white Soldier figure what we can
do is go to Google and do an image
reverse search so I'm going to drop that
little screenshot that I took there and
check that out and already we can see
some of the the logo the similar logos
we got Libya's Channel we've got a
Facebook page to me that just confirms
that this is on the right track uh in
terms of being in Libya so this is a
really good starting point I'm going to
head to Libya on my Google Earth now it
might sound like we've done a really
good job already by going to Libya but
this is a pretty big country and there's
a lot of space to look for how can we
narrow this down a little bit further I
don't think this is going to be a small
village or a small town if we've got an
overpass so if we're looking at our map
of Libya we can go back to our Google
and look for biggest cities in Libya
list of cities in Libya so we've got
Tripoli we got Benghazi misat zawiya baa
those are the top Seven Cities Triple E
and Benghazi seem to be over a million
or 1.5 million Triple E being much
bigger than Benghazi so I might start
with
tripol I say that because what we're
looking at here is a highway or an
overpass over another road we're
thinking about these being billboards
this is probably a wellb built up City
so I don't think it's going to be in a
smaller town or or Village I think it's
going to be something uh one one of
these at the very least if not Triple E
or Benghazi so I'm going to start with
the city of tripy it's very big so it
looks like we're going to take some time
looking around through here I'm going to
use Google Earth and down on the panel
here I'm going to turn on my roads and
this just shows me main roads these are
the roads I'm going to start with just
looking through and seeing if I can find
a road that might be a cross point
between I think two very large roads so
we've got this one that the vehicles are
on that's the one that this vehicle at
the end drove down and then I think
we've got one in between these two
Billboards that is going underneath this
one so what we're looking for is a is a
crosssection to paint that a little bit
better I've actually got canva you can
use this for free I'm going to use this
one and I'm going to make a little kind
of crosssection I'm going to make
something that could appear to be a
little road and then I'm going to make a
kind of a cross-section one so I might
even change this one to be a straight
line and this might be the the highway
so I'll even do a kind of double line
for this highway and this is going to be
my my working point for now on so the
building that we were looking for which
is this one down here I'm going to turn
this into a building it's on the left
side of the road that goes over what we
think could be a highway the building we
mention is on the left side of the road
so I'm going to use an element I'm
actually going to turn this into a box
this is what we can see and our building
is probably somewhere down here this is
our our building of interest that we're
looking for uh it seems to be quite
close to the road even a little bit back
we can also see a little one in front of
it looks like it's got some green there
and there's one in the background as
well and this is our hole in the back of
this building the hole that I'm
referring to is this kind of bit this
chunk missing out of the back of that
building there looks like we've also got
one back there as well it might be maybe
a building in the background we've got
what appears to be a long so we can see
where this truck drives along there's a
long maybe metal tin roof of of a
factory or something I'll pop in the
Billboards that we have so this is on
the left side of the road so opposite to
the one that the building's on there
also seems to be a turnoff here I guess
maybe a kind of onramp to the highway
that seems to be on the other side of
the billboard so there's kind of the the
graphic that we're after I know it's not
uh I know it's not a piece of art but
it's what we've got so far so this is
what we could be looking for now the
second thing I want to do is I might
have a look at the the Shadows so we can
see that we're kind of facing north of
the city we might be able to use these
Shadows to give us an indication as to
direction that we should orientate our
map for when we're looking for this road
right especially help us with this
orientation of the graphic so I'm going
to use sunal uh I've done a number of
tutorials on sunal before but this is
just a very easy way to get an
understanding as to which way the
Shadows Point what I'm going to maybe
guess is that these Shadows they're
quite long and it appears that the
sunlight is coming from this direction
and the Shadows pointing down this way
these Shadows are extremely long and the
shadow from the post as well so it seems
like we might be looking at perhaps a
shadow of this length towards the
afternoon or in the morning and the
Shadows are going upwards
Northwest upwards North East if I'm
thinking about this when it comes to the
direction of the map let's think about
the direction of the Shadows so the
direction of the Shadows are going down
actually towards this building so when I
go back to my canva I'm going to pop my
shadow over here it seems to be pushing
away from the road but on a bit more of
an angle so I might even go like this
and this can be my shadow line now when
we go back to our suncal the sunal
shadow line was these directions so so I
almost need to orientate my map a bit so
if I'm looking at the the satellite
imagery the orientation that I should
have in comparison to suncal should be
either this way or this way you can see
the Shadows pointing in correlation with
what my suncal would have been pointing
in so we'll make two versions of this
I'm going to screenshot this one for
10:00 a.m. and then in the afternoon at
about 3: I'm going to screenshot this
one and I'm going to make myself a
couple of images on canva on my
whiteboard and you can see now the idea
of what I'm working on
here this is the afternoon what it would
look
like this is the morning
configuration that it would look like so
it's fairly easy to kind of think about
the way that I want to orientate my map
right I'm looking for a underpass
Highway that goes either this way or
this way and an overpass that goes this
way or this way so when I go back to my
satellite image what I'm looking for is
a
cross-section that is kind of tilted
either this way or this way we can fly
along here and just have a look at some
of these so we've got this one over here
this is you know pretty cool already I
could zoom in on here but I'm not really
seeing I've got these Billboards here so
yeah we can see that maybe this could be
it I don't think so because immediately
what I saw was a mosque and quite a few
large buildings and don't forget one of
the things that we also had was quite a
fair few trees on the left side I don't
really see those trees properly there
and we've got a mosque there which I I
didn't see any of that in the video
whatsoever uh We've also got this kind
of thing going over the road didn't see
that I didn't see a lot of these so I'm
going to Ru this one out but it does
kind of fit the shape of that we're
looking for right overpass underpass
what else we got so we've got a few more
of those along here this one we've got
some trees but the overpass is the
highway I didn't notice a wide overpass
like that it was actually a smaller road
going over the highway so let's remember
that when we look at some of the other
kind of cross points this looks like
quite a wide Road going over this one
but I'm not seeing buildings many
buildings on either side of that this
one I don't see the collection of trees
um and that road is also too wide look
at the road that we had this vehicle
driving down very very
different there is a kind of maybe a
lane split there but we can see that
that road in the distance down here it
just doesn't look like that kind of main
double lane it's almost like a highway
and a highway this one so maybe I might
work out um a little bit further have a
quick look at this one but this is again
that kind of double double Highway what
I'm kind of looking for is maybe a
thinner Road and a
highway um and and I indicated that on
here as well right so this kind of thin
Road and then we've got the highway okay
so let's let's maybe take ourselves out
of the city area a little bit um what
have we got around here so we've got a
site down here no we don't have any
buildings around here got no green so
pretty much rule that one out so you can
see the kind of things that I'm thinking
of is just reminding myself of what
we've got here have a look for a couple
of the pieces if they fit then I'll
investigate it a little bit
further have a look at this one no have
a look at this one I kind of like this
one the problem is we've got this kind
of double highway I didn't notice that
at the at the start um this could be a
good option so we've got trees do we
have the trees so we got we got a
building we've actually got a long Tin
Roof as well that we had so remember
this one that we drew up here we got
that tin roof there the orientation of
the Shadows so let's remember where
those Shadows were pointing so we'll go
back to sunal directly I might actually
go over this direction in sunal so we're
looking at this one seems to be down
near the airport okay so let's have a
look at the Shadows here I just want to
go back to these where these people were
talking Shadows pretty direct there on
the road going down so it's possible it
could have been that especially if we're
looking at from this point which it
would have been I guess so that that
still could be possible uh must have
been late in the afternoon though or it
could have been this way that's also
doable yeah so we got either either side
of this is is quite doable all right
let's have a deeper look okay I'm going
to turn off my roads cuz that's kind of
annoying with the yellow and we'll we'll
get into this one so we have a double
Road let's start looking for some
features that might just be clear
matches so first things first I want to
have a look at these things so they've
got the two of them on this kind of left
side in the
video uh and we have two of them here so
that's a that's a nice one this one
looks like it's kind of opening up this
way which is similar to this one they
have the little see these little black
things they're probably the lights
shining up on the board we got that
there we got that there we've got these
kind of like lights over the road here
some of them are a little bit
damaged uh and they seem to be here hey
we've even got some destruction along
that that road here which is interesting
cuz that wasn't looking too healthy and
this bent one could be one of these what
I want to look for is maybe these trees
that we thought we had there was a fair
bit of burning so it could be that in
some of these satellite images over here
they might not be there anymore but they
might have been there in the past like
this okay so that's useful that also
starts to give us a bit of a window of
time right if we go through the trees
trees trees
trees fairly consistent there then they
seem to have uh Gone eventually right
one of the things I noticed was on this
bit right here I I wonder I do remember
a bit of a sand pile
somewhere just on the right
there which is actually just near this
kind of entrance piece and as the truck
drives down there's a sand pile so this
is already like really looking good to
me okay let's go a little bit further
then so we need a light post and some
trees uh I see a light post there I see
a light post there and some trees
looking great and I'm now going to start
to think about this so we've got this
building here that was the building in
question let's go back to a lighter
scene this one um we had a a factory
roof that we saw over here yeah I mean
we got two of them over here here but
that could be it just given the angle
that it's kind of down here and we've
got a small building so remember our our
canva that we made our whiteboard we had
a small building and then the building
with the hole right so this um I'm going
to start using my video for the purpose
now so we have a tree there other
building a tree here we can really start
to get a lot more detailed right so if
I'm looking down past my factory
roof I'm focused this
way what I want to find is a building
like this with a little kind of shed
thing on the left of it uh we've got
some shed kind of buildings then we've
got a building here so let's look at
this building I'm going to scroll back
in time and try and find a satellite
image what I'll do is I'll minimize this
and we'll do a cross comparison each
time I go back in time once we find an
angle where we can see this side of the
building uh which is the camera angle
side of the building so here we are I
think we can see this side of the
building fairly clearly we've also got a
little um I guess a water tower or or a
little kind of feature there I don't
know if we see that but actually we do
there's a if we enlarge in this a little
bit there seems to be something standing
right there but also a massive hole in
the side of this and two separate
squares two separate
squares two separate squares two
separate squares and a large gap for me
that's pretty confirmed that we've got
this now let's have a look at the window
of time and try and figure out well okay
we might actually be able to indicate
when this video was filmed given or when
this destruction happened at least so we
got a hole below that as well can't
really see that hole but let's go back
I'm going back in time there's no hole
in the side of this building in the
satellite imagery from November 26th
2018 but there is a hole in this video
I'm going to go forward until I see that
again there's a hole here
on May 2nd
2019 that matches this I might be able
to find another satellite image that
shows us more of the side of this
building and it seems like that building
had more destruction over time okay so
it looks like we've confirmed the
location of this building um we can see
the destruction on this side of the
satellite image there with a chunk taken
out right there which didn't happen
before uh it seems like this chunk first
appeared at least on the side version of
this one so obviously maybe we could
look for more satellite imagery or other
videos from the region but we've got
this green post here which sits there
we've got this building right here which
is likely this one so this is the angle
of view that we're seeing and we've got
the side of this building this matches
up pretty well with what we can see uh
the damage first appeared on May 2
2019 it was not present on imagery
showing the side of the
building on 11th of uh on November 26
2018 so I'll go back to this one and
what I'd probably do for this in a in a
report is do a summary shot so maybe i'
take a screenshot of this View VI uh
where we're able to line a couple of
objects up I'd probably do a flat image
I would insert a screenshot of this and
just line these objects up so we've got
a sand Jun
bang this
part
here this green structure here which
shows the shadow just there and then the
building itself along here we can also
see even that top object on top of the
building emerging out of it if I go back
to my color shop you can see a little
rectangular thing on top of the
building we've also got that there so
the more you kind of look at this the
more some of the smaller features match
up so that's a wrap we've now identified
the exact location of that building
again it just shows that GE location is
not as easy as 1 2 3 it does take a
little bit of time however there are a
lot of videos and a lot of photos that
just given the attention to detail and
time are very easily verifiable in terms
of using satellite imagery to identify
perhaps where when and then also get a
wider understanding of what happened in
the region and now that we have that
location we're able to understand
perhaps what happened in the area around
here and now that we know that the
fighting happened between
2018 and 2019
we're able to see the difference on
satellite imagery then here's an image
from
2019 um if we go back even a little bit
more to when there was actually traffic
going through these roads in early
2019 looks all right go forward uh When
there's less traffic and we can start to
see the signs of Destruction in the
region this is around the time when this
area was uh starting to get destroyed
along with the side of this building in
the imagery over here we can also see
that level of Destruction happening uh
in this region so you can see all the
vehicles on the roads that very much
stopped um as time went through uh and
then the destruction really kicked in
into this area what we can also see are
these roads along here with many of the
kind of dirt Parts along the roads we've
got shipping containers along these
roads which might have been potentially
fortified position
if we go forward a little bit more we
can see more shipping containers being
put down where there might have been
defensive positions and that just kind
of gives us so much more context than
what the video captured I hope you
enjoyed this session uh if you have any
questions on any of the processes I used
the techniques I used if you have looked
at this video and maybe found some other
Solutions uh or or ways that you've
short made shortcuts or made it easier
please share them in the comments below
as it really is a learning process for
all of us still including me thank you
so much and I'll see you in the next
session