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Volunteer open source investigators are taking part in the largest investigative operation in US history. One of them tells.
The pictures from January 6, 2021 are frightening. Trump supporters storm the Houses of Parliament. Some attack police officers, smash windows, break into the Capitol. There are dead. Forrest Rogers reacts quickly when he sees these images. “When I woke up on January 7th, I realized the extent of the destruction and what a monumental job it would be to identify so many perpetrators.”
Legend:
Exactly two years ago, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. They wanted to prevent the official result of the 2020 presidential election from being confirmed in parliament.
Keystone/AP, John Minchillo
Rogers was confident he could use his skills to help. “Many have filmed themselves and others in front of and in the Capitol and shared the videos on social media. I started searching the internet for these videos and backing them up on January 7th.”
Sisyphean labor on the Internet
Rogers is an investigative journalist specializing in open source research. He knows how to find and evaluate publicly available data on the Internet. Photos and videos on social media, for example. He and many others from this so-called Osint scene get together after January 6th.
Almost obsessively, the Osint investigators analyze an enormous mass of footage. They focus on those who used violence or invaded the Capitol on January 6th. If they clearly identify them, they report them to the federal police, the FBI.
Legend:
Trump supporters before the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Keystone/AP/John Minchillo
As an example from Osint’s research, Rodgers cites a woman who invaded the Capitol, who was initially mistaken for a leader. “She was wearing a pink hat,” the investigative journalist recalls. “We searched many hours of video. As soon as we saw the cap, we stopped. Here’s how we found other clues: She had a special jacket, a special iPhone case. We used that to create a profile of her and found videos of previous political rallies where she had been – and where she gave her first name and where she lives.”
This led to one result: the Osint investigators found a picture in the local media. It showed the woman at an event in her hometown of Pennsylvania. The caption gave her full name. The woman in the pink hat was identified. She was later arrested.
Rogers is a prominent, very active figure in this Osint scene in the first phase after January 6th. He identifies a man who attacked a police officer with a stun gun on January 6. And he can prove that another police officer was repeatedly attacked and injured. This led to him later taking his own life.
Osint investigators are supporting the FBI
Today the German-American journalist works for the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. Other Osint investigators would continue to search until today. Rogers admires her: “It’s all volunteer work. Some use their resources to identify people even after two years.”
Legend:
Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested since January 6, 2021 for taking part in the storming of the Capitol. It is the largest investigation in US history.
Keystone/AP, Jose Luis Magana
The Osint investigators’ scene identified hundreds, if not thousands, of people who took part in the storming of the Capitol. Many were arrested. But the abundance of evidence has pushed the judiciary to its limits, says Rogers.
The Osint scene identified a man who is still at large today. “We have known who he is since March 2021 – with 100% certainty. He was violent. He hit a press photographer and used anti-bear spray on police officers. He is well known in his community, he is also highly respected there.” Rogers is irritated that a year and a half after Jan. 6, 2021, the man was still able to post vacation photos to Facebook or photos from his son’s wedding.
Here lies the limit of Osint’s work: the scene can determine, identify people. In the end, however, the police must act. Rogers can only hope that the federal police will soon be at the door of this long-identified man.