Aric TolerVerified account

@AricToler

Eastern Europe/Eurasia lead researcher and trainer at

Kansas City, MO
bellingcat.com/author/arictol…
Joined May 2014
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  1. 31 minutes ago

    -A lot of outlets (I'm looking at you, Ukrainian news outlets) are reporting this photo as definitely real. Nope! -Original source of first photo suspended on Twitter; he said he got it from a local on WhatsApp -Would be massive development if verified, but so far, nothing solid

    3 replies 6 retweets 25 likes
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  2. 34 minutes ago

    Summary / tl;dr: -We have two photos of the Tor missile fragment, both showing the same object/place -Photos are allegedly in Parand, likely in a residential area & not necessarily near the crash site -Photos were allegedly sent by locals on WhatsApp -Not yet geolocated/verified

    3 replies 13 retweets 19 likes
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  3. 52 minutes ago

    The third picture is just the first one, but rotated, put through a color filter, and cropped.

    This is now very suspicious. There are now 3 different images not previously found online before and allegedly from Parand - where lost contact - of a 9M330 missile's seeker part from a Tor SAM system like Iran…
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    6 retweets 36 likes
  4. 1 hour ago

    Dozens are people are pointing this out, but these irrigation canal/barrier things are *everywhere* around this area. That's like pointing out that there's a paved road or rock near the crash site, just like in the pic with the rocket part.

    Replying to @bellingcat @Liberalist_30
    The picture is related to where the plane fell. See this photo and the first seconds of this video.
    8 replies 9 retweets 21 likes
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  5. 2 hours ago

    Well, this is getting a bit more interesting! Definitely seems like the same part and location, with the plastic/matte food tray (?) moved a bit. Some very minute details match up, as seen here. I thought this photo was old/recycled, but now I'm unsure.

    8 replies 14 retweets 30 likes
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  6. Retweeted
    18 hours ago

    One underrated internet story is the election causing hordes of maga people who know fuck all about the internet to struggle their way on to social media en masse

    31 replies 215 retweets 2,974 likes
  7. 18 hours ago

    Ashkan DMed me and said that it was taken in Parand, in front of an apartment.

    12 replies 5 retweets 32 likes
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  8. 20 hours ago

    This is probably just him falling for a really bad ransomware attempt, but I'd rather think that Shaq hates the NYT op-ed section

    2 replies 5 retweets 46 likes
  9. 20 hours ago

    The Epstein suicide / "suicide" of airline disasters

    6 replies 7 retweets 43 likes
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  10. 20 hours ago

    Relevant:

    0:38
    An initial assessment by Western intelligence has said that the Ukrainian airliner in Iran was not brought down by a missile, but actually suffered a technical malfunctio…
    5 replies 14 retweets 32 likes
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  11. 21 hours ago

    Supposedly in Shahriar (north of the crash site/airport), so start digging around there.

    Image is taken by a citizen journalist in & is sent for who uploaded for first time on here 👇
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    3 replies 8 retweets 19 likes
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  12. 21 hours ago

    (Personally: I am leaning towards this being a recycled photo, taken from Telegram or Whatsapp and previous taken in a different incident/country. The source is not at all trustworthy)

    6 replies 17 retweets 90 likes
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  13. 21 hours ago

    Until we hear more from on where he got the photo from, best chance to verify the photo is through the concrete irrigation barriers, and (outside chance) this piece of trash. I guess a plastic food container? Can probably figure out the brand from the design.

    22 replies 28 retweets 73 likes
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  14. 22 hours ago

    In particular, gathered a ton of photos/videos back in 2015 of used Tor-M missiles in eastern Ukraine, without any matches to this one (though they obviously look very similar)

    3 replies 5 retweets 28 likes
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  15. 22 hours ago

    For what it's worth, I've tried a ton of ways to reverse search images to find this same photo but no luck so far. It could be geolocated (theoretically) from the details in the photo, or seen in other imagery / videos (e.g. drone footage of the crash site?)

    4 replies 12 retweets 50 likes
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  16. 22 hours ago

    Not sure where Ashkan got the photo from, but this is the patient zero for the Twitter shares. An old tweet from (found by ) shows a similar fragment from a missile used in 2015 in Donetsk. Again, no clue where orig pic came from.

    Такой подарочек прилетел на ДМЗ от рашистов вечером 05/10/15
    4 replies 30 retweets 69 likes
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  17. 22 hours ago

    This is the original source of the photo being passed around, it was allegedly found near the PS752 flight. Speculation that it's a Tor-M (Russian air defense system used by Iran )

    This Tweet is unavailable.
    16 replies 156 retweets 220 likes
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  18. Jan 7

    (This photo has been confirmed as real, you can ignore all of the boring verification/geolocation talk below unless you want to dig around some yourself)

    1 reply 4 retweets 12 likes
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  19. Jan 7

    Gut-wrenching to see the anticipated arrival on Flightaware, with an imaginary trajectory about to 'arrive' in Boryspil.

    2 replies 7 retweets 19 likes
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  20. Jan 7

    (Obviously, it's very possible there was just a real technical error, either from some bizarre indirect factor related to last night's events or a cosmic coincidence. But it's hard to wrap my mind around this being a completely random technical issue for a new Boeing plane)

    6 replies 6 retweets 43 likes
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  21. Jan 7

    If (a very, very big if) Iran did shoot down this plane on accident, hopefully they quickly take responsibility and not drag this out. Both Russia (MH17) and America (655) have had some issues with that, and especially with MH17, it's a serious emotional toll on victims' families

    2 replies 14 retweets 39 likes
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  22. Jan 7

    More:

    اخبار غیر رسمی از محل حادثه سقوط: همه مسافران پرواز شماره PS752 خطوط هوایی بین المللی اوکراین، جان باختند.
    3 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
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  23. Jan 7

    New crash photos showing it actually in town -- likely in eastern/southeastern Parand (see 35.485220, 50.956283 -ish)

    Updated photos of air crash flight
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    6 replies 10 retweets 17 likes
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  24. Jan 7

    This one seems to fit much more nicely with the color and with nearby paths that could match the camera position

    Replying to @AricToler
    There is another blue roof building, closer to where the flight path ends 35.486201, 50.952178
    1 reply 2 retweets 10 likes
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  25. Jan 7

    Biggest issue is trying to figure out a path/road that the photo was taken from with this perspective of the roof, any ideas?

    3 replies 2 retweets 10 likes
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  26. Jan 7

    A few people have sent me this spot -- looks promising

    1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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  27. Jan 7

    (Unrelated, but neat snap here of a flight during takeoff with the motion captured)

    1 reply 2 retweets 16 likes
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  28. Jan 7

    This industrial park is the most promising on first glance, but a total mess to figure out the right one

    2 replies 1 retweet 7 likes
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  29. Jan 7

    No clue on the date of that Gmaps layer, so check Google Earth as well for what may be a newer image.

    1 reply 2 retweets 9 likes
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  30. Jan 7

    If you want to look, zoom and scour

    1 reply 4 retweets 12 likes
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  31. Jan 7

    Unconfirmed photo of the crash site outside of Tehran. Could geolocate it to confirm, especially with the blue-roofed building. Last ping was in vicinity of 35.501609, 50.925865 headed northwest, so search around that radius. Direct link to orig resolution

    11 replies 80 retweets 117 likes
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  32. Retweeted
    Jan 7

    This appears to be a video of the Ukranian passenger airplane that crashed just outside of Tehran International. This doesn't look good.

    56 replies 891 retweets 891 likes
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  33. Jan 7

    "Technical issues" Yeeeeeah. Well, it happened after takeoff (Tehran --> Kyiv)

    3 replies 5 retweets 15 likes
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  34. Jan 7

    Ukraine Air 752 (PS752)

    Reports: plane with 180 passengers aboard crashes near 's Imam Khomeini Airport due to technical issues
    9 replies 38 retweets 50 likes
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  35. Retweeted
    22 Jan 2019

    President Trump lies with a passion — it’s a pathology, writes . But here’s an uncomfortable truth: Donald Trump probably represents the best hope that we’ve had since 9/11 to actually end some of these forever wars.

    Trump Is a Liar — but He May Be Our Best Hope to End U.S. Forever Wars
    The mere possibility of ending some of these forever wars is worth our time and effort even if Donald Trump is the president.
    585 replies 332 retweets 727 likes
  36. Jan 7

    Sorry, I only trust people who use Yahoo Answers, like Bill Mitchell

    2 replies 23 likes
  37. Jan 7

    Some happy news instead of Iran horror: in honor of Duncan Hunter resigning from Congress today, the best and only thing to read about him, via --

    4 retweets 21 likes
  38. Jan 7

    An interesting trend that jumps out here is how important the medium of investigation is in Russia, for a million different reasons that include the rise in citizen activism, low cost of digital publishing, and necessity from carousel of media outlets being hijacked/seized.

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  39. Jan 7

    Really neat piece from surveying the evolution of Russian investigative journalism over the last decade, from some Livejournal blogger named Navalny, to (not to brag) / digital investigations, to new Telegram channels

    1 reply 10 retweets 29 likes
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  40. Jan 7

    Really interesting piece here on Yandex's facial recognition capabilities. I also added an extra update to my now dreadfully out-of-date SearchFace (which morphed into FindClone) guide, if you're curious:

    New blog post about how Yandex works now as facial recognition of anyone with a photo on the web. It's kind of creepy and kind of cool. This post is an elaboration of 's recent…
    1 reply 11 retweets 32 likes