Bellingcat is a self-described "independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists using open source and social media investigation to probe a variety of subjects."[2]
While Bellingcat claims that it "does not solicit or accept funding and contributions directly from any national government"[2], their own reported income for 2021 contradicts this claim.
A 2021 Grayzone investigation uncovered 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)[1]. Additionally, a CIA official has declared that they "love" Bellingcat.[3]
With this funding, Bellingcat has promoted ShamiWitness,[4] The Islamic State's top recruiter and propagandist on Twitter, and routinely publishes propaganda against Russia[5] (i.e. in the interest of the imperial core).
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Annual Accounts 2020 [pdf"]. Bellingcat.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "About page". Bellingcat.
- ↑ "Bellingcat Can Say What U.S. Intelligence Can’t" (2020-12-17). Foreign Policy.
- ↑ "ShamiWitness: How Bellingcat and neocons collaborated with ISIS’ most influential propagandist on Twitter" (2018-10-29). The Grayzone.
- ↑ "Page on topic of Ukraine". Bellingcat.