The Boat Watchers

Governments can’t lie like they used to. The wall between classified and public information has gotten more porous, and these netizens are keeping close track of what leaks through.

All warfare is deception. But the military can't deceive its enemies without also deceiving the people its tasked to protect. Today, we look at a community taking information anyone can get on the internet, and  using it to keep track of global trade and geopolitical conflicts. Some of them are hobbyists, some have "tried to take what [they] do for a hobby and turn it into a living."

On Today's Show:

- Arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis, reflects on the ramp up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and whether we'd be better equipped today to scrutinize the government's narrative.

- Then, an example in which OSINT (open source intelligence) researchers watched an international scuffle between the UK and Iran in real time, and pieced together what happened before either government confirmed anything had happened. Eric Moreno, an OSINT researcher and former Navy submariner talks about the importance and instability of the Strait of Hormuz, and why Iran likes to capture oil tankers.

- Finally, a look inside the OSINT community. OSINT researcher Steffan Watkins, along with Moreno and Lewis weigh in on what they do, how they do it and why? Watkins track a shipment of ballistic missiles from Russia to Algeria and the symbiotic relationship he has with photography nerds and military modeling nerds around the world. Jeffrey brings an example where a trucker on Facebook helped him solve a mystery he was working on about North Korea's nuclear program.