An unemployed British blogger, at home with his newborn daughter, becomes a leading journalist on the Syrian conflict. Not knowing Arabic nor any local contacts, he analyzed thousands of hours of war footage uploaded to the internet. He learned to recognize shrapnel manufacturing patterns and sun shadow angles to determine not only the weapons maker but often the origin point of a launch. On site investigations repeatedly validated his work. A captivating read from 2013. Archive.is - full text
Rocket Man
How an unemployed blogger confirmed that Syria had used chemical weapons.
newyorker.com