[AvenueIngres]

/pol/:/sg/ helped the Russian airforce identify rebels positions in Syria and destroy them. It is not all bullshit at all; there is a significant proportion of it that is undeniably childish garbage but there is the occasional gem as well.

[cryoshon]

source? if true, this would be a troubling precedent in the use of third party analysis in conducting military operations

[AvenueIngres]

I occasionally lurk on 4chan (in particular /sg/ since they aggregate lots of data regarding the Syrian civil war) and I witnessed this one particular event first hand. Now I understand that this is not a verifiable source but I found this as well, that sums-up the whole thing: http://2static.fjcdn.com/pictures/4chan+pol+sg+orders+an+air...

I don't think you will be able to find anything better than that to "prove" it happened.

[astrodust]

Giving military "intel" from 4chan is absolutely insane. These were the same people that thought they'd conclusively identified the Boston Marathon bomber, but were totally wrong.

[niftich]

I'm pretty sure that was Reddit [1]

[1] http://wayback.archive-it.org/3649/20130422194045/http://www...

[sixo]

Just for the record, reddit ran with it after picking it up from (I think) the police scanner.

[niftich]

This is true. I remember firsthand the #scanner hashtag on Twitter and various re-streamers broadcasting the scanner online, as CNN and other outlets were trying to confirm facts and keep up coverage.

It was a surreal experience, and it showed both the strengths and weaknesses of crowdsourced tweets as "news". You get a lot of info, about how people think and feel but the facts being thrown about can be faulty and need to be confirmed independently. It wasn't until the unfortunate events in Ferguson a year and a half later than a similar kind and intensity of social media coverage ensued.

[astrodust]

I'm sure 4chan is held to a higher standard.

[AvenueIngres]

It's not like they could send UAVs to verify if the claims are legit? It's literally written on the screenshot that the Russians sent drones; and Ivan is obviously a Russian intelligence officer. Breathe!

[astrodust]

Russians have demonstrated time and time again they will shoot first and ask questions later, and many times they don't even bother asking questions.

US intelligence is not always as rigorous, either, don't get me wrong, but the Russians in Syria seem to have very loose definitions of what qualifies as a target.

[konart]

https://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/4deu8r/pol_helps_coo...

Can't find a better source. But this was the second time RuAF bombed the rebles camp after third party analysis (might be a coincidence ofc). There was a different image with Russian MoD's report on the matter.

[v64]

Not sure how much of this, if any, has been corroborated, but this [1] is a description of the events.

[1] http://www.vocativ.com/326039/how-one-4chan-board-is-trying-...