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Eliot Higgins (born 1979), who previously used the pseudonym Brown Moses, is a British citizen journalist and blogger, known for using open sources and social media to investigate the Syrian Civil War, 2014–15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. He first gained mainstream media attention by identifying weapons in uploaded videos from the Syrian conflict. ==Life and work== Eliot Higgins was born in 1979.〔 In 2012, when Higgins began blogging the Syrian civil war, he was an unemployed finance and admin worker who spent his days taking care of his child at home.〔 He is married to a Turkish woman with one child. Higgins took the pseudonym Brown Moses from the Frank Zappa song "Brown Moses" on the album ''Thing-Fish''.〔 Higgins' analyses of Syrian weapons, which began as a hobby out of his home in his spare time, are now frequently cited by the press and human rights groups and have led to questions in parliament.〔 His blog, Brown Moses Blog, began in March 2012 by covering the Syrian conflict. Higgins operates by monitoring over 450 YouTube channels daily looking for images of weapons and tracking when new types appear in the war, where, and with whom.〔 According to Guardian reporter Matthew Weaver, Higgins has been "hailed as something of a pioneer" for his work.〔 Higgins has no background or training in weapons and is entirely self-taught, saying that "Before the Arab spring I knew no more about weapons than the average Xbox owner. I had no knowledge beyond what I'd learned from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rambo."〔 Higgins does not speak or read Arabic.〔 Higgins is credited with being among the first to report on the widespread use of improvised barrel bombs by the Syrian government, a phenomenon which has spread to other troubled nations such as Iraq to combat insurgencies and opposition forces. Other aspects of the Syrian conflict uncovered and documented by Higgins include the use of cluster bombs in 2012, which the Syrian government previously denied using; the proliferation of shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles known as MANPADS; and the proliferation of Croatian-made weapons which was reportedly connected to the United States, a story later picked up by ''The New York Times''.〔 He has also investigated the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons, including the Ghouta chemical attack in detail. Theodore Postol, a professor at MIT, and Richard Lloyd, a former UN weapons inspector, criticised some aspects of Higgins's work. Higgins used geolocation to publish an estimate of where the James Foley execution video was made outside Raqqa, an Islamic State stronghold in north-central Syria. Higgins used visual markers in stills from the video and his interpretation of satellite images of the terrain around Raqqa. In 2015, Higgins partnered with the Atlantic Council to co-author the report (Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin's War in Ukraine ) which examined direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine. The report was the inspiration for the documentary (Selfie Soldiers ) in which Vice News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky followed digital traces left by a Russian soldier named Bato Dambaev who was sent to fight in Eastern Ukraine. In June 2015 on the invitation of former Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, Higgins together with his report co-author Atlantic Council's Maks Czuperski presented Hiding in Plain Sight at the European Parliament alongside Russian opposition figure Ilya Yashin and former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://alde.livecasts.eu/eu-launch-boris-nemtsov-atlantic-council )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eliot Higgins」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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