Wow, just wow. This story was very eye opening about personal information on the internet and how accessible it is to track someone down. At the same time, this channel is certainly putting you at personal risk. Any story you post could have you stepping on a proverbial land mine. Carrying personal protection is one thing, but if you uncover some state level operation, a firearm isn’t going to keep you alive. I do appreciate what you do, but I do worry about your personal safety.
Ryan, anyone who tries to fuck with you would do well to remember Omar Little:
"Come at the king, you best not miss."
Kidding aside, stay safe, sir. Big fan and admirer. And also a fellow "The Wire" fan. Username is a reference to the great Jimmy McNulty (circa his legendary bender, mid-Season 2)
I don't know about snipers specifically but the IDF does train aiming for the legs as part of it's detainment protocol (if the hostile refuses verbal warnings and does not stop after a warning shot - shoot at the legs. If that for whatever reason does not stop him either - center mass).
The point of it being to prioritize keeping the hostile alive for detainment and interrogation.
Bear in mind these are instructions I received back in 2012 as part of pulling base security, not an active warzone.
What you describe is part of the IDF protocol for dealing with a suspect figure approaching (nohal ma'atsar hashud = Protocol for stopping\arresting a suspect).
1. Shout :"stop and identify yourself!".
2. If he does not stop, repeat the sentence.
3. shout "stop or I will shoot!".
4. aim the weapon at the person.
5, shoot in the air.
6. shoot for his legs.
7. shoot for center of the body.
This is probably not something snipers do as they are not dealing with suspect figures approaching them, and even if they would they would probably use light weapon and not their sniper rifle.
Yeah, that is what I was describing specifically. I just brought it up as an optional reason as to why he was receiving conflicting answers regarding shooting the lower body or upper body / center mass.
An independent school teacher who uses your content to help educate and create critical thinkers in my 7th grade US history class. They are all up to speed on the terms Seeding, Harvesting, and Amplification, and the other day there was a student that told another student not to amplify a rumor about a fellow classmate, because, "that what they want you to do." What you are doing matters, and it is the rebar that is helping to secure the foundation of this nation. With great gratitude, Gordon.
Was curious if the doctor's cell phone showed the same movement patterns in the US while he was supposed to be in Gaza, or if they changed (maybe left at home or if off, then was powered down during the trip). But if the pattern didn't change.......
Very interesting piece, Ryan. As a Palestinian sympathizer (in a general sense) and someone who has spent time in greater Israel and Gaza as a journalist, I was immediately suspicious of what I thought was a hit piece by you against some brave doctor aiding the suffering Palestinians.
But when I read the piece, I thought it smelled wrong and the five children shot in the head was one of several places where I thought the writing just felt propagandistic. Why five kids with unlikely wounds when one would be horrific enough, and I am also aware of what kind of damage a sniper round would do to somebody's head. Other parts of the article just felt like odd hyperbole when most people who write about genuine combat situations have enough horrible details to write about without hyping the narrative. It just felt fake. Patients don't "whisper their stories" from the gurney while being wheeled into the operating room. Sounds fake. A saw made of barbed wire? So I think your instincts were right to look into this and your detective work is fascinating. Very surprised the LA Times would run this without looking into a little more carefully but Palestinian sympathizers are everywhere...
As an aside regarding Israeli snipers, I know for a fact (because I personally interviewed survivors) that during the second Intifada, Israeli police used snipers to kill teenagers leading a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm. Keep in mind that we are talking about voting Arab citizens of Israel in a non-violent demonstration, not wild eyed West Bank teenagers throwing firebombs. In further reporting we learned that this was a technique the police had learned from the IDF who used snipers to kill the leaders of demonstrations on the Temple Mount, near the Aqua Mosque. Again, leaders of demonstrations, not combatants. Now, to be somewhat fair, the second Intifada was the one in which Palestinians used terror suicide bombings on busses and restaurants that killed a lot of Israelis, and the Israelis considered themselves to be in a state of war. But shooting your own citizens in a non-violent demonstration is playing what you might call hard ball in the extreme.
Ryan! Excellent video, thanks for bringing up all the anomalies, and there's a lot of them, even I spotted some of them, especially the "sniper/children story."
The Guy in a bathrobe beats the Los Angeles Times ... again! Is factchecking not a thing in California any longer? Is this like fat-shaming? If you check facts, than you are biased against liars? A Liar-phobe ... who would want to be called that? In California, you might get cancelled for that nowadays.
That’s just it, I know that the editorial side and the journal inside are usually firewall the newspapers. I don’t know what the fact checking standards are for the opinion side of the LA Times, because they won’t tell me.
Why bother to fact check, it takes time and costs money. This guy offered a story and is not on the normal payroll so if his facts are wrong it is not the companies fault and they can just say it wasnt our article. Charles
Some "journalists" and pundits still claim the 2020 POTUS election was stolen in spite of more than 60 court cases claiming substantial voter fraud getting thrown out for lack of evidence back in 2020. It is unfortunate that newspapers didn't fact check that they, the organization running the relief effort, and the doctor himself have not responded to inquiries from Ryan. the good guys are supposed to post retractions when they drop the ball like this.
As a physician, I don’t find the fact that a plastic surgeon would claim to have done amputations all that unusual. Remember, he had training as a vascular surgeon and vascular surgeons are definitely trained in (non-traumatic) amputations. I’m not sure a vascular or plastic surgeon would truly recognize a sniper shot and may simply be attributing head wounds to a sniper, when in fact, if it occurred, more likely came from some other source. A trauma surgeon might recognize the differences , however.
This is not to detract from all the other well-made points. Based on what you’ve presented, I too would be quite skeptical about this man’s story.
The information from Ryan's report indicate that the doctor did six years in a general surgery program followed by a vascular surgery fellowship before he did a two year plastic's program. A general surgeon is well trained to do amputations, and if he's a reconstructive plastic surgeon rather than just a cosmetic plastic surgeon, he'd do amputations and flap reconstructions as well. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility for a doctor with that kind of training to do traumatic amputations.
Ryan, can you give us your analysis of the relief truck debacle? Also, though it's not no it's not your wheelhouse, any opinion on whether Israel has an obligation as an occupying power to provide security for such relief vehicles?
This is absolute gold-star content. As this is an extremely serious and impactful work of investigative journalism, I really don't tink it should be a substack exclusive.
Great video, Ryan. Would love to see videos on the "that's another video" topics... :-)
Awesome video, Ryan. Watching you systematically debunk a propaganda piece is truly sublime. You are one of my current heros! 😅
Wow, just wow. This story was very eye opening about personal information on the internet and how accessible it is to track someone down. At the same time, this channel is certainly putting you at personal risk. Any story you post could have you stepping on a proverbial land mine. Carrying personal protection is one thing, but if you uncover some state level operation, a firearm isn’t going to keep you alive. I do appreciate what you do, but I do worry about your personal safety.
We all gotta die sometime Red - Staff Sergeant Barnes
Ryan, anyone who tries to fuck with you would do well to remember Omar Little:
"Come at the king, you best not miss."
Kidding aside, stay safe, sir. Big fan and admirer. And also a fellow "The Wire" fan. Username is a reference to the great Jimmy McNulty (circa his legendary bender, mid-Season 2)
Be well.
I don't know about snipers specifically but the IDF does train aiming for the legs as part of it's detainment protocol (if the hostile refuses verbal warnings and does not stop after a warning shot - shoot at the legs. If that for whatever reason does not stop him either - center mass).
The point of it being to prioritize keeping the hostile alive for detainment and interrogation.
Bear in mind these are instructions I received back in 2012 as part of pulling base security, not an active warzone.
What you describe is part of the IDF protocol for dealing with a suspect figure approaching (nohal ma'atsar hashud = Protocol for stopping\arresting a suspect).
1. Shout :"stop and identify yourself!".
2. If he does not stop, repeat the sentence.
3. shout "stop or I will shoot!".
4. aim the weapon at the person.
5, shoot in the air.
6. shoot for his legs.
7. shoot for center of the body.
This is probably not something snipers do as they are not dealing with suspect figures approaching them, and even if they would they would probably use light weapon and not their sniper rifle.
Yeah, that is what I was describing specifically. I just brought it up as an optional reason as to why he was receiving conflicting answers regarding shooting the lower body or upper body / center mass.
Would that also apply to snipers? My understanding is they wouldn’t be interacting close up with their targets.
Like I said, I don't know about our snipers. The information about the legs being targeted may be from that doctrine in general.
Thanks.
I LOVE this piece. This is why I pay. Debunking misinformation is extremely important these days.
I learn So much from these breakdown videos. This is why I signed up for a full year. Great job Ryan as always. Keep them coming!
An independent school teacher who uses your content to help educate and create critical thinkers in my 7th grade US history class. They are all up to speed on the terms Seeding, Harvesting, and Amplification, and the other day there was a student that told another student not to amplify a rumor about a fellow classmate, because, "that what they want you to do." What you are doing matters, and it is the rebar that is helping to secure the foundation of this nation. With great gratitude, Gordon.
Was curious if the doctor's cell phone showed the same movement patterns in the US while he was supposed to be in Gaza, or if they changed (maybe left at home or if off, then was powered down during the trip). But if the pattern didn't change.......
Very interesting piece, Ryan. As a Palestinian sympathizer (in a general sense) and someone who has spent time in greater Israel and Gaza as a journalist, I was immediately suspicious of what I thought was a hit piece by you against some brave doctor aiding the suffering Palestinians.
But when I read the piece, I thought it smelled wrong and the five children shot in the head was one of several places where I thought the writing just felt propagandistic. Why five kids with unlikely wounds when one would be horrific enough, and I am also aware of what kind of damage a sniper round would do to somebody's head. Other parts of the article just felt like odd hyperbole when most people who write about genuine combat situations have enough horrible details to write about without hyping the narrative. It just felt fake. Patients don't "whisper their stories" from the gurney while being wheeled into the operating room. Sounds fake. A saw made of barbed wire? So I think your instincts were right to look into this and your detective work is fascinating. Very surprised the LA Times would run this without looking into a little more carefully but Palestinian sympathizers are everywhere...
As an aside regarding Israeli snipers, I know for a fact (because I personally interviewed survivors) that during the second Intifada, Israeli police used snipers to kill teenagers leading a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm. Keep in mind that we are talking about voting Arab citizens of Israel in a non-violent demonstration, not wild eyed West Bank teenagers throwing firebombs. In further reporting we learned that this was a technique the police had learned from the IDF who used snipers to kill the leaders of demonstrations on the Temple Mount, near the Aqua Mosque. Again, leaders of demonstrations, not combatants. Now, to be somewhat fair, the second Intifada was the one in which Palestinians used terror suicide bombings on busses and restaurants that killed a lot of Israelis, and the Israelis considered themselves to be in a state of war. But shooting your own citizens in a non-violent demonstration is playing what you might call hard ball in the extreme.
Thanks again for the very good work you do.
Ryan! Excellent video, thanks for bringing up all the anomalies, and there's a lot of them, even I spotted some of them, especially the "sniper/children story."
The Guy in a bathrobe beats the Los Angeles Times ... again! Is factchecking not a thing in California any longer? Is this like fat-shaming? If you check facts, than you are biased against liars? A Liar-phobe ... who would want to be called that? In California, you might get cancelled for that nowadays.
That’s just it, I know that the editorial side and the journal inside are usually firewall the newspapers. I don’t know what the fact checking standards are for the opinion side of the LA Times, because they won’t tell me.
LA Times seems to be a source for *a lot* of these controversial and questionable (or partially false) articles.
Seen this about electrification, Russia vs Ukraine and now this.
Perhaps they are intentionally allowing this to drive engagement (or to push their own goal).
Why bother to fact check, it takes time and costs money. This guy offered a story and is not on the normal payroll so if his facts are wrong it is not the companies fault and they can just say it wasnt our article. Charles
Some "journalists" and pundits still claim the 2020 POTUS election was stolen in spite of more than 60 court cases claiming substantial voter fraud getting thrown out for lack of evidence back in 2020. It is unfortunate that newspapers didn't fact check that they, the organization running the relief effort, and the doctor himself have not responded to inquiries from Ryan. the good guys are supposed to post retractions when they drop the ball like this.
To be fair, I've seen some loony op-eds in the NYTs as well. Wait, I'm not sure there are any fact-checking standards for op-ed authors!
Always great analysis.
As a physician, I don’t find the fact that a plastic surgeon would claim to have done amputations all that unusual. Remember, he had training as a vascular surgeon and vascular surgeons are definitely trained in (non-traumatic) amputations. I’m not sure a vascular or plastic surgeon would truly recognize a sniper shot and may simply be attributing head wounds to a sniper, when in fact, if it occurred, more likely came from some other source. A trauma surgeon might recognize the differences , however.
This is not to detract from all the other well-made points. Based on what you’ve presented, I too would be quite skeptical about this man’s story.
The information from Ryan's report indicate that the doctor did six years in a general surgery program followed by a vascular surgery fellowship before he did a two year plastic's program. A general surgeon is well trained to do amputations, and if he's a reconstructive plastic surgeon rather than just a cosmetic plastic surgeon, he'd do amputations and flap reconstructions as well. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility for a doctor with that kind of training to do traumatic amputations.
Ryan, can you give us your analysis of the relief truck debacle? Also, though it's not no it's not your wheelhouse, any opinion on whether Israel has an obligation as an occupying power to provide security for such relief vehicles?
This is why I subscribe to the substack! Can't get this analysis from anyone else. Well done!!
This is absolute gold-star content. As this is an extremely serious and impactful work of investigative journalism, I really don't tink it should be a substack exclusive.
Selfnote: "Never, not once, upset Ryan..."