A German image forensics expert has debunked the analysis of British online investigative group Bellingcat, which accused Russia of altering satellite images from the MH17 disaster. He labeled the probe “subjective” and “not based entirely on science.”
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Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed in eastern Ukraine on
July 17 last year, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew
members. Both Kiev and the eastern Ukrainian rebels placed the
blame for the disaster on each other. Kiev also claimed there
were no Ukrainian jets or anti-aircraft systems in the proximity
of the crash.
When it came to providing evidence, however, the narratives were
not so easy to back up. At the end of July, Russia’s Defense
Ministry released military monitoring data showing Kiev military
jets tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash. The
ministry also posted satellite images of nearby areas where Kiev
had had its air defense units deployed.
On the day of the crash “Ukrainian military had three or four
air defense battalions equipped with Buk-M1 SAM systems deployed
in the vicinity of Donetsk,” Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant
General Andrey Kartopolov said, describing the intelligence
gathered.
Some Western journalists have dismissed the satellite data as
“fake,” with Bellingcat going as far as conducting
an“analysis” of images.
READ MORE: MH17 probe looking for witnesses to back ‘Buk missile’ scenario
But, German image forensics expert Jens Kriese said in an
interview with Der Spiegel that it is, in
fact, not possible to tell whether the images have been
manipulated.
“From the perspective of forensics, the Bellingcat approach
is not very robust. The core of what they are doing is based on
so-called Error Level Analysis (ELA). The method is subjective
and not based entirely on science,” he told Der Spiegel.
“What Bellingcat is doing is nothing more than reading tea
leaves. Error Level Analysis is a method used by hobbyists,”
said Kriese, who is a professional image analyst and former
scientific researcher.
Must-read: report from @Bellingcat exposes faked #MH17 photos from #Russia’s Defence Ministry http://t.co/YOMnxvo3D7pic.twitter.com/MwL2CJIof6
— UK Delegation, NATO (@UKNATO) June 2, 2015
He went on to explain that ELA does not provide clear results and the conclusion is always based on the human interpretation.
Next we're thinking we'll look at the launch site and the field with track marks on July 16th, see if they're there pic.twitter.com/SUDnud4ool
— bellingcat (@bellingcat) June 2, 2015
When asked about Belliingcat’s claim that the Russians had used Photoshop to manipulate their images of Ukrainian BUK missile launchers, Kriese was skeptical.
READ MORE: Russian investigators reveal identity of key witness in MH17 crash
“The truth is, that the indication of Photoshop in the
metadata doesn’t prove anything,” he said. “Of course
the Russians had to use some sort of program in order to process
the satellite image for the presentation. They added frames and
text blocks in order to explain it to the public. The artifacts
which have been identified could be a product of that – or also a
product of saving multiple times in JPG format.”
“There is no way of knowing if the images show what Moscow is
claiming,” Kriese added. “What one can say, however, is
that this ‘analysis’ has achieved nothing besides raising
awareness of Bellingcat.”
In its report, Bellingcat accused the Russian
government of a “clear attempt to deceive the public, global
community and the families of Flight MH17 victims.”
Bellingcat’s claims were based largely on an analysis of
satellite images, performed using the website FotoForensics.com.
However, it appears that even the founder of that website is
unconvinced of the veracity of the group’s work.
Dr. Neal Krawetz is a forensic researcher who established the
Fotoforensics site. When asked on Twitter about Bellingcat’s
work, Krawetz described their efforts as “How not to do
image analysis.”
@DonDonblizz1 Honestly, I haven't even been paying attention to bellingcat. I only noticed that their report used my tool incorrectly.
— Dr. Neal Krawetz (@hackerfactor) June 5, 2015
Still, the UK-based Bellingcat group saw their report immediately
become big news among the global media, with publications
including the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Deutsche Welle reporting
their claims.
Not all the press was positive. In addition to criticism from
experts, a well-known Russian blogger Tima aka ntv also claims to
have debunked the accusations. He says he found a number of
obvious mistakes in Bellingcat’s work.
The blogger analyzed photos from Bellingcat’s own website and
said he found the same evidence of manipulation using Photoshop
as was alleged against Moscow.
He then explained that the use of Adobe Photoshop CS5 software is
actually standard method when downsizing images, which is the
most likely reason why the Russian Defense Ministry used it.
The blogger dismissed the ELA method altogether. ELA is used to
look for areas within an image that have different compression
levels – a sign that the image has been altered. Bellingcat
claimed it had discovered five such areas.
After using ELA to analyze images known to be unedited, Tima discovered a variety of different compression levels, which he said proves that this method is incoherent and cannot be trusted.
The founder of Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins, aka Brown Moses, was
invited on RT’s ‘In The Now’ show to comment on the report. He
ignored the request and turned to sarcasm on Twitter instead.
Higgins attached a Simpsons video to demonstrate how he thinks
his interview on RT would have been severely edited.
Russia Today just emailed me to ask if I'd be on their #MH17 documentary. I suspect it would be rather like this https://t.co/txiW1nJc9W
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) June 2, 2015
This is not the first time that Higgins’ work has faced severe
criticism. Back in February, the Guardian was forced to correct an article co-authored by Higgins,
who accused the Russian military of shooting at the Ukrainian
Army from inside the Russian border.
READ MORE: MH17 likely downed by old BUK-M1 missile system not used by Russia – manufacturer
This week also saw the manufacturer of the BUK missile system,
Almaz-Antey, announce that it had conducted its own investigation
into the crash of Flight MH17. The Russian defense contractor
concluded that if it was indeed an anti-aircraft missile that
brought down Flight MH17, it would most likely have been one from
the BUK-M1 system, which the company hasn’t produced since 1999.
Almaz-Antey said that Russia no longer has such weapons in
service. However, according to the company’s chief engineer,
Makhail Malyshev, back in 2005 Ukraine still possessed almost
1,000 such missiles.
The Dutch investigators have not yet finished looking into the
MH17 tragedy, but several leaks to the media appear to suggest
the BUK missile theory remains the most prevalent.
The Ukrainian authorities and the West blame the Donetsk militias
for downing the plane, saying they used a BUK surface-to-air
missile provided by Russia. The accusations have been denied by
the rebels, while Moscow has repeatedly cautioned against blaming
anyone before the investigation into the crash is completed.