The Butterfly Bureau’s OSINT Tradecraft section is where investigative skills meet real world application. This category focuses on the tools, techniques, and methodologies used by open source intelligence researchers, journalists, digital investigators, and citizen sleuths to uncover information hidden in plain sight.
Secret government watchlists and risk scores can influence who gets stopped, searched, questioned, investigated, denied a benefit, or quietly assigned extra scrutiny. Yet the affected person may never see the record, learn the rule, or receive a useful explanation. Nothing says procedural fairness quite like being judged by a spreadsheet nobody admits exists. Auditing these …
Public money rarely travels in a straight line. Congress funds an agency. The agency awards a state, city, university, or nonprofit. That recipient sends part of the award to another organization. A fiscal sponsor may then hold the money for a project that has no separate tax exemption, public filing, or obvious legal identity. By …
Digital evidence rarely disappears with a theatrical puff of smoke. It is copied, renamed, converted, moved, redacted, separated from attachments, or excluded from a production. By the time the public notices, five offices may possess five versions and everyone has developed a sudden devotion to passive voice. Reconstructing the chain of custody means documenting where …
We cannot trust the DOJ to do their jobs so now it is our responsibility. The federal government has released millions of pages connected to Jeffrey Epstein, yet serious questions remain about what was collected, withheld, removed, or buried beneath questionable redactions. A carefully written Freedom of Information Act request can help EpsteinWiki home sleuths …
Resistance Survival Guide #329 The federal government has contracts. It has grants. It has cooperative agreements. Then it has Other Transaction Agreements, a category whose name sounds as though somebody forgot to finish the form. Other Transaction Agreements can help agencies develop prototypes, conduct research, work with companies that avoid traditional federal contracting, and move …
Resistance Survival Guide #328 Interagency programs sound impressively coordinated when officials announce them. Several departments will combine expertise, share resources, eliminate duplication, and deliver one seamless government response. There may even be a diagram featuring circles, arrows, and the word synergy behaving suspiciously. Then something fails. Suddenly, the lead agency was only coordinating. The funding …
Governments make international commitments through treaties, executive agreements, memoranda of understanding, joint declarations, security arrangements, diplomatic notes, side letters, and documents wearing titles so harmless they sound like office supply requests. Some create legally binding obligations. Others carry political or moral weight without creating legal obligations. Both can influence foreign policy, military cooperation, migration, trade, …
Congress approves money. The president signs the legislation. Officials announce that help is on the way. Then the money enters the federal budget system and develops the survival instincts of a frightened house cat. Months later, communities are still waiting. Grants have not opened. Contracts have not been awarded. Agencies refuse to explain the delay. …
When politicians announce billions in savings, do not applaud until you inspect the arithmetic, the contracts, and the suspiciously empty space where the receipts should be. Government officials love announcing savings. Savings sound responsible. Savings sound efficient. Savings fit beautifully inside a social media graphic designed for people who will never ask whether the money …
Resistance Survival Guide #324 Government rules always sound wonderfully firm when officials announce them. Everyone must comply. Standards will be enforced. Exceptions will be rare. Accountability has arrived wearing a sensible blazer. Then someone finds the waiver process. Waivers and exemptions are not automatically corrupt. Governments need limited flexibility for emergencies, unusual circumstances, genuine hardship, …