Long Twitter thread on telecoms data to snare January 6th defendants

[steve2470]

https://twitter.com/tomiahonen

Author, consultant, motivational speaker. Biggest social media slut in mobile. A mAd vidiot, F1 fan, globetrotting digital gypsy 007 wannabe. The T Dawg

Link to tweet

very long thread here:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1453797787452297225.html

Attorney General Garland yesterday mentioned 'new' forensic methods to catch Jan 6 terrorist insurrectionists that were not commonly used prior to 2003. One is cellphone tower data. I mentioned it already on Jan 10. Let me tell this via a story

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Yes this is my core competence, I've written 12 bestselling books to the telecoms, tech & media industries including the fastest-selling telecoms book of all time. I've lectured on these topics on all 6 inhabited continents, in over 60 countries Image
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I have no intention to give a 'how to commit a perfect crime' guide-book on finer details of my industry. I will keep this broad, but everything in this Thread is 100% true. FBI went into FAR more detail than this fictional 'episode of The Wire'
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The Wire: Trump Insurrection Special 2021

Episode starts at end of Jan 6th. FBI has caught a man dressed in Oath Keeper outfit, at Capitol. He is unarmed, claims to be alone, was 'a tourist' gives his proper ID, has no cellphone. FBI interview him. Image
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When FBI ask him where is his phone, he says he forgot it at his car

They ask, where is his car. He says he parked it at Dulles airport long term parking

FBI ask him if they can search his car, he says no, you need a search warrant. They hold him Image
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Now let's find out if this guy acted in a militant cell with Oath Keepers or he wandered into Capitol building all alone. Our forensic team turns to cellular tower data. So every phone that was even briefly turned on during Jan 6th is logged Image
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By every phone, I mean every cellphone, whether smart or dumb. It does not have to have GPS functionality or it won't help if you have the tracking feature turned off. If someone could call you or text you, the network knew your phone was there Image
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My guess on scale, is that there are about 34,000 phones that were on, during the riot, at or near the Capitol building

There is a process called triangulation, by which the network knows roughly where you are, accuracy of about one city block Image
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Through triangulation, we can eliminate all who attended the Maga rally but did not enter the Capitol building. That leaves us with about 11,000 phones.

Those who work in the Capitol used their phones on days before and after Jan 6. Eliminate those Image
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Nearly anyone working in the Capitol will have 2 phones (one work, one private). Eliminate those. 4,000 x 2 = 8,000. Have 3,000 phones left

Then we have legitimate visitors with permission to be in Capitol that day. Remove those who arrived before Image
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When we remove all visitors to Capitol who arrived before Capitol was breached, another 1,000 phones, we have 2,000 phones left

Now remove the phones of the cops. say 500 were phones registered with DC & Maryland police officers. We have 1,500 left Image
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These 1,500 phones were carried by rioters who entered the Capitol. MOST of those people were NOT organized militants of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys etc. Say 800 were maga supporters who joined to storm the Capitol and 300 were ORGANIZED militants Image
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Now we go DEEPER into telecoms traffic forensics. The 800 'regular' maganutters on average carry 1.5 phones (800 x 1.5 = 1,200 phones)

The organized militants did NOT bring their own phones. They were issued 'Burner phones' (like mafia drug dealers) Image
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A regular maganutter would use his or her normal phone in a normal way. They made regular calls/texts every day, past weeks, on that phone. A 'normal' person calls during Trump speech AND sends pictures from inside the Capitol, at Nancy Pelosi's desk Image
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The Burner Phone traffic is TOTALLY different. It was NEVER used prior to Jan 6. Any calls or messages are short. The Burner is only used for a few hours, then phone disappears forever. We can see from pattern, which are Burners, which normal phones
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When we eliminate the 'normal' traffic phones (1,200) we identify and catch 800 'regular' maga rioters who trespassed, vandalized, pilfered in Capitol

That leaves us 300 Burner phones, belonging to the MILITANTS like Proud Boys, Oath Keepers etc Image
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Now let's isolate the groups. A militant cell of Proud Boys will not in any way interact during Jan 6th on their just-issued Burner phones with anyone among Oath Keepers or Boogaloo Boys or Three Percenters etc. These are 'use once' phones that day Image
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Typically the one cell of say Oath Keepers of 7 men, will not contact ANYONE outside those 7, with that set of Burner phones that day. Nobody on the outside, not their wife, not their best friend

They will ALSO not contact OTHER Oath Keeper groups Image
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'Military mission' type of communications is VERY specific pattern. One leader, others follow. The 'orders' come from the leader to the team. Usually the team do NOT respond. very often it is a single word text message (code word, or code number) Image
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So? Take first phone that only received calls or messages but did not call or send. Look who sent the message to this phone, that is team leader of this militant cell. Now look at the leader's phone traffic: you find total militant cell, all members
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Proceed through all 300 remaining phone numbers, you have identified EVERY group that could be between say 5 and 11 terrorists per militant cell. And you have identified phone of EACH leader of each cell.
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Then you connect the dots. Start with captured phones that were with a given militant. Here is a Boogaloo Boy. This is his phone number. Where is he in our list of groups? Here it is. This is a team of 6. Then go to video, ID the rest of his team Image
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Most militant teams are found this way, because in most cases there will be at least 1 member who was caught with a phone. After that a few groups remain, with no captured phones at all. But we know WHERE they were at a given time. More video ID work Image
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Now let's go back to our FBI interrogation. Perp said "Get a warrant!". FBI keeps him locked, go to judge, get search warrant, then break into his car. They find his personal smartphone. they turn it on. The battery is nearly full. Ah... That means...
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If our perp truly forgot his phone into his car, it would have drained over past few days until we got the warrant to search his car

But this phone has a near full battery. The perp had TURNED HIS PHONE OFF before he went criming with Oath Keepers
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Means he was AWARE of his guilt

Anyway, we get subpoena for his regular smartphone records for past few months. We see he's been communicating with 3 other Oath Keepers, who ALSO were found on the Capitol, also coincidentally without their own phones Image
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Next FBI see interesting phone pattern. All 4 phones were turned off on 5 Jan, in the late afternoon, very close to same time

& about 1 hour after these phones had been turned off, one un-allocated group of militant phones were momentarily turned on
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That group of 7 Burner phones were turned on all at the same Motel 6. For about 5 minutes each. That was when this group of Oath Keepers checked their equipment and each verified their equipment (Burner phone) was operational.
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The photos of the 4 Oath Keepers are brought to the Motel 6. They identify 2 of them. Check out who paid for the motel room. Paid in cash (dead end)

But now they chase the remaining 3 members. They subpoena phone records of the known 3 other members Image
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By cross-referencing phone traffic of the 4 known Oath Keepers, they see several other Oath Keepers, three of whom are in videos on Capitol near these 4 terrorists. Bingo
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FBI track where these Burner phones were sold. A 7-Eleven in Pennsylvania. Our Oath Keepers are from Virginia. On the day the phones were sold, two of these 7 had their phones travel North towards Pennsylvania, then turned off at the border

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Then at an Arby's parking lot in Penna, the 7 Burner phones were turned on, making one attempt phone call to each other (call not completed). Then all 7 phones turned off. That was when the Burner phones had phone numbers installed for the team Image
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Now we know who were the 2 who went to Pennsylvania to buy the Burner phones

Then we look for the leader. When the group of 7 is together (on video from Capitol riot) they have no reason to phone each other

The one using phone at that time is leader
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The leader of this terrorist cell will get coordination from superiors (at the Willard Hotel War Rooms). It will be on ANOTHER Burner phone. Following this group of 7 on video, we see which speaks on phone while they are together. That is the leader
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And then dangle a plea bargain. First to flip gets best deal. And take the leaders (of each cell) do the same, get them to flip oon Roger Stone or Alex Jones or Giuliani etc at the Willard Hotel.
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The above is a LITTLE bit of how it all works.

REALITY is that FIVE Oath Keepers have already confessed. At least 3 of the 5 are cooperating with Feds (Flipped on Roger Stone) This kind of forensic detective work takes time & resources

Have patience.

many images and pics in this thread, sorry, too lazy to copy and paste all of them.

[Champp]

1. K and R

This definitely would fit in the GD forum as well.

[FakeNoose]

2. Interesting article, will read in entirety later

It's quite involved in the FBI's search process. They were going through the phone records of every cellphone that was carried on U.S. Capitol grounds on 1/6/21, but he narrows it down to an essential number of "probable" criminals. How do they find them and catch them? Interesting details here.

[localroger]

3. This is why it's been taking so long

...and why the "lenient" sentences so far. They aren't interested in these little fish, even the leaders of the small groups at the Capitol. They want Roger Stone, congressmen, TFG. They are flipping the smaller fish to swim upstream. These guys don't like to lose and they won't show their hand until they have 5 aces. Then we will remember that the conviction rate for Federal prosecutions is 99% for a reason. They don't go in half-assed and unprepared. By the time they knock on your door they have already nailed you even if you don't know it yet.