A few days ago I posted a USAF warning transmission targeted at Libyan ships. Somebody had picked that transmission off the ether, recorded it and put it on the internet. It turns out that somebody was a Dutch guy called Huub. This digital forensics manager in Hilversum has spent all of his freetime in the last 25 years on tracking down air movements of military aircraft. During the current war in Libya he is spending 16 hours a day monitoring the positions and movements of the allied warplanes. Wired has a story on this former member of the Dutch military, in which he explains his methods:

“I just combine the global and free information on the Internet with my local received information from the ether,” Huub e-mails Danger Room. “[My] main goal to listen to this communication is to listen to ‘the truth,’ without any military or political propaganda.”

(…)

“I do not simply listen to ATC [air traffic control] or NATO frequencies,” he says. Instead, he monitors everything from aircraft transponder data to IRC chatrooms to pinpoint his planes. “I use a combination of live listening with local equipment, audio streaming, video streaming, datamining, intelligence, analyzing and the general knowledge of ATC procedures, communication, encryption, call signs, frequencies and a lot of experience on this!”

For this he uses his computer and simple handheld radiogear which costs no more than a couple of hundred dollars. He shares his findings on Twitter, which raises the question: is he putting fighter pilots and the general mission in danger? Maybe he should wait a few hours before tweeting his discoveries?

The Wired article ends with:

And that shows just how easily average folks can now gather intelligence in ways once reserved for the best-funded spy agencies. Online sleuths now use Google Earth to find everything from North Korea’s launch facilities to Pakistan’s drone bases. Plane-spotters scoured tail numbers to uncover the CIA’s torture flights. So it’s no wonder that the sounds of this newest air war are being broadcast online — even before the planes return to their airstrips.

Some recent tweets bij Huub (@FMCNL):

More on Huub and another Dutch radio amateur called Dirk de Jager who is doing similar stuff at The Guardian, NOS and RNW (last two in Dutch).

- Edit: An Italian guy called David Cenciotti (@cencio4) is doing similar work and he posts a daily overview of all the actions of the allied forces in Operation Oddysey Dawn, including a detailed gathering of daily fly ops, ship movements and military buildup. He puts all this data into a stratigical and military-historical perspective. Very interesting!