National Defense

EXCLUSIVE: Open-Source Intelligence Creator Explains Why His Job Keeps The World Honest

Dennis Jarvis. https://www.flickr.com/

As open-source intelligence — commonly referred to as OSINT — has rapidly become a key feature of modern warfare, the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively interviewed a prominent creator to learn why these researchers push the boundaries of publicly available information.

The creator, Aryan, known online as GEOIMINT, recently unveiled one of his creations, a map of Israel’s full air defense system, which is up to date as of Oct. 19, 2026. Aryan said that this is a passion of his that he pursues without political affiliation, and that he has done this for many other countries.

“It’s more of a passion because I’ve done this for other countries as well,” Aryan told the DCNF. “I published a Saudi Arabia file previously. I also have an Iran file … It’s really a passion I’ve been chasing these past, say, three to four years. So there’s no like political backing behind it or anything. It’s just passion.”

The map showcases the locations of Iron Dome launchers, David’s Sling missile interceptors and other military intelligence hardware linked to Israel’s air defense systems. Aryan said that because Israel is such a small and dense country, it allows it to have one of the best air defense networks in the world.

“We’ve seen from the start of the whole Gaza conflict that Israel’s interception rates are fairly high because, first of all, the country’s small,” Aryan told the DCNF. “That’s one thing to take into account, and the second thing to take into account is the amount of density for such a small country, defense-wise.”

The density of military technology concentrated near the Gaza border could be evidence that supports allegations that Israel intentionally allowed the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack to unfold. Some military experts, and even pro-Israel commentators such as the late Charlie Kirk, have said that it is likely Israel intentionally allowed the Oct. 7 attack to unfold as a casus belli for the Gaza War.

“I’ve been to Israel many times. The whole country is a fortress,” Kirk said on Patrick Bet-David’s podcast on Oct. 12, 2023. “When I first heard this story, I still have the same gut instinct that I did initially. I find this very hard to believe. I’ve been to that Gaza border. You cannot go 10 feet without running into a 19-year-old with an AR-15 or an automatic machine gun that’s an IDF soldier, right? The whole country is surveilled … I think some questions need to be asked. Was there a stand-down order?”

Kirk was not alone in his claim that Oct. 7 was allowed to happen intentionally.

“Within two weeks, it became pretty damn obvious to me that this was not an accident,” retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor said during an Oct. 2, 2025, interview on Dave Smith’s Part of the Problem podcast. “This was deliberate. They let it happen.”

“I’ve already heard from some of the soldiers that were told to stand down,” Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said during an Aug. 6, 2025, appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room.

While Aryan operates without any political goals or narratives, comments on his posts frequently adopt a political view and take to attacking him, assuming that he is trying to push an agenda.

“The Mossad HQ and others are known for years by everyone in Israel anyway, not a secret,” one comment on his Israel map from a pro-Israel account reads. “Iron Dome and Arrow systems move around also. This is a waste of time but enjoy our honeypots (they are tasty).”

“When you want to think about something, you have to prioritize logic and critical thinking over whatever ideological bias you have or emotions that override your actual logic,” Aryan told the DCNF. “Someone will say an opinion, and instantly they’re on X government’s payroll; that’s kind of exaggerated. In my opinion, it’s just a matter of emotional crash out and so on, and we see this on both sides, not just the pro-Israel side.”

Although this comment tries to make light of Aryan’s work by pointing out that this is public information, it actually verifies the importance of OSINT work. It is in the name “open-source intelligence” that all of this work is open-source, or publicly available.

However, there are individuals online who seek to abuse the practice of OSINT as a money printer for engagement or ad revenue online.

“I think like a lot of the OSINT space in general has been just dragged down by a bunch of bad faith actors,” Aryan told the DCNF. “If you scroll on Twitter, you see spam accounts that will post outdated content, AI slop and so on, or recycling old videos, and then claiming this and that … people will see that and say, oh yeah, every OSINT is like this, but it’s not really the truth. So it might be misinformation simply for a bunch of attention and followers. It’s just something you shouldn’t do, and it’s more so just engagement farming than actually doing research.”

Open-source intelligence creators like Aryan are important because they allow claims like the previous quotes from Kirk, Flynn and Macgregor to be verified or refuted with public information.

“It’s mostly about documenting what you can verify from an open source, which you know most people in the world aren’t bothered to do,” Aryan told the DCNF. “So, said people who are bothered to do this and have the will to do it should shoulder the work and be generous about it instead of trying to gatekeep it. And you know you can’t do much. But satellite imagery can tell you a lot about military infrastructure in this case without access to certain classified information.”