Elliot Higgins is a blogger in England who has never visited Syria. He does not have any family or friends in Syria, nor does Higgins have military experience or a weapons analysis background.
However, when he was laid off from his job in 2012, he used the additional hours of free time to take an interest in events taking place around the world, particularly the events surrounding the Arab Spring.
Higgins, from his Leicester living room started the Brown Moses blog after a song by Frank Zappa. He said he figured no one would read the blog, but he wanted to do it for his own benefit.
He has also been able to show a trail of weapons from Croatia that were supplied to rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia with Western Allies consent.
He has been able to track weapons used in the Syria conflict while sitting on his couch at home.
Higgins said that when helicopters started to be used by the air force in Syria, he looked at that. He then saw a bomb that was partly unexploded and he was able to identify it, which started his identification of weapons.
He describes his routine each day of being Mr. Mom and an intelligence analyst.
