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Riley Mellen

@rileymellen.bsky.social
2.3K followers 108 following 45 posts

Visual Investigations reporter for NYT. Let's chat: riley.mellen@nytimes.com, Signal, DMs, etc.

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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
You can check out the Visual Investigations page here. (nytimes.com/spotlight/vi...). Sign up for our newsletter, send us a tip, or see more of our work there. One final, massive thanks for David Botti's wonderful editing skills. That’s all for now 🔍🔍🔍
nytimes.com
Visual Investigations
The Visual Investigations team uses forensic analysis, digital sleuthing and advanced open-source reporting techniques to debunk official narratives, expose misconduct and hold the powerful to account...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Here's another link to the full story: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/w...
nytimes.com
A U.S. Base in Saudi Arabia Expands to Help Counter Iran
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
If even a fraction of these plans come to fruition, this will be quite the sizable facility:
Slide with bullet points and a map of proposed plans for LSA JenkinsSlide with bullet points and a map of proposed plans for LSA Jenkins
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Also worth mentioning that this is not the final state for LSA Jenkins. A slide deck I found online contains planning documents that suggest the base may get bigger – a lot bigger. Take a look: www.same.org/wp-content/u...
same.org
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
3. Gives troops and air defense systems more time to respond, take shelter, etc. from a missile attack. All of which would ultimately make US supply lines in the event of a full-blown war with Iran a bit more robust.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
So moving farther away: 1. Forces Iran to use longer-range missiles, which are less accurate and fail more often (there are also fewer of them). 2. Forces Iran to have to pick and choose from a greater number of targets to strike. (cont...)
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
(Iran has historically made not-so-subtle threats to US and Israeli bases/assets in the region in public statements and videos of military exercises, e.g.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlXE...
youtube.com
Exclusive | IRGC Unveils 'Underground' Missiles in Its New Drill
YouTube video by IMA Media • ایما مدیا
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Iran, on Monday, made good on their longstanding threats to target US bases in the Gulf and fired a salvo of missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. 🎁📎 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/w...
nytimes.com
Iran’s Attack on a U.S. Base in Qatar Is a Nightmare Come True for Gulf States
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
LSA Jenkins is on the western side of Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea. Part of the reason it's there, experts like @dexeve.bsky.social and Brian Carter told me, is because it is out of the range of Iranian short range ballistic missiles.
Map of Iranian ballistic missile ranges
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Bonus Easter egg: a contractor posted a video of the food at the facility on their website.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Speaking of contracting docs, there are a whole bunch that describe the expansion and sustainment of the facility. e.g. www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_A...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
The base, known as Logistical Support Area Jenkins, is “near” the city of Yanbu, where imagery and government contracting docs show US naval vessels fighting the Houthis reloaded and resupplied multiple times over the last year or so. (Photo credit Airbus/Google Earth)
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
New: The US military has quietly been building a big logistics base in the Saudi desert, 20 miles from the Red Sea. It’s got living quarters, munitions storage, an entrance checkpoint and quite a bit of ongoing construction. Gift link and 🧵 below: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/w...
nytimes.com
A U.S. Base in Saudi Arabia Expands to Help Counter Iran
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Aric Toler @aric.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Trump claims that a video shows the “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers in South Africa. It doesn't. From @rileymellen.bsky.social and me www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Claimed a Social Media Video Showed ‘Burial Sites’ of White Farmers. It Didn’t.
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Aric Toler @aric.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
For about a year, I worked with a retired British academic named Alasdair Spark to solve a mystery: where did the original photo from the end of The Shining come from, and where/when was it captured? Last week, we finally found the answer. www.instagram.com/p/DID43LBNPD...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
We used radio traffic, flight data and leaked footage of an air traffic control radar screen to build a timeline of the moments before an American Airlines flight and a US Army helicopter collided over DC. With Robin Stein, Dmitriy Khavin, and @ajcardia.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
nytimes.com
Video: Crowded Skies, Thin Margins for Error: The Minutes Before the D.C. Air Disaster
Using radio traffic, flight data and leaked footage of an air traffic control radar screen, we examine what was happening in the moments before the midair collision near Reagan National Airport that l...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Many thanks to the dream team of @ajcardia.bsky.social, Arijeta Lajka, Alyce McFadden, Courtney Brooks, @lazarogamio.bsky.social and so many more for making this happen. 👾 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/v...
nytimes.com
Videos That Purport to Show Drones in New Jersey Likely Show Planes (Gift Article)
Here’s why it’s hard to distinguish objects in the night sky.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
But that doesn't mean they're not out there! If you have one you're positive about, send it our way. I'd be really curious to see it. 👽👽👽
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Indeed, we reviewed hundreds of videos with the help of experts and flight tracking apps. We were not able to confidently identify a single drone.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
And sometimes you can get extra lucky and match up the light pattern on the "drones" to actual aircraft, like this Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Or, my personal favorite because it's so eerie, this colossal C-17 that did a pretty low and slow flyby of Brick Township.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Like this X-files-esque video of an apparent drone which is, in fact, a small passenger jet heading to Newark.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Well, when all else fails, there are the good old flight-tracking apps like @flightradar24.com. While these are not infallible, the vast, vast majority of the UFOs we reviewed were airplanes that appeared on these apps.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
But what if you think you see a drone and you can't remember all those lighting rules and optical illusions?
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Drones flying at night, by contrast, are only required to have a single strobe light (though DJI, a very popular drone manufacturer, builds their drones with two red lights on the front and two green lights on the back of their drones). PC: Tombo Jones/Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Drones and planes also have different lighting rules. The FAA requires planes flying at night to have a ton of lights, including a red, flashing anti-collision light, red and green navigation lights on the left and right wingtips, and bright white landing lights.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Your eyes also have a much harder time judging reference points, like the ground and trees, at night. This makes comparing objects in the sky to those reference points hard enough, let alone deriving the speed and direction of those objects relative to the reference points.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
We spoke to Greg Pratt, an expert who trains police officers to identify drones. He said he runs an experiment with his students where, at night, he flies a big drone to 1,000 ft away and a small drone to 500 ft away. From the ground, they look like they're in the same spot.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Statistically, there are an enormous number of airplanes in the skies where the alleged drones are being spotted. Compounding the Busytown-like nature of the airspace is that your eyes play tricks on you at night. For one, your depth perception is totally unreliable in the dark.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
First things first. The skies over northern NJ comprise some of the most crowded airspace in the country. @lazarogamio.bsky.social's analysis shows that over three nights in December, some 2,500 flights crossed over just Morris County -- the epicenter of these sightings.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
We took a long, hard look at the objects seen in the night skies over New Jersey. They're...pretty much always planes. 🛸🛸🛸 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/v...
nytimes.com
Videos That Purport to Show Drones in New Jersey Likely Show Planes (Gift Article)
Here’s why it’s hard to distinguish objects in the night sky.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Yep, absolutely. The departure of a few big surface vessels seen in a few sat images =\= permanent withdrawal
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Commercial activity at Tartus has also basically ceased for now. Check out @trbrtc.bsky.social's thread on that too: bsky.app/profile/trbr...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
This calls into question Israel's claim that the Syrian Navy was destroyed in strikes on Latakia on Tuesday. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/w...
nytimes.com
Israel Strikes Military Assets Across Syria to Keep Them From Rebels
Israel capitalized on the power vacuum in Syria to bomb targets across the country, saying it aims to keep weapons away from extremists.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
However -- nugget of news here -- some of the Syrian Navy's Osa-class and other vessels remain safe and sound in Tartus at the northernmost pier.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Folks like @mtanderson.bsky.social have since spotted them a few miles out to sea: bsky.app/profile/mtan...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
But then...they're nowhere to be found in yesterday's Maxar image.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
First, as many others have noticed, the Russian Navy's big surface vessels and submarine left port sometime on or after Dec. 6. They're seen here in this excellent BlackSky image on Dec. 5.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Some observations on recent changes (or lack thereof) at the Syrian port of Tartus with @trbrtc.bsky.social 🧵: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/w...
nytimes.com
Russian Navy Ships Have Left Key Syrian Port
Satellite images from last week and this week show that naval vessels docked at the port city of Tartus have left. According to marine tracking data, no cargo ships have entered or left Tartus since M...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
We verified a series of fires and explosions at Syrian government and military facilities in and near Damascus today. Israeli officials said the IDF had been striking across Syria to destroy weapons that could fall into the wrong hands. With @devonlum.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12...
nytimes.com
Explosions and fires erupted around Damascus on Sunday.
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Aric Toler @aric.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
We obtained surveillance footage of the Manhattan Midtown shooter about 10 minutes before he killed Brian Thompson. It shows him on the sidewalk moving towards the eventual shooting site, holding a cell phone up to his head as he walks. www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
An IDF spokesperson said that anything built there can be taken down within a day, but given the size and pace of the expansion, it'll probably take a bit more than a day for the IDF to leave central Gaza. Once again, a gift link to the article is here: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/w...
nytimes.com
Israel Builds Bases in Central Gaza, a Sign It May Be There to Stay (Gift Article)
In recent months, soldiers have demolished more than 600 buildings to create a buffer area and expanded a network of bases, a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and video footage shows.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
But that's not all -- the *pace* of construction has been increasing as well. Of the 19 "large" bases we identified in the Netzarim Corridor, 12 had been built or expanded since September.
Map of Gaza showing pins labeled with when each IDF base was built and/or expanded
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Bases that had been little more than squares of dirt berms now feature concrete roads, parking lots for armored vehicles, and connections to other bases in the area. Some before/afters seen in @planetlabs.bsky.social imagery taken on Sept. 26 and Nov. 21:
Image showing dirt berms and buildingsImage showing paved road leading to military base tucked amid buildingsImage showing building surrounded by dirt bermsImage showing building surrounded by more dirt berms, destroyed buildings, and paved road leading to base at the center
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
On top of the rubble, the IDF is not only building more bases but making "older" bases more permanent, by adding checkpoints, communications equipment, structures for soldiers, and so on.
IDF base labeled with checkpoint, communication towers, and defensive berm.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
First, @aric.bsky.social did the the hard work of hand counting hundreds of buildings the IDF destroyed in order to increase the buffer zone around the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. It's now over four miles wide. bsky.app/profile/aric...
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
The Israeli military is expanding and fortifying the areas they control in central Gaza, signaling they may be there for the long haul. New story out now from Aaron Boxerman, @aric.bsky.social, Patrick Kingsley, and @ajcardia.bsky.social. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/w...
nytimes.com
Israel Builds Bases in Central Gaza, a Sign It May Be There to Stay (Gift Article)
In recent months, soldiers have demolished more than 600 buildings to create a buffer area and expanded a network of bases, a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and video footage shows.
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Simon Wolfgang Fuchs @simonwfuchs.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Wow! The site of the Battle of al-Qadisiyah in #Iraq has been identified by using Cold War-era spy satellite images! www.cbsnews.com/news/ancient...
cbsnews.com
Site of ancient, key battle in Iraq found by archeologists using spy satellite images
1970s-era U.S. spy satellite imagery has led archeologists to what they believe is the site of a seventh-century battle that was decisive in the spread of Islam in the region.
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Riley Mellen @rileymellen.bsky.social · 21/07/2023
That is so cool! Planes would for sure be interesting to see. I wonder if you could go goblin mode and insert ACARS messages or GPSJam data or something like that? either way, can’t wait to see some of these visualized 😎
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