1/ Lets talk about the Buffalo Terrorist's manifesto and digital diary. Here are some key points based on my initial readings and annotations of his writings. 🧵
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2/ The attacker released 5 documents on the day of the attack: a) pdf and docx manifesto of 180 pages, b) pdf and docx that are transcripts from his discord diary dating 11/18/22 to 04/29/22 589 pages, c) pdf & docx from his discord diary dating 04/29/22 to 05/12/22 84 pages
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3/ Manifesto documents are labeled v1 for the pdf and v5 for the docx version. I have not yet done a comparison of both versions to see if there are variations, but this is something to keep in mind for those working on these materials.
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4/ Any of the docx materials might have been modified by others who have reuploaded the content since the attack so please keep that in mind. for current iterations or other releases as there are chances some actor(s) might want to weaponize that.
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5/ Though there has been a fair amount of focus on the manifesto, the 700 pages of the digital diary he composed is where the meat of this situation is. It provides us with 7 months of this individuals daily musings and mindset, as well as his tactics, techniques, and procedures.
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6/ His manifesto, though 180 pages, is mostly plagiarized from other attackers before him heavily plagiarizing the manifesto from Christchurch, the Unabomber, Poway Synagogue, El Paso, Charleston and Halle.
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7/ it is also littered with memes from 4chan, 8chan(moe), and the Reddit ecosystems he inhabited. The manifesto also has in it a detailed list of the weapons and gear he used, where he bought them and potential improvements to the gear for future terrorists he can inspire.
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8/ His logic is that a) if he can achieve this attack with shitty gear then anyone who follows in his footsteps also can. b) he wants to leave a detailed method an TTPs, where to buy the gear, how he did recon weeks prior to the attack etc.
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9/ However, the manifesto is not the most important piece of information to understand this attack and the attacker, but rather his diary. This is a unique feature of this attack as it is not something we have publicly with past attackers.
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10/ The diary details how he got into the Chan space at the start of the pandemic. This is where he "discovered" the great replacement conspiracy theory, disinformation & racist conspiracy theories about African Americans.
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11/ We can read over time how he goes through the manifestos of attackers before him, who he wanted to emulate & who inspired him, while also mocking other attackers like the Isla Vista attacker, whos incel ideology he did not respect.
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12/ The diary details several touch points with front line practitioners. In may 2021 he was sent to the Hospital/ER because of an answer "murder/suicide" to an online paper for his economics class.
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13/ He writes that he was also stopped by the security guard he killed weeks earlier while he was doing recon at the grocery store, who had asked him what he was doing there. He also mentions how he was arrested for speeding on his recon activities/practice runs.
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14/ We can see moments when he was tentative in his beliefs, he had doubts about his attack at several moments in his diary. These points are key when we talk about prevention. Where do resources need to be invested so that these points can be acted upon
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15/ We tend to take a securitized approach to these issues, but prevention needs to be part of it & his diary will offer plenty of insight into this. this is something that wrote about this weekend and that discusses regularly twitter.com/MrBrianHughes/
This Tweet is unavailable.
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16/ Both his manifesto and diary are very instructional. He discussed how he researched African American population densities prior to his attack to find the best place for the highest kill count. He did recon at several location counting whites vs African Americans at a location
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17/ he shows how he initially drew a map of the final location on paper and them digitized it for his manifesto. He goes over in details how he practiced dry and live firing ahead of the attack. Practiced coming in and out of the car and moving with his weapons.
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18/ He also details how he modified his firearm to accept larger illegal magazines. He shares links to YouTube Videos and websites on how to accomplish the modification. He also discusses how he legally purchased his weapons from surplus stores/pawnshops & purchased armor on ebay
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19/ The attacker describes the financial challenges he had in planning the attack. He relied on selling silver he had collected (he was into anti-fiat/anti-fed/anti-bank conspiracy theories). He sold off his possessions at a flea market and pawn shop, and sold his Disney stocks.
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20/ In hindsight, the selling/donating of his possessions are a warning sign that was missed. What this does demonstrate is that he self-funded the attack using silver, stocks and selling his possessions, which as a TTP is not extremely sophisticated
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22/ I haven't crunched the numbers (but I am sure might in the future *cough* I don't want to do it) but based on what he claims he spend this attack cost him only a few grand in tactical gear an weapons.
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23/ He was very much involved in /k/ boards (which he mentions several times). This is also reflective in the details discussion he has about the pros and cons of the gear he purchased, how he shopped, why he chose them tactically/based on the threats he might face.
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24/ He has 5 pages on helmets, details on what socks to wear, amour plating options etc. This information may seem irrelevant or weird, but it is reflective of the thought process that went behind this attack and how the shooter wants to inspire others to follow his instructions
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25/ In his diary he details his daily diet, caloric intake, and exercise and well as weight loss or gains. He emphasizes fitness and preparedness for these types of attack, stating that it doesn't matter how good your gear is if you don't know how to use it or not fit enough
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26/technology played an important role in this attack as well. The user details what are some lessons learned from past attacks, what are the best platforms for audience reach, he tests his streaming setup, etc.
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27/ He initially planned to emulate the Christchurch shooter and livestream the attack from Facebook from his GoPro which would be linked to his discord. He had considered using his phone but it was not up to his standards. He had a second phone he used for hotspotting
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28/ A month later he decided that he was not going to livestream on Facebook as it was not the best audience and decided that Twitch would be better as you do not need an account with the platform to view the livestream
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29/ The user has planned to have his manifesto and diary archived on various cloud services (MediaFire, Google Drive and Mega) that he would send to his followers and friends on Discord as well as the link to the live stream.
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30/ This did not work as well as he thought however as the live stream was only watched by 22 people according to screen captures and out of the 24minutes of the stream only 7 minutes have been released. Some anon on 4chan claims to have the full video but has not shared yet.
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31/ From a platform perspective it appears that he used Reddit the most, followed by 4chan and 8chan(moe). He was also a big user of Discord, as can be seen by his detailed diary that he wrote there. Finally Twitch was a key platform for him
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32/ Gaming adjacent platforms played an important role in the planning of this attack and this is something important to highlight. He also intended to use these platforms for the streaming of the attack but that was less successful imo.
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