Syria Feature: How "Independent Analysts" Are Breaking the Stories of the Conflict
Britain's Channel 4 profiles EA Worldview's James Miller and other independent analysts on Syria
On Saturday, news emerged of a new kind of weapon --- a 12-tube rocket launcher with a range of 8.5 to 13 kilometrees (5.5 to 8 miles) --- that has made it to the front lines of the Syrian conflict.
The news, significant in itself, is the latest development in the wider, important story of how Syrian insurgents are using foreign-supplied Croatian arms to make crucial gains against President Assad's troops.
These advances since January could even prove to be the tipping point in the two-year insurgency.
There may be another tipping point: by developing methods to gather information and analyze open-source intelligence, an emerging group of "independent analysts" are breaking news stories far ahead of any mainstream outlet.
And in doing so, they are changing the international conversation about Syria.