kianlayer0 is a digital open source investigation practice focused on under-documented armed conflicts and extremist networks. The work is structured to meet the professional standards for investigations into violations of international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights law as set out in the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations, jointly published by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
This page documents the framework, the principles, and the evidentiary standards that govern every piece of published work on this site.
Framework
Each investigation is structured around the five sequential phases identified in the Berkeley Protocol: identification of relevant digital open source information, collection of that information, preservation against loss or alteration, verification of authenticity and provenance, and analytical assessment against applicable legal frameworks.
The legal frameworks applied are the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (in particular Article 8 on war crimes), the International Committee of the Red Cross compilation of Customary International Humanitarian Law, the four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, and Islamic law of war as established in Qur’anic injunction, prophetic hadith, and the four classical Sunni schools of jurisprudence.
The dual application of international humanitarian law and Islamic law is deliberate. Many of the conflicts covered by this practice — northern Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, the wider Sahel — involve combatants whose legitimacy framework is religious. Documenting their violations exclusively against Western legal instruments is incomplete. Where conduct is prohibited under both Rome Statute Article 8 and under the Prophet’s explicit prohibitions on the killing of captives, the killing of the wounded hors de combat, mutilation of the dead (muthla), and burning of human remains, the violation is documented under both. The framework of the actors themselves is the framework by which their actions are most accountable.
Principles
The work operates under the four overarching principles established by OHCHR for international fact-finding: do no harm, independence, impartiality, and confidentiality.
Do no harm governs every decision about publication. Source identity is never disclosed. Geolocation is not published where it would endanger living persons. Graphic material is preceded by content warnings and is not gratuitously displayed. Material that could aid the commission of further violations is withheld.
Independence means kianlayer0 accepts no funding, direction, or editorial input from any state, intelligence service, armed group, political party, or commercial sponsor. The practice is self-funded. Conclusions are reached by application of legal frameworks to evidence, not by alignment with any external interest.
Impartiality means violations are documented regardless of the affiliation of the perpetrator. Material on this site documents conduct by state armed forces, by non-state armed groups across the ideological spectrum, by private military contractors, and by separatist movements. The framework is consistently applied. Where the conduct meets the threshold, the finding is recorded. The political identity of the perpetrator does not affect the analysis.
Confidentiality governs all source relationships. Identities, locations, and unpublished material remain off cloud platforms governed by foreign jurisdictions or terms of service that permit unilateral disclosure. Raw intelligence is held on encrypted local storage and on encrypted European-jurisdiction backup.
Source assessment
Each investigation carries an explicit source credibility assessment using a standard three-tier scale.
High confidence — the material is sourced from a direct primary correspondent with verified operational presence in the theatre at the time of the documented event, cross-referenced against at least one independent secondary source (satellite imagery, recognised reporting outlet, official communication, or independent OSINT verification), and the chain of custody from origin to publication is documented and intact.
Medium confidence — the material is sourced from a verified network contact with operational proximity but without independent primary observation, or from a primary source whose corroboration is partial. The investigation proceeds but the limitation is stated.
Low confidence — the material is from a single source without corroboration, or from a network position too distant from the event for direct observation. Material at this confidence level is generally not published, or is published only with explicit limitation language.
The practice maintains direct correspondent access to networks not routinely accessible to Western journalism, including Russian private military company-connected contacts with operational presence in the Sahel and contacts within the Order of Nine Angles and broader accelerationist networks documented in earlier counter-extremism work. These relationships are managed under the do-no-harm and confidentiality principles above.
Chain of custody
Every published exhibit is preserved in its original form on encrypted local storage with cryptographic hash verification, on encrypted European-jurisdiction cloud backup, and on a separate offline drive synchronised on a weekly cycle. Publication is from a working copy. Original material is not modified.
Where original footage or imagery is referenced in published work, the original is available for inspection by the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor, by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, by recognised commissions of inquiry, and by credentialed academic researchers, upon verified request.
The practice does not currently file Article 15 communications to the International Criminal Court directly. Material is structured to meet the standards that would support such submission, and is held against the possibility of formal submission when the cumulative evidentiary case in a given situation reaches the appropriate threshold.
Areas of focus
The current focus areas of the practice are armed conflicts in the African Sahel and wider African continent, with particular attention to Mali, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and the operations of Russian private military formations including the Wagner Group and its successor Africa Corps; nihilistic violent extremist and far-right accelerationist networks, including earlier investigative work on the Order of Nine Angles and Atomwaffen Division; and the international surveillance industry.
The selection of these areas is methodological. Each is characterised by significant evidentiary access combined with limited mainstream coverage. Conflicts on the African continent in particular receive disproportionately little attention relative to the scale of civilian harm they produce. The practice exists in part to address that imbalance.
Editorial separation
This site publishes investigative output only. Commentary, opinion, music, and personal communication are kept on separate platforms. The work on kianlayer0.com is intended to be cited, referenced, and submitted onward to institutional processes; it is held to a higher standard than the practitioner’s broader online presence.
Contact and verified request
Researchers, journalists, and institutional reviewers seeking to verify or access primary material may contact the practice through the channels listed on the Contact page. Verified requests from recognised institutions are processed with priority.