Journalist Michael Hastings, 33, dead

[NewbieJr 540]

http://news.yahoo.com/journalist-brought-down-u-general-killed-los-angeles-033806044.html

 

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Journalist Michael Hastings, whose 2010 Rolling Stone magazine profile of the U.S. military chief in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, led to the general being relieved of command, died on Tuesday in a car wreck in Los Angeles, his employer said.

 

 

Shouldn't be long till the conspiracy theorists start having a field day with this one.

[tikigods 76]

Obummer!

[RLLD 3,455]

When it comes to stuff like this, never assume its coincidence. Honestly, you have to understand that our government is one of the most corrupt organizations on this planet, and its not unreasonable to accept that they would murder anyone if the opportunity and need arose.

[NewbieJr 540]

When it comes to stuff like this, never assume its coincidence. Honestly, you have to understand that our government is one of the most corrupt organizations on this planet, and its not unreasonable to accept that they would murder anyone if the opportunity and need arose.

It's not the people who realize there's a 1/1,000,000 chance there's foulplay involved who are the lunatics. It's those who automatically assume there's foulplay. The conspiracy theorists. The paranoid.

[tikigods 76]

Too bad someone doesn't knock off that fat Abby Lee from Dance Moms.

[TimmySmith 2,782]

It's not the people who realize there's a 1/1,000,000 chance there's foulplay involved who are the lunatics. It's those who automatically assume there's foulplay. The conspiracy theorists. The paranoid.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

 

Single car accident, burst into flames.

[RLLD 3,455]

It's not the people who realize there's a 1/1,000,000 chance there's foulplay involved who are the lunatics. It's those who automatically assume there's foulplay. The conspiracy theorists. The paranoid.

 

Right.

 

Of course, have you heard the news today about revelations regarding that flight 800 disaster from like 17 years ago?

[Recliner Pilot 61]

This is shocking news. Just shocking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had no idea Rolling Stone magazine still existed.

[heavy-set 39]

prolly just a spark in the car's fuel tank.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/18/twa-flight-800-investigators-break-silence-in-new-documentary-claim-original/

 

 

nothing to see here

[Phurfur 70]

It's not the people who realize there's a 1/1,000,000 chance there's foulplay involved who are the lunatics. It's those who automatically assume there's foulplay. The conspiracy theorists. The paranoid.

Newbie loves to knuckle under and is proud to be a Lackey who Toes the Government Line. LA-LA-LA-LA-LA

[NewbieJr 540]

Newbie loves to knuckle under and is proud to be a Lackey who Toes the Government Line. LA-LA-LA-LA-LA

I know. I know. The Feds had him killed. That's why I said it in my original post. The paranoid pussies of the world come out of the woodwork whenever they have a chance. I love this stuff.

[Phurfur 70]

I know. I know. The Feds had him killed. That's why I said it in my original post. The paranoid pussies of the world come out of the woodwork whenever they have a chance. I love this stuff.

 

To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

Benjamin Franklin

 

[wiffleball 4,631]

Google john tower sometime.

[tikigods 76]

Google john tower sometime.

 

Dude everyone knows Darth Cheney killed him.

[ZeroTolerance 582]

Too bad someone doesn't knock off that fat Abby Lee from Dance Moms.

From your lips to a sniper's ears (if only...).

[SUXBNME 1,322]

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

 

Single car accident, burst into flames.

I'll bet he was driving a Chevy Volt

[jets24 6]

It's not the people who realize there's a 1/1,000,000 chance there's foulplay involved who are the lunatics. It's those who automatically assume there's foulplay. The conspiracy theorists. The paranoid.

This. People like RLLD drive me crazy.

[RLLD 3,455]

This. People like RLLD drive me crazy.

 

Are you flirting with me?

[jerryskids 5,172]

“I was just coming northbound on Highland and I seen a car going really fast, and all of a sudden I seen it jackknife,” said Luis Cortez, who witnessed the wreck.

“I just seen parts fly everywhere and I slammed on my brakes and stopped and tried to call 911,” Cortez added.

The engine of the vehicle was found in a yard about 100 feet away.

Read more: http://ktla.com/2013/06/19/driver-killed-in-fiery-car-crash-in-hollywood/#ixzz2WlU2oA47

 

That's quite a crash for parts to fly everywhere and a Mercedes engine to propel 100 feet away.

[phillybear 364]

He had spoken to Wikileaks lawyers just hours before his car was blown up. It was murder by the U.S. government.

[Recliner Pilot 61]

He had spoken to Wikileaks lawyers just hours before his car was blown up. It was murder by the U.S. government.

How would the Govt know who he was calling on the phone?

[phillybear 364]

How would the Govt know who he was calling on the phone?

Clearly, our modern society demands dependable yet discreet communication tools. I strongly suggest the exclusive usage of telegrams, the pony express, and shouting out a window really loudly.

[tikigods 76]

Clearly, our modern society demands dependable yet discreet communication tools. I strongly suggest the exclusive usage of telegrams, the pony express, and shouting out a window really loudly.

 

Apparently his last words at the interview were "Whatcha talking about, Willis?"

 

Boom goes the dynamite.

[Little Rusty 17]

When it comes to stuff like this, never assume its coincidence.

 

[Little Rusty 17]

How would the Govt know who he was calling on the phone?

 

And i'm sure our commander in chief will find out about it via the newspaper or TMZ

[Phurfur 70]

Journalist Michael Hastings, who was killed in a fiery car crash in June, reportedly had been working on several big stories including one on CIA Director John Brennan before his death.

San Diego 6 News reports that Hastings had focused his latest project on Brennan, the former White House counterterrorism adviser and current CIA director.

Hastings' wife Elise Jordan also told CNN that a Brennan piece from her late husband will soon be published in Rolling Stone magazine.

San Diego 6 News also reported on a purported email from a CIA contractor which said Brennan was behind "witch hunts of investigative journalists" and someone from the White House was targeting anyone printing material "negative to the Obama agenda."

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A CIA spokesperson told San Diego 6 News, though, that "any suggestion that Director Brennan has ever attempted to infringe on constitutionally-protected press freedoms is offensive and baseless." Another spokesman said the CIA had a cordial relationship with Hastings.

In the early morning of June 18, Hastings was driving a Mercedes C250 when he lost control in Los Angeles' Hancock Park neighborhood, causing the car to fishtail and crash into a tree. The 33-year-old was killed.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Hastings' death began to circulate almost immediately.

On Twitter and several sites across the web, speculation was rampant that the death of Hastings -- whose 2010 article for Rolling Stone led to the resignation of U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then head of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan -- was no accident.

But LAPD officials said in June that no foul play was suspected in the fatal accident, though that did little to quell theories about his death.

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/14/journalist-michael-hastings-reportedly-working-on-story-about-cia-chief-before/#ixzz2cYhv0RoQ

 

[RLLD 3,455]

Like I said.....

[SUXBNME 1,322]

When it comes to stuff like this, never assume its coincidence. Honestly, you have to understand that our government is one of the most corrupt organizations on this planet, and its not unreasonable to accept that they would murder anyone if the opportunity and need arose.

I would never doubt that at all. It's been going on for hundreds of years I would imagine.

And yes, Newbs, the conspiracy theorists might have some fun with this one.

 

ETA: I just realized this thread was 2 months old and I already responded to it

<----Dumb

[Phurfur 70]

Hours before dying in a fiery car crash, Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings told his neighbor he believed his Mercedes had been tampered with, according to a report.

Hastings, a swashbuckling war correspondent known for taking on powerful figures, had told several friends he believed the government was watching him in the weeks before his death on June 18 in Los Angeles. But in a lengthy profile by LA Weekly, Hastings’ neighbor Jordanna Thigpen says he knocked on her door after midnight and asked to borrow her Volvo because he was afraid to drive his own car.

"He was scared, and he wanted to leave town," she told the weekly newspaper. She declined, saying her car was in need of repairs

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/22/michael-hastings-asked-to-use-neighbor-car-night-his-death-report/#ixzz2ckBOJFBU

 

[iam90sbaby 2,121]

I just heard about this for the first time while browsing Reddit.  Crazy that article was even published on BuzzFeed and now they are further left than anyone.  So 7 years later, what happened?

 

Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) was an American journalist, author, contributing editor to Rolling Stone and reporter for BuzzFeed.[3] He was raised in New York, Canada, and Vermont, and attended New York University. Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek in the 2000s. After his fiancée Andrea Parhamovich was killed in an ambush, Hastings wrote his first book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008), a memoir about his relationship with Parhamovich and the insurgency that took her life.[citation needed]

He received the George Polk Award for "The Runaway General" (2010), a Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article documented the widespread contempt for civilian government officials exhibited by the general and his staff and ultimately resulted in McChrystal's resignation. Hastings followed up with The Operators (2012), a detailed account of his monthlong stay with McChrystal in Europe and Afghanistan.[citation needed]

Hastings became a vocal critic of the Obama administration, Democratic Party, and surveillance state during the 2013 Department of Justice investigations of reporters, referring to restrictions of freedom of the press as a "war" on journalism.[4] His last story, "Why Democrats Love to Spy On Americans", was published by BuzzFeed on June 7, 2013.[5][6]

Hastings died in an automobile crash on June 18, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. Blue Rider Press published his only novel, The Last Magazine (2014), a year after his death.

Death

On June 18, 2013, Hastings died in a single-vehicle automobile crash in his Mercedes-Benz C250 Coupé at approximately 4:25 a.m. in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.[55] A witness to the crash said the car seemed to be traveling at maximum speed and was creating sparks and flames before it fishtailed and crashed into a palm tree.[56][57] Video from a nearby security camera reportedly shows Hastings' vehicle speeding and bursting into flames.[58]

Witnesses described the car's engine being ejected 50 to 60 yards (46–55 m) from the scene.[57][59] Hastings' body was burned beyond recognition. The coroner identified the body by matching fingerprints with those the FBI had on file.[60][61] Two days after the crash, the Los Angeles Police Department declared that there were no signs of foul play.[62] The coroner's report ruled the death to be an accident.[63] An autopsy showed that the cause of death was massive blunt force trauma consistent with a high-speed crash.[63]

In an interview with writer Ray Sawhill, Hasting's older brother, Jonathan Hastings, recounts how he had flown to L.A. to help his brother shortly before the accident because he had "got the impression that he was having a manic episode, similar to one he had had 15 years ago...", at which time "drugs had been involved..." After failing to convince his brother to check voluntarily into a drug rehabilitation program, or fly back to Vermont to stay with family, he started making plans with his other brother to attempt to "force Mike into checking himself into a hospital or detox center." However, before that could be arranged, "he snuck out [of the apartment] on me when I was sleeping." and had crashed shortly afterward. When asked directly whether his brother might have died from some sort of foul play, Jonathan responded "I really rule out foul play entirely. I might have been suspicious if I hadn't been with him the day before he died. After all, he definitely was investigating and writing about a lot of sensitive subjects. But based on being with him and talking to people who were worried about him in the weeks leading up to his death, and being around him when he had had similar problems when he was younger, I was pretty much convinced that he wasn't in danger from any outside agency."[64]

Hastings was eulogized in the media by figures such as Chris Hayes,[65] Rachel Maddow,[66] his co-workers at BuzzFeed,[67] and others.[68]

The 2015 documentary film Imminent Threat, directed by Janek Ambros, is dedicated to his work.

Tree at the Hastings crash site in July 2013. Coordinates: 34.082459°N 118.338603°W

Controversy over alleged foul play

Soon after Hastings' death, questions were raised about the crash that took his life.

Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard A. Clarke said that what is known about the crash is "consistent with a car cyber attack." He was quoted as saying: "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers—including the United States—know how to remotely seize control of a car. So if there were a cyber attack on [Hastings'] car — and I'm not saying there was, I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."[69]

The day before the crash, Hastings indicated that he believed he was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In an email to colleagues, which was copied to and released by Hastings' friend Army Staff Sergeant Joe Biggs,[70] Hastings said that he was "onto a big story", that he needed to "go off the radar", and that the FBI might interview them.[71][72] WikiLeaks announced that Hastings had also contacted Jennifer Robinson, one of its lawyers, a few hours prior to the crash,[73] and the LA Weekly reported that he was preparing new reports on the CIA at the time of his death.[74] His widow Elise Jordan said his final story was a profile of CIA Director John O. Brennan.[75]

The FBI released a statement denying that Hastings was ever under investigation by the agency.[62] However, FBI had opened a file on Hastings as early as 2012 (see FBI files below). Furthermore, on the day of the crash Hastings visited his neighbor Jordanna Thigpen's apartment after midnight and urgently asked to borrow her Volvo, saying he was afraid to drive his own car. However, Thigpen declined.[14]

Motor Trend technical director Frank Markus said that the ensuing fire was consistent with a high-speed car crash.[76] There are conflicting opinions as to Hastings' death. After his death, some media outlets[who?] recalled that Hastings claimed to have received death threats from the military after the McChrystal article.[77][disputed – discuss]

Cenk Uygur, a friend of Hastings' and host of The Young Turks, told KTLA that many of Michael's friends were concerned that he was "in a very agitated state", saying he was "incredibly tense" and worried that his material was being surveilled by the government. Friends believed that Michael's line of work led to a "paranoid state."[78] USA Today reported that in the days before his death, Hastings believed his car was being "tampered with" and that he was scared and wanted to leave town.[79]

The possibility of a conspiracy or some sort of government involvement in Hasting's death has been discounted by members of his own family, who were with him around the time of his death. Hastings' widow, Elise Jordan, has said she believes his death to be "just a really tragic accident."[80][81] Other members of his family have stated that they were concerned at the time that he was a danger to himself from his erratic behavior. His older brother Jonathan had just flown to L.A., attempting to organize some sort of family intervention for what he believed was a drug-induced "manic episode", a concern apparently echoed by others close to him at that time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist)

[Drizzay 644]

Recliner Pilot!  Phillybear!  Phurfur!  Ah, the good times.

[RLLD 3,455]

How many hops from this guy to the Clintons?

[MDC 5,877]

2 hours ago, Drizzay said:

Recliner Pilot!  Phillybear!  Phurfur!  Ah, the good times.

2 of 3 are still here.

[Big Guy 1,400]

On 6/20/2013 at 9:55 AM, Little Rusty said:

 

[iam90sbaby 2,121]

Safe to say there was foul play?