RIP Michael Hastings

saw a picture of the scene. hard not to have questions after seeing it. Car at a 90 degree angle to the street, didn't flip. fire damage.

 

While I don't think the gov'ment was involved, I have no doubt drugs and/or alcohol were factors.

 

Hours before dying in a fiery car crash, award-winning journalist Michael Hastings sent an email to his colleagues, warning that federal authorities were interviewing his friends and that he needed to go "off the rada[r]" for a bit.

The email was sent around 1 p.m. on Monday, June 17. At 4:20 a.m. the following morning...

Hastings sent the email to staff at BuzzFeed, where he was employed, but also blind-copied a friend, Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, on the message. Biggs, who Hastings met in 2008 when he was embedded in his unit in Afghanistan, forwarded the email to KTLA, who posted it online on Saturday.

Here's the email, with the recipients' names redacted.

Subject: FBI Investigation, re: NSA

Hey (redacted names) -- the Feds are interviewing my "close friends and associates." Perhaps if the authorities arrive "BuzzFeed GQ," er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.

Also: I'm onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit.

All the best, and hope to see you all soon.

Michael

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/michael-hastings-email_n_3484118.html

 

It's unclear what "big story" Hastings was working on prior to his death, but it might have to do with yet another military bigwig, this time retired general David Petraeus.

The LA Times reports that Hastings was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Jill Kelley, the Florida socialite who took center stage in the Petraeus cheating scandal, against the Department of Defense and the FBI. According to a person close to Kelley, the paper reports, Hastings had plans to meet a representative of hers to discuss the case next week.

 

David Stern probably had something to do with it

 

Really hard to think there is anything that would come out that is worth the risk of doing something like this. Hell, we know the government targets individuals, US citizens even; we know they have access to our Internet and phone records and has there been one protest since? No. Because like the fine print on a credit card agreement, we signed off on it.

 

I met him when I was a soldier in the Stan before I went back into the newspaper gig. I think the GOvt may have killed him.

 

Release the conspiracy theorists. Interesting story that before his death Hastings was working on a story about John Brennen that Rolling Stone is suppose to release posthumously shortly.


Story also mentions that independent investigation revealed that Hastings car was going
35 mph just before crash. Study based on surveillance camera that actually shows the crash.

http://www.infowars.com/report-michael-hastings-was-investigating-cia-director-john-brennan/

 

I am not a theory buff, but that is pretty fishy.

 

Admittedly, I've always been a sucker for a good conspiracy theory. But this one smells.

I wonder if it is some sort of automotive cyber attack. In 2011, researchers at the University of Washington and University of Cal-San Diego were able to remotely break into a car and manipulate the engine, acceleration and brakes, among other items. They also noted how easy it was to cover their tracks.

And just last week, cyber security hackers at DefCon published a white paper detailing how they did the same thing with a Ford Escape and Toyota Prius, turning the car on and off, braking and accelerating as they pleased.

I cannot purport to know whether Hastings was killed in such an attack. But he sure had a lot of enemies in high places. And if someone was going to assassinate a target via an automotive cyber attack, well, this case is pretty much exactly what it would look like.

 

Let's see:

1) He's one of those muckity-muck rabble-rousing journalists.

2) The leader of our military machine loses his job because of him.

3). The leader of our spy machine is about to be publicly undressed by him.

So yeah ... the difference between Hastings and Snowden is that one is alive, for now.

I'm not a foil-hatter but let's be real here. Because yes, Michael Hastings loved to drag race at 3 a.m.

Matt Damon plays Hastings in the biopic.

BTW, let's not forget the untimely death of Barnaby Jack, who figured out how to hack pacemakers. He was 35.

http://rt.com/usa/hacker-pacemaker-barnaby-jack-639/