Author Topic: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death  (Read 2976 times)

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Online IronDioPriest

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Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« on: June 23, 2013, 09:09:01 AM »
It sure seems to me like this guy was snuffed.

Michael Hastings Sent Email About FBI Probe Hours Before Death

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 died when his Mercedes, traveling at high speeds, smashed into a tree and caught on fire. He was 33.

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.

Quote
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

Rumors that the FBI was investigating Hastings began the day after his death, with a couple of mysterious WikiLeaks tweets.

In a rare move, the FBI issued a statement denying that Hastings was under investigation. The Los Angeles Police Department also said it had found no evidence of any foul play in his death.

Hastings, an accomplished war correspondent and sharp political reporter, was best known for writing a critical Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal that led to his resignation.

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 reported 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 said, Hastings had plans to meet a representative of hers to discuss the case next week.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline trapeze

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2013, 09:24:17 AM »
Buzzfeed is a bottom feeder but, that said, I no longer trust in any institution especially government related ones. So, who knows?

In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline Weisshaupt

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2013, 10:03:36 AM »
He was snuffed for sure.  Either by the government (which seems to be his concern in email)  or by the criminal parties the government was enabling and/or in business with.

The guy was obviously running for his life when that crash occurred. Or at least thought he was.

Offline Libertas

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2013, 02:30:33 PM »
He was snuffed for sure.  Either by the government (which seems to be his concern in email)  or by the criminal parties the government was enabling and/or in business with.

The guy was obviously running for his life when that crash occurred. Or at least thought he was.


Given the government views every soul as an enemy your conclusions are reasonable.

Time for people to realize it is no longer tyrannical regimes in foreign lands headed by obvious lunatics and psychopaths that commit such acts...
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline Glock32

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2013, 03:10:30 PM »
Witnesses reported his car exploded with enough force to rattle the neighborhood windows. The car's engine was supposedly 150 yards from the crash site and at a right angle to his direction of travel.

I think something way more explosive than a tank of gasoline did that.


ETA - Drone strike? Why not?
« Last Edit: June 23, 2013, 03:13:32 PM by Glock32 »
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Offline BigAlSouth

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2013, 04:35:33 PM »
Even if he was having paranoid delusions about being followed by "whomever", he was making time, blowing through red lights until the final crash.
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Offline Libertas

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2013, 05:45:04 PM »
Any reports of a crater or not? Any "odd" wreckage found? Or has the scene been thoughly sanitized? These questions matter.
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline John Florida

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2013, 06:31:50 PM »
Any reports of a crater or not? Any "odd" wreckage found? Or has the scene been thoughly sanitized? These questions matter.

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Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2013, 08:44:28 PM »
Witnesses reported his car exploded with enough force to rattle the neighborhood windows. The car's engine was supposedly 150 yards from the crash site and at a right angle to his direction of travel.

I think something way more explosive than a tank of gasoline did that.


ETA - Drone strike? Why not?

I remember coming on the scene of a head-on fatality where one driver got on the freeway the wrong direction by driving up the off-ramp. The state patrol estimated that both of them were traveling 60 when they collided. One engine/transmission wound up about 80 yards from the vehicles.


Online ToddF

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2013, 07:49:59 AM »
Stuck accelerator?

 ::thinking::

 ::foilhathelicopter::

Offline Libertas

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #10 on: June 24, 2013, 11:24:11 AM »
The bogus Toyota scam again?   ::facepalm::
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Online ToddF

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2013, 11:37:44 AM »
Black helicopter says maybe not so bogus...if ya know what I mean.

Offline Libertas

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2013, 11:46:42 AM »
(Bad) human intervention, aye.

 ::foilhathelicopter::
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline Glock32

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2013, 12:36:08 PM »
Yeah, drone attack....as in his car becomes the drone. There's certainly a lot of suspicious circumstance surrounding this, at the very least. The engine coming out is a pretty rare occurrence, particularly in a well built car like a Mercedes. I've seen some horrific high speed impacts that made cars unrecognizable, but still had the engine secured to the motor mounts. Yeah, the inertia of an impact could hurl it quite a distance if the mounts did break, but accounts I've heard indicate it was found in a position pretty much 90 degrees off from where it would have naturally gone with an impact against that tree.

Once again we have a scenario where the real issue is the fact that you can't immediately discount the possibility of foul play by the government. Even just a few years ago I would have found that possibility a bit of a stretch, but now there's nothing that would surprise me about their dealings.
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Offline BigAlSouth

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2013, 01:51:58 PM »
I have read that some engines in higher end cars, like Mercedes and Volvo, are designed to come loose so as not to impact the interior.

Alex Jones may be right on this (and sometimes he is) but the guy was traveling at a high rate of speed. He had a prior chemical dependency. He was working on something big. Perhaps his mind just snapped, flying down Melrose, screaming at the top of his lungs "you'll never get me, coppers!"

The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living
are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.
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The enemy of my enemy is my friend; the friend of my enemy is, well, he is just a dumbass.

Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #15 on: June 24, 2013, 02:06:22 PM »
Well just to put everyone's mind at ease, the car I'm currently building won't have no "quick-disconnect" motor mounts. If it comes loose you'll know they hit me with someting big

 :o

Offline Libertas

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2013, 07:04:02 AM »
I better check how mine are secured...
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #18 on: June 28, 2013, 08:41:24 AM »
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/can-your-car-be-hacked-feature

Just sayin' ..........

"So the possibility now exists for platoons of cars to go rogue at the command of computer-savvy terrorists, crazed exes, and parking attendants with Ph.D.s in computer science."

The cops have been asking for a kill switch.

Offline Libertas

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Re: Reporter Michael Hastings Mysterious Death
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2013, 11:14:20 AM »
The primary desire being to kill the occupant/enemy of the state.

In other words...us.
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.