As soon as I heard about his death, it sounded like murder, don't know if it was but it was the first thing that came to my head...
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While he was filing regularly, Hastings wrote, he also had "a few days of getting completely blitzed." He mentioned one particularly out-of-control evening in Las Vegas, during which he insulted a Wall Street Journal reporter "in the most offensive terms possible, bringing shame to my family."
This was not some bit of gonzo exaggeration.
"He wasn't ranting and raving, but he definitely had a few too many drinks. And he definitely insulted the Wall Street Journal reporter," Knox says.
Michael Hastings' publicity photo shows him as a battle-hardened war correspondent.
Hastings recently had lost weight and went clean-shaven. In March, he donned a hoodie for an appearance on Current TV.
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Jordanna Thigpen says that Hastings "scared himself" that night, and vowed to stop drinking. When he got to L.A., she says, he got a prescription for medical marijuana and smoked regularly. Other friends say he continued to drink occasionally but not to excess.
In November, he went on CNN and insulted its Pentagon correspondent, calling her a "spokeswoman" for the military. He later explained that he might have been hungover that day.
In February he moved to Los Angeles, where he joined BuzzFeed's new bureau. For recreation, he took up skateboarding and boxing. Friends noticed he had lost weight.
Though he was officially in town to cover Hollywood, he did relatively little of that. As ever, he remained focused on national security.
He found a legion of admirers in L.A.'s progressive media world. He was invited to attend panels and share his views on drones, Afghanistan and presidential politics.
"He was definitely an iconic figure here," says Linsey Pecikonis of Brave New Films, a documentary company.
Hastings was a regular guest on Current TV's The Young Turks and Huffpost Live, making friends on the staffs of both shows.
"He was one of us," says Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks. "There just aren't very many really aggressive journalists challenging the Pentagon."
Hastings hung out with The Nation's Jeremy Scahill when the reporter was in town promoting his documentary Dirty Wars. In May, Hastings was invited to a salon at director Oliver Stone's house, along with a guest list of progressive stars like Sean Penn, Glenn Greenwald, writer David Sirota and economist Dean Baker.
"He seemed a little stressed," Stone says by email, "but nothing out of the ordinary in our culture."
A certain level of lighthearted paranoia would be unremarkable in such company.
Uygur says, "We joked that night that, if Scahill was there, we would have definitely had a drone strike on the house."
The Boston Marathon bombing in April brought new attention to government surveillance. Soon thereafter, a retired FBI agent said on CNN that the government would be able to go back and listen to the suspects' phone calls from before the bombing.
In mid-May, the Justice Department disclosed that it had obtained records of 20 phone lines belonging to Associated Press reporters as part of a leak investigation. The next week, the Washington Post obtained an affidavit from another investigation, in which a Fox News reporter was described as a "co-conspirator" with an alleged leaker.
And on June 5, Edward Snowden's leaks unmasked the NSA's electronic dragnet. As these revelations tumbled out, one after the other, Hastings grew increasingly consumed by them.
Hastings ended Panic 2012 on a hopeful note about President Obama. But when the AP story broke, he quickly changed course, arguing that the government's behavior would have a chilling effect on investigative journalism.
"Any leeway or sympathy I ever give to the Obama White House, I take back forever," he said on Huffpost Live, on May 14.
The next week on The Young Turks, Hastings wore a green "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" T-shirt. Gesticulating for emphasis, he shouted, "I'm sick of this partisan, defend-Obama-on-everything. He's tapping your phones! The man is tapping your phones!"
In public appearances, Hastings said he had no information to suggest that he was being targeted. In private, he was convinced that he was.
"He felt that everything he was doing was being watched," Uygur says.
Gail Sistrunk McTiernan spoke with Hastings several times in May and June for a BuzzFeed story about her husband, imprisoned Die Hard director John McTiernan. "I know it was [Hastings'] belief that it was absolutely no problem for the FBI or anyone else" to listen to his calls, she says. "He assumed they were."
In May, Hastings traveled to Washington and New York and visited his editors. As usual, he was full of ideas — maybe something on the underbelly of Hollywood. He also was interested in doing something on surveillance, maybe a book.
"The NSA stuff ... really rocked him a bit," says Rosenthal, his editor. "I'm not a doctor, but he certainly was agitated in the last day or two of his life."
Mike McTernan, a staffer at Brave New Films, helped arrange a Skype interview for Hastings with some victims injured in a drone strike in Pakistan in early June. Hastings was thinking about including the material in a story he was doing for Rolling Stone on CIA director John Brennan.
"He just seemed very freaked out," McTernan says. "The conversation, in general, was pretty out there. He seemed like he was on edge."
The day before Hastings died, he sent an email to his BuzzFeed bosses with the subject line "FBI investigation, re: NSA." The email informed them that "the Feds are interviewing 'my close friends and associates,' " and advised them to get a lawyer if they were contacted. (No friends or associates have stepped forward to say that they were interviewed, and the FBI has denied it was investigating Hastings.)
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211 comments
Eric withholder destroys millions of pages of documents Fast Furious, IRS, NSA, TSA, HHC, EPA
trinity church sodomists with info on davis obamas beard, and anus all popped with no racial outcry
Wait a minute... so, one paragraph after feeling compelled to comment on this article and wondering who the mainstream gatekeeper responsible for this article is, three graphs later it turns out that Greg Maddaus, THE AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE, is the gatekeeper?
Dude, how much did you get paid to write this post-mortem Michael Hastings hit piece? Have you NO shame?!
What is so odd about writers like Maddaus and his myriad mainstream AND so-called independent writer cronies is that they ALWAYS utterly fail to properly contextualize the subject matter about which they write. Any clown knows a Mercedes-Benz doesn't blow up upon contact with a tree and throw major engine parts (the entire engine?) 50-100 yards away from the impact point. Any writer with a search engine at his/her disposal KNOWS our government has engaged in assassinations for CENTURIES (remember the blankets imbued with smallpox handed to Native Americans as gestures of "good will" when signing "peace" agreements?!).
Viewed anywhere close to its proper context, it's baldly obvious that Michael Hastings' death was/is a homicide. Hastings' "haunted" and "Dangerous Mind" (I love it when LA writers slip in those cinema references hoping to hypnotize the local populace into suspending their collective belief systems and conscious worldviews) was the result of signs purposely left expressly for him - the kind that tell a person that "they" can infiltrate your privacy at will; the Mafia does the same with people who think they're protected when a Mafia member is hired out to cut right through a person's security and literally touch the person they want to either scare, letting the subject know in no uncertain terms that they are NEVER safe (from where do you think our intel agencies borrow some of their tactics?!).
Perceived soberly, Michael Hastings was offed - period. It's just too bad the promise of money, notoriety, and a pair of heavy-duty kneepads made for something other than genuflecting at the feet of the powerful in whose "national interests" our intelligence agencies act, is so tempting that media types will forsake the ability to be able to look themselves in the mirror - just to be a feted lapdog in close proximity to their corporate masters.
And with that, I answered my own question ---- of course Greg Maddaus, you have no shame.
"Amateur forensic examinations have proliferated online. A common refrain is, "A car just doesn't blow up like that.""
"Amateur forensic examinations..." The reps from Mercedes uttered that "common refrain!"
With errors in fact like the above and those elucidated below, the only question is, who is this responsible for the Michael Hastings as paranoid, oddball man/journalist tenor of this article???
Hastings had no "dangerous mind." He had a beautiful and wild mind-- a mind that saw the big picture and then he had the heart to lay his life on the line to get the truth out. The LA weekly knows this. Maddeus knows this. But, this is the same publication that refused to cover the suspicious death of LAPD whistleblower, Jacqueline Montalvo. Had they-- Hastings would likely be alive today. Shame on you, Maddeus.
Why not at least consider the possibility that Michael's e-mail might be the truth? He said that he was going under the radar for a few days.
Timeline. Remember, he asked the police to inspect his car because he believed it had been tampered with. Has Gene Maddeus from this paper thought to obtain that police report? What did it say?
Next.
1.His brother comes into town to get him into rehab--could that have been the
"cover story?" 2. He sends out his final email the afternoon before his death cautioning friends
that they may be contacted by the FBI and to seek legal advice. 3. He contacts
Jennifer Robinson at Wikileaks at 11:30 p.m. 4. A couple hours before his
death, he tells his neighbor he's afraid to drive his car and requests to borrow
hers. Request was denied. 5. He takes off in a rush. a. " to go under the radar" b. Was he upset with his brother at the thought of rehab? c. Is he upset for some other reason? Where is his wife? d. He was poor tortured soul who had witnessed many horrible things and truths and couldn't handle them anymore and drove uncontrollably into a palm tree. 6. At
4:30 a.m. his car is a ball of fire upon impact or just prior to impact and his engine & transmission minus the oil pan fly out 150 feet.
Don't we all wish the police would look at this from Michael's perspective and show us why he was wrong?
I am a reporter in Texas and contacted LAPDs PR office today. The two people with whom I spoke were completely unfamiliar with the Michael Hastings case. I had to verify that I had called the Los Angeles Police department. She didn't know Michael Hastings from Adam. The second woman was not much better. "Los Angeles is a big city and there's a lot of stuff going on here." The second woman gave me the name of the Detective Connie White. Her contact number is 213 473-0234 and the email address is pio@lapd.lacity.org.
I suggest if we are going to find the truth, we all get busy and come up with questions to ask the good detective. Let's exercise our right to petition our government for grievances and our first amendment! We must hold all of these people, including this so called journalist accountable.
A debunking of the Michael Hastings conspiracy, point by point. http://skeptoid.com/blog/2013/08/26/why-michael-hastings-wasnt-murdered/
If Hastings had written a piece that brought down a mob boss in the same manner he did McChrystal, the implicit shared cultural understanding would be that assassination was a reasonable consideration. Instead, an increasingly naive and tenuous faith in the basic decency of our government leads writers like this one to bends over backward, crafting silly stories like this one. Sure - it's totally conceivable this was an accident induced by emotional dis-ease or exhaustion. But it's hardly an open and shut case. So long as one is willing to consider that there are covert intelligence organizations of questionable moral integrity operating within the US and not entirely straightforward about their activities, it seems equally reasonable to question if Hastings was killed because something in the Snowden revelations put said organizations into panic mode. Only one thing is clear, the CIA's now-very-old (and well documented) program to popularize the "conspiracy theorist" smear in the aftermath of the Warren Commission has become a successful american institution in its own right.
This is some of the worst, most irresponsible propaganda laden journalism I've ever read. Random people's opinion's are quoted and then given weight? This article is disrespectful to Michael Hastings, to journalism, and to anybody who has the displeasure of reading it. By the way, telling move changing the title from "A Dangerous Man" to "Michael Hastings' Dangerous Mind." Gene, go back to the CIA. Your journalism card has been revoked.
The Government wouldn't do what? A government which would use Fast & Furious as a red herring to get gun control by blaming the guns in Mexican drug cartel hands on sales by American citizens............a government that would stand idly by while our Ambassador to Libya, an aide and 2 Navy Seals were murdered..............you mean that government wouldn't (or couldn't) arrange an "accident" for a pesky reporter? Surely someone is being disingenuous here! As Judge Judy used to say, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.
You are missing the point, w/this wordy, lengthy, abusive take you could not come to term that several people were wasted between 2007-2013, for what appear to be politically motivated targeted eliminations. I cannot do for you the homework, link or tie a common thread, but 3 happened in L.A while you were writing long takes that go no-where. A great investigative reporter would have been able to find a link, II am not one of them but I will give you several clues, and I am not sure how they are related at the moment, I know they were never solved:
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Lynn_Harris, L.A peninsula Hotel, at 53, he was gone in his room, 2009. LAPD has been on siesta ever since.
I bet that when the Obituary appearedin the L.a Times the editors could not be bothered, asking questions, who he was, his circle of firends, what did he know, could it be a targeted and focused job?
I am not a journalism professor but I know a smelly fish when i see one: If you examine this URL and assigned several interns to read the books this prolific author wrote, perhaps they could write a report, explaining why somebody would have preferred this man-dead!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=e%20lynn%20harris&sprefix=e+lyn%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ae%20lynn%20harris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Lynn_Harris
2. Go down this tab, you ll find several cases of Gay men who were eliminated: http://hillbuzz.org/is-barack-obama-gay
When you are done, keep in mind that the list goes to somewhere near 10 dead bodies.
I am not sure howth is fellow had something to do with it, but the clue could be with Brenan/CIA, not the burned general.
At one point, you cannot hide behind your computer screen and do some real work other than just puff pieces. There is so much the public can do to help you !
"It would not be wise to go expose yourself to combat and then smoke a ton of extremely potent pot," Robertson says. "Certain things are not good to do."
A lot of US spec ops did that in Nam, as well as the RLI in Africa, and many other combat troops in today's war zones.... so what's the point exactly with that statement?
People have been killed by governments including ours. ELF members were bombed by the FBI, agents poisoned and so forth.
Smear propaganda. This author should quit his job at LA Weekly and start working for the Ministry of Truth....he's that good. Someone send this man a bottle of gin.
This is what America has become. Freedom of the press does no longer exist! If you're a journalist and happen onto something that "our" government doesn't want you to talk about, you end up like Mr. Hastings!!!
I believe the government had some of his neighbors watching him and that includes Jordanna Thigpen because I believe she was pretending to be his friend but was not really his friend at all. He was young and handsome and targeted. The way that car exploded, it seemed like something was prompting a fierce blaze. So handsome and young and it's really sad.
They try to make it sound like he was crazy or on drugs and not even his family believes him. I do believe him, 100%. I believe he was targeted by a black ops government agency and terminated for fear of his going to the public with more information that could identify more government black ops into violating the privacy rights of every American citizen. The truth will come out ... I'm sure.
wauuu all of this biographie they never mention his wife was very deep in the government everybody knows this guy was kill by the cia they put a bomb c4 under the seat or possible by remote control by apps his friend sergeant briggs has been saying they threatened the wife to keep her mouth shut
@dingbat36 You are no dingbat. But, Maddeus is. He even knows about the massive coverups by prosecutors and the LAPD and how his paper has chickened out when it comes to reporting on this. It is just as likely that Hastings was murdered by the federal prosecutor in L.A, Daniel Saunders-- The story on Mcteirnan for buzzfeed was explosive. This is the same paper that refused to report on the railroading of Coyote Shivers at the behest of Paulley Perrette. Pathetic, Maddeus.
@americawakeupnow This paper, the LA weekly, did not cover the murder of LAPD officer, Jaqueline Montalvo. Tragic state of affairs when the press is beholden to special interests.
@americawakeupnow In one way, the Press does have freedom...The freedom to say what the government tells it to do or the freedom to lie like a Mother-"F" to try to make themselves sound credible...
If they would read and report the news properly, instead of leading with false information, as in the coroner's report (request your own copy) in no way stated that Hastings was drugged up...in fact it states that in no way did drugs have anything to do with his accident.
Reporters seem to sensationalize stories to get the masses to read their rag...and yet do the poorest job in get it straight.
@essiepeaches He died at the same age Jesus Did. There really are parallels. This man was a martyr for the Coyote Shivers's, Brandon Raub's, and Melissa Balin's of the world.
It does seem like that was an unusually intense flame, it seemed like a huge explosion. It's possible it could have been a C4 explosion. It's terribly sad. If he did not have the right to investigate, do we really have any rights? It's just like when they tried to keep everyone quiet about the murder of JFK. JFK was guarded by a government agency and they lost his decapitated head. No, they didn't lose it, they gave it to someone as a trophy. Still have not found his head to this day. God help us all.
@j.a.g51 @americawakeupnow I agree with your statement. I do also believe that many of these journalists fear for their safety and livelihood, so they are not inclined to do the "hard hitting" reporting of the truth that they should be doing.
@essiepeaches @humbertos1871 -- It is his brain, not his head that is not buried with the body. JFK's brain was still undergoing tests at the time of burial. It was later returned to the Kennedy family who have chosen to not make it ( and many other items) available to every theorist with a YouTube account. The truth will indeed set you free. Every time.
@Yode @americawakeupnow @j.a.g51 It's scary and beyond Orwellian!!! This nation has a huge problem in that Americans tend to believe without question all of this misinformation!! It will be the undoing of this great nation!!!
DoD org chart
A lot of big boys with big dangerous toys and tons of dough to stir the waters.....
If it doesn't "fit" the narrative, fear for you well-being. When the DoD engages in research using media control as a weapon all bets are off for objective reporting and freedom of the press. Darpa and NSA are key DoD agencies that don't take being on the losing end of a situation very well.
http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Narrative_Networks.aspx
http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/I2O/Programs/Social_Media_in_Strategic_Communication_(SMISC).aspx
@j.a.g51 @americawakeupnow I'm in total agreement with you. I believe that America is going by way of the East German Stasi State! I believe that freedom of the press is over and has been over for quite a while in the U.S.!!
@americawakeupnow , You what strikes me odd, on what you say about the Journalist being cautious is that there is an overwhelming correlation between the actions of the US Gov. and it's military to those of the 1930-1945 Germany...Even more so these days than ever...
As in Germany back in the day, the military was given a great power by it's Little Corporal, the SS Group achieved a more fearsome outlook and the Gestapo became the most feared agency by people around the world...
So America has it's in-house FBI, NSA and CIA and since the 9/11 the DHS and TSA have bee implemented and given massive autonomy in it's dealings with their own citizens, 99.999% of whom are innocent civilians and they treat them all like Warring Enemies...
I feel that left unchecked, we may end up in a massively deadly conflict with our government..
But those are just my thoughts...
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