Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

[fruhmenschen]

This EMP Cannon Stops Cars Almost Instantly
http://gizmodo.com/5454295/this-emp-can ... -instantly

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Hastings Death Examined

By Scott Buzo

Created: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 12:26:00 PST

Updated: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 09:32:49 PST

Hastings’ 911 callers and new video confirm large explosions

By Kimberly Dvorak

It's been nearly two months since journalist Michael Hastings died in a fiery car crash in Los Angeles. A new surveillance video from a nearby business obtained by San Diego 6 News and posted by LA Weekly graphically shows multiple explosions consuming his 2013 Mercedes Benz.



The surveillance video captures the final moments of Hastings life and provides intriguing details of the "crash.” The video shows a flash of light appearing at the 13-14 second mark, the headlights are on at 14 seconds, but all lights are extinguished at the 16-second mark. The car then turns left and the first horizontal explosion appears just after the 16-second mark (it ejects the left front tire across northbound highland approximately 40-50 feet). The second explosion engulfs the engine compartment at the 17-second mark. The third and largest explosion consumes the passenger compartment at the 17-18-second mark.



Inexplicably, the palm tree Hastings’ car hit has scorched bark and slightly wounded base --approximately 16"W x 4.5" H x 1"D-- seemingly minimal damage for a 3,538 pound car striking the tree at a reportedly 100 mph. Also pictures taken by San Diego 6 News show the curb has a small scratch, but no major chipping or fractures and the rear tires resting against the curb.



The new video also captures three distinct explosions, but the intensity of the fire suggests an accelerant may have been involved since gasoline only burns at 530 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit.



Just prior to airtime, San Diego 6 News received the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) response to its FOIA request for transcripts of the 911 calls made by witnesses describing the sounds of explosions that woke them and took the life of the award-winning journalist in the early hours of June 18.



There were seven 911 calls included in the FOIA from the LAPD to San Diego 6 News:



Call one; “Caller reported an accident, the car exploded. Caller was transferred to the Los Angeles City Fire Department.”



Call two; “Caller reported a huge accident, and the car had blown up. Caller was transferred to the Los Angeles City Fire Department.”



Call three; “Caller reported a car accident occurred in front of his house, and the car is burning.”



Call four; “Caller reported a traffic collision, he is not involved, there is a possible fatality because there was a giant explosion that occurred in the median, unknown if anyone got out of the vehicle.”



Call five; “Caller reported a car is totally engulfed in flames.”



Call six; “Caller reported a large fire on the divider of the road, he is not sure if there is a car involved.”



And call seven; “Caller reported huge auto accident.”



Prophetically, just hours before his death Hastings sent the following email to close friends: “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.



But, the FBI Los Angeles-based spokesperson, Laura Eimiller, atypically emailed media emphatically denying the agency was looking into Mr. Hastings background.



As an investigative journalist, Hastings saw his fair share of threats. One particular passage in his book, “The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan,” revealed that a former McChrystal staff member made a death threat. “We'll hunt you down and kill you if we don't like what you write,” the unnamed staffer said. Hastings coolly retorted: “Well, I get death threats like that about once a year, so no worries.”



A friend of Michael Hastings, who met him after the story on General McChrystal said “Michael was fearless, but he was obviously scared by something (referencing the email).”



Stonewalling and obfuscatory tactics seem to be indicative of the “new normal” response from government agencies when trying to avoid a finding of “foul play” and Michael Hastings' "accident" is no exception.



The newly released 911 calls and LAPD's failure to produce the police report only postulate additional questions. No amount of personal threats or stonewalling from government officials will curtail the truth from eventually coming out. And despite the LAPD push back, San Diego 6 News will continue to seek the truth with the assistance of Judicial Watch, a Washington DC based foundation.



One puzzling aspect of the LAPD's objection to the release of the police report is the inference in the FOIA/CPRA response to San Diego 6 News that a federal investigation may be in progress, which only adds further questions as to what agency is investigating since the FBI said it is not investigating. This turn of events reaffirms this reporter's contention and the tens of thousands of individuals who have responded to this story that it IS in the public interest … Hastings was a national figure.



To find-out who is investigating and why, this week Judicial Watch will serve additional FOIAs against the DOJ (AKA Eric Holders’ war on journalists), Department of Homeland Security’s HSI, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secretary of the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Secretary of the Department of the Army (due to unchallenged threats made directly to Mr. Hastings).



Despite official stonewalling and personal threats, the investigation continues. Stay tuned for further news from this reporter.

[justdrew]

I don't know, but I didn't get the impression the car was going that fast (100mph) at the end. Will see if something can be worked up from the 2nd video, but it may be difficult/impossible since we don't know the frame rate of the source video.

[Forgetting2]

It would be interesting to find out where McChrystal was June 18th and thereabout. All I could find from google:


June 20th ?, Minneapolis, MN (Twitter link to pix with Greg Sdeo) Sdeo Twitter feed puts the photo at the 20th - Hillary Clinton is a speaker at the event and she's the one person McChrystal doesn't trash in Hastings' book, reportedly. What’s the event?

June 24th and June 25th – Aspen Institute, CO. For the rollout of his national service plan.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

I don't know, but I didn't get the impression the car was going that fast (100mph) at the end. Will see if something can be worked up from the 2nd video, but it may be difficult/impossible since we don't know the frame rate of the source video.

I'll go with Forgetting2's estimation earlier in this thread of 77mph. That was great work.

[Forgetting2]

It's impossible to say if the car accelerated, decelerated or maintained speed before hitting the palm tree, based on the evidence from the LoudLab News video a half mile north of the crash site.

[Luther Blissett]

Not sure if this is a good source:

http://intellihub.com/2013/08/06/feds-v ... his-death/

Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings, who was killed in a suspicious car crash after complaining that he was being harassed by the FBI, had his home visited by agents from an unnamed federal agency the day before his death, a close friend of Hastings told Infowars.

While it’s known that Hastings had warned others, including Wikileaks, that the FBI was on his case, the fact that feds visited the home of the controversial journalist almost immediately prior to his untimely death is yet another facet to a story which has thrown up numerous questions about the circumstances surrounding the car crash that killed Hastings in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 18.

Through speaking to close friends of Hastings, Infowars has also gathered other astounding revelations about the circumstances surrounding his death that will be released in due course if those individuals are comfortable in going public.
…

[barracuda]

[justdrew]

I'll tell you what, the fuckin NSA needs to use it's DB to identify and have arrested every one of the pieces of filth that routinely issue death threats to media persons.

We need a parade of perp walks for this shit. It goes on ALL THE TIME.

Someone needs to reign in the fascist animals and get them the help they so desperately need. Whether it be reeducation, lobotomy, chemical castration, whatever.

I'm done with cheering for "the return of the old west" we need MORE surveillance, because there's WAY too much going on that requires it. This is a nation is desperate need of adult supervision.

Do we realize in the US that we are one thin hair away from rampant lawless violence far in excess of our ability to deal with?

ALL THE GANGs should be shut down tomorrow. Use what we have, and get it done.

[JackRiddler]

I'll tell you what, the fuckin NSA needs to use it's DB to identify and have arrested every one of the pieces of filth that routinely issue death threats to media persons.

We need a parade of perp walks for this shit. It goes on ALL THE TIME.

Someone needs to reign in the fascist animals and get them the help they so desperately need. Whether it be reeducation, lobotomy, chemical castration, whatever.

I'm done with cheering for "the return of the old west" we need MORE surveillance, because there's WAY too much going on that requires it. This is a nation is desperate need of adult supervision.

Do we realize in the US that we are one thin hair away from rampant lawless violence far in excess of our ability to deal with?

ALL THE GANGs should be shut down tomorrow. Use what we have, and get it done.

Wow, Drew, are you really losing it? The GANGS are the ones in charge. There is no "we" that includes us in this.

[justdrew]

I'll tell you what, the fuckin NSA needs to use it's DB to identify and have arrested every one of the pieces of filth that routinely issue death threats to media persons.

We need a parade of perp walks for this shit. It goes on ALL THE TIME.

Someone needs to reign in the fascist animals and get them the help they so desperately need. Whether it be reeducation, lobotomy, chemical castration, whatever.

I'm done with cheering for "the return of the old west" we need MORE surveillance, because there's WAY too much going on that requires it. This is a nation is desperate need of adult supervision.

Do we realize in the US that we are one thin hair away from rampant lawless violence far in excess of our ability to deal with?

ALL THE GANGs should be shut down tomorrow. Use what we have, and get it done.

Wow, Drew, are you really losing it? The GANGS are the ones in charge. There is no "we" that includes us in this.

So all the dead bodies in Chicago is just the ruling class fighting among itself?

anyway, I know, I know. My point is only that the best way to divert the higher ups is too keep them busy actually doing the jobs we want them to be doing and busting people making death threats to journalists would be a darn good use of resources.

[PufPuf93]

I wish Elise Jordan seemed more the grieving widow and had a different career history.


Take a gander at Elise Jordan's bio at wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elise_Jordan

"Jordan served as a director for communications in the National Security Council from 2008-09. She worked in the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting, at the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad and for the Commanding General's Strategic Advisory Group at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, as well as speechwriter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[2]

Jordan has been a commentator at CTV, BBC, National Public Radio, Fox Business Network, and a regular guest on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.

Jordan's articles about politics have been featured in Marie Claire, The New York Post, The Atlantic.com, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard and the National Review Online. In 2007 she worked with press and communications strategy for Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan with the National Security Council. Elise Hastings is part of the advisory board to the Girls 20 Summit, a summit for young women from G20 nations and the African Union and UNICEF’s Next Generation Steering Committee."

[DrEvil]

I'll tell you what, the fuckin NSA needs to use it's DB to identify and have arrested every one of the pieces of filth that routinely issue death threats to media persons.

We need a parade of perp walks for this shit. It goes on ALL THE TIME.

Someone needs to reign in the fascist animals and get them the help they so desperately need. Whether it be reeducation, lobotomy, chemical castration, whatever.

I'm done with cheering for "the return of the old west" we need MORE surveillance, because there's WAY too much going on that requires it. This is a nation is desperate need of adult supervision.

Do we realize in the US that we are one thin hair away from rampant lawless violence far in excess of our ability to deal with?

ALL THE GANGs should be shut down tomorrow. Use what we have, and get it done.

To quote "Sons of Anarchy":

"The most dangerous gang of all. Old white money."

The street gangs are at the bottom of the food chain, even though there's a lot of them.

[elfismiles]

"Funny" that "gangs" should come up in this thread. I've been told that its "common knowledge" in the journalism community that Hastings was working on 3 stories: the death/murder of a friend/skateboarder, LA cops and LA gangs, and an investigation with Jason Leopold of (I think) more CIA torture prison networks or similar.

What if his alleged last email was a fake and the NSA ref was a red herring?

[Luther Blissett]

I'll tell you what, the fuckin NSA needs to use it's DB to identify and have arrested every one of the pieces of filth that routinely issue death threats to media persons.

We need a parade of perp walks for this shit. It goes on ALL THE TIME.

Someone needs to reign in the fascist animals and get them the help they so desperately need. Whether it be reeducation, lobotomy, chemical castration, whatever.

I'm done with cheering for "the return of the old west" we need MORE surveillance, because there's WAY too much going on that requires it. This is a nation is desperate need of adult supervision.

Do we realize in the US that we are one thin hair away from rampant lawless violence far in excess of our ability to deal with?

ALL THE GANGs should be shut down tomorrow. Use what we have, and get it done.

To quote "Sons of Anarchy":

"The most dangerous gang of all. Old white money."

The street gangs are at the bottom of the food chain, even though there's a lot of them.

Are there? Organized street gangs and organized crime seem to be way down in this city from when I first moved here, about 15 years ago. At that time, the Italian mafia was still quite active.

Drugs require a certain construct of organization, but the way that industry has shifted, the responsibility has turned a bit towards "legitimate" paths (pharmaceutical, security, foreign governments, militaries, police) and individual actors. Violent crime is at the lowest it's been in decades.