Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

[Hammer of Los]

...

I'd give you a professorship over him anyday, Jack.

...

[elfismiles]

Exclusive— Hastings ‘Unauthorized Cremation’ Mega-Rumor False, Family Says
By Russ Baker on Aug 13, 2013

According to a member of Michael Hastings’s family, a widely circulated story that the investigative journalist’s body was cremated by authorities without the family’s permission is flat-out untrue.

The story that the cremation was unauthorized—further stoking credible suspicions aroused by Hastings’s strange death in a fiery one-car crash, complete with a dramatic explosion– has raged across the Internet for weeks.

A recent count showed 475,000 results for “Hastings cremated” and 357,000 for “Hastings cremation.” The top results all reported that the family did not want the cremation. The clear implication was that this was proof of a cover-up – that “the authorities” had rushed to dispose of the body in a way that would make further inquiries, such as an autopsy, impossible.

But a family member told WhoWhatWhy, “It was our wish to have Michael’s remains cremated.” In fact, this family member said the cremation came about at the family’s specific request—and only after an autopsy and toxicology tests, whose results are pending.

In light of this simple, clarifying statement, it’s worth asking: How do blatantly counter-factual rumors and untruths get traction in the cybersphere?

Often, as in this case, they start with legitimate suspicions: just before his death Hastings told associates he was working on a blockbuster story involving the “NSA.” Building on these suspicions, a reporter makes an ambiguous statement that sounds like a shocking revelation — but is actually the result of a leap of faith, an unwarranted assumption by the reporter…which turns out to be incorrect.

Here is a local television reporter for a commercial station in San Diego, Kim Dvorak:

“A close family friend did confirm that Michael’s body was sent home in an urn, meaning he was cremated and it wasn’t the request of the family….in fact the family wanted Michael’s body to go home.”

Soon, the story was everywhere—including on almost all of the websites that generate heavy traffic by catering to those who hunger for a steady diet of stories hostile to the government, no matter their veracity.

***

When we contacted Dvorak by email to ask where she got the “unauthorized cremation” claim, she replied:

I will not be sharing sources for privacy reasons. I will point you to Elise Jordan’s CNN interview where she had plenty of opportunities to deny details reported on San Diego 6 (we are affiliated with CNN).

The problem with this disingenuous reply is that Elise Jordan (Hastings’s widow) was not asked about the cremation by the program’s host, Piers Morgan. The short interview segment did not include discussion of any details of the crash or aftermath, beyond Jordan’s statement that she accepted the crash as an accident and that her husband was always working on multiple intriguing stories at any one time. While this assertion may well be premature, it is not so surprising given the sort of pressures on family members to demonstrate restraint in such circumstances. (From several sources, WhoWhatWhy understands that the family and friends remain curious, like the public, and open to further information that may shed light on the incident.)

Meanwhile, another person Dvorak interviewed fits the description she used in her original report, of “a close family friend.” That’s Joe Biggs, a retired staff sergeant who was close with Hastings and who did in fact speak to her about the cremation.

In a telephone interview, Biggs told us that he was the source of Dvorak’s reporting, but not her mis-reporting. “That lady asked me about being at the memorial service. I said it was the first one I’ve been at without a body. I meant we didn’t have closure….I said that if I were killed, I would never want to be cremated. Somehow all this got mixed up… She took that to be that the body is missing and family didn’t know where it is. Then this whole thing spun out of control.

“I saw the video of her on the news talking about it… That made me sick to my stomach… I finally got hold of her, and she said she’d retract it, and I don’t know if she did.” (She has not.)

Biggs said that as soon as he saw Dvorak’s report, he contacted everyone he could think of to tell them that his comments had been badly distorted to create the appearance he was alleging a conspiracy.

Matt Farwell, who often worked with Hastings as his writing partner and who is finishing Hastings’s final story for Rolling Stone, is furious with Dvorak, whom he called “a fucking disgrace—and that’s on the record.” Farwell says he fired off an angry email to Dvorak, decrying her reports.

As for the crash itself, he agrees it should be investigated.

“It’s being looked at closely— and unless it’s good solid stuff like the video and [the WhoWhatWhy] piece from the guy whose girlfriend has the pizzeria; unless it’s good solid shoe leather journalism—it’s not helping anyone. It makes the LAPD and the feds go into closed-off mode and makes people not want to say anything.”

***

Many people have taken Dvorak’s work seriously simply because they were pleased to see a “mainstream” local television station carrying the kind of conspiracy-tinged reports she has done.

Indeed, Dvorak has become something of a cult hero on the Internet. As one popular post on Reddit puts it: “Kimberly Dvorak is essentially the only journalist doing work on the ground with the Michael Hastings death. We ***NEED*** to support her. This is her twitter. Spread this far and wide.”

It’s not at all clear Dvorak deserves the title of “journalist.” Her twitter page identifies her not as a television reporter but as “Examiner National Homeland Security Correspondent”—a reference to the Examiner network of conservative-oriented websites. Most of her work has been essays with an editorial tone for conservative or right-wing sites, marked by a clear animus toward the Obama administration, and by alarmist content about “illegal aliens” and other perceived threats.

***

The larger lesson here is one about the state of news today. The media/online world seems increasingly divided between those who are too quick to accept official claims—and those whose default posture is that everything is a plot to cover up the truth. It’s hard to find real journalists—whose work can be trusted because they approach a story with an open mind, a commitment to digging out the facts, and a willingness to report whatever they find.

There are enough truly troubling things about the Michael Hastings story not to have legitimate inquiries sidetracked by a red herring. As Matt Farwell pointed out, instead of advancing a real investigation, such shoddy “reporting” has the exact opposite effect.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/08/13/exclus ... mily-says/

[Forgetting2]

Once, with the cremation story, could be considered shoddy journalism, if one would like to be generous. Twice, with the engine behind the accident, even though there was less traction on that one, makes me think she has an agenda. A third time with the car traveling at 35mph, when she can't know that, and I wonder who's paying her.

[elfismiles]

Snowden: NSA targeted journalists critical of government after 9/11
By Jonathan Easley - 08/13/13 08:19 AM ET
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -after-911

CIA DIRECTOR BRENNAN CONFIRMED AS REPORTER MICHAEL HASTINGS NEXT TARGET
By Kimberly Dvorak

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

Obama Leak Investigations (internal use only - pls do not forward)
Released on 2012-09-10 00:00 GMT

Email-ID 1210665
Date 2010-09-21 21:38:37
From burton@stratfor.com
To secure@stratfor.com

Brennan is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning
information from inside the beltway sources.

Note -- There is specific tasker from the WH to go after anyone printing
materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is
shocked. The Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode...

http://www.wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1 ... o-not.html

[Luther Blissett]

Once, with the cremation story, could be considered shoddy journalism, if one would like to be generous. Twice, with the engine behind the accident, even though there was less traction on that one, makes me think she has an agenda. A third time with the car traveling at 35mph, when she can't know that, and I wonder who's paying her.

It also calls into question the Brennan revelation I linked above from her.

[Iamwhomiam]

What about the engine in front of the accident, 150 feet in front of it after a 35mph crash?

[slimmouse]

Big thanks for the link miles.

It always gets me wondering at what point do such episodes, prompt people to begin to ask themselves some hard truths, and some harder truths that follow.

One being that this whole episode is simply business as usual for a far larger, ongoing agenda, regardless of who the President is?

That for many is when much of the cognitive dissonance really begins to take hold.

[Forgetting2]

It also calls into question the Brennan revelation I linked above from her.

Makes me want to look in the opposite direction, even if Brennan was one of the stories he was onto.

[barracuda]

The cremation story "against family wishes" was originally by sourced by Dvorak directly to Staff Sgt. Biggs as a quote. See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023275167

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpxuaUwZ7fI

and etc. Perform a search for

Code: Select all

“Family members did not want Michael's body cremated." biggs

to find the original article, which states,

Michael Hastings’ Ashes Sent Home for Burial

Details uncovered by this reporter shed new light into the June 18 death of journalist Michael Hastings.

Hastings’ friend and confidant SSgt. Joe Biggs disclosed a macabre twist in the award-winning journalist’s death in a suspicious single-car accident. According to SSgt. Biggs, “Michael Hastings’ body was returned to Vermont in an urn.” He further alleged, “Family members did not want Michael’s body cremated.”

This revelation provides another wrinkle in the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) handling of a case they labeled “no foul play” only hours after the writer’s death.

Here is the article as it now stands on the San Diego 6 website, scrubbed of the "Family ... cremated." part of the story.

Biggs denied the statement on July 17th:

http://www.cryptogon.com/?p=36054

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Once, with the cremation story, could be considered shoddy journalism, if one would like to be generous. Twice, with the engine behind the accident, even though there was less traction on that one, makes me think she has an agenda. A third time with the car traveling at 35mph, when she can't know that, and I wonder who's paying her.

Yup. The term 'honey pot', as described by Michael Ruppert about Mike Vreeland in Crossing the Rubicon, comes to mind. I'll take her future stories with a grain of salt the size of the Rock of Gibraltar.

[Nordic]

She had something of an Orly Taitz vibe to her.

[seemslikeadream]

CIA DIRECTOR BRENNAN CONFIRMED AS REPORTER MICHAEL HASTINGS NEXT TARGET

By Kimberly Dvorak
Created: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 10:51:00 PST
Updated: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 11:08:27 PST
This week Elise Jordan, wife of famed journalist Michael Hastings, who recently died under suspicious circumstances, corroborated this reporter's sources that CIA Director, John Brennan was Hastings next exposé project (CNN clip).

Last month a source provided San Diego 6 News with an alarming email hacked from super secret CIA contractor Stratfor’s President Fred Burton. The email (link here) was posted on WikiLeaks and alleged that then Obama counter-terrorism Czar Brennan, was in charge of the government's continued crackdown or witch-hunt on investigative journalists.


After providing the Stratfor email to the CIA for comment, the spymaster's spokesperson responded in lightning speed. Two emails were received; one acknowledging Hastings was working on a CIA story and the other said, “Without commenting on information disseminated by WikiLeaks, any suggestion that Director Brennan has ever attempted to infringe on constitutionally-protected press freedoms is offensive and baseless.”

The emails also prompted a phone from CIA media spokesman Todd Ebitz. He said they were saddened by Michael’s death and reiterated their position that they had a cordial working relationship with the investigative reporter.

On the other hand, Stratfor, specifically Fred Burton, remains nonresponsive.

As for Hastings’ final story, his wife said Rolling Stone would publish the Brennan piece in an upcoming edition of the magazine.



Was speed a factor?

The release of a new surveillance video from a nearby Italian restaurant by Michael Krikorian, an author, freelance blogger who also writes for LA Weekly, reveals a lot of information about Hastings’ final seconds.

A University professor told San Diego 6 News that calculating the speed of Hastings car follows a simple mathematic equation. By using the video and the distance traveled (195 feet) as well as the seconds that lapsed prior to the explosion – the car was traveling roughly 35 mph.

That revelation is important because Jose, an employee of ALSCO a nearby business, and a witness to the accident told KTLA/Loud Labs (Scott Lane) the car was traveling at a high rate of speed and he saw sparks coming from the car and saw it explode BEFORE hitting the tree.

The pre-explosion could possibly explain the flash of light on the video that preceded the appearance of the car in the video. The pre-explosion and slower speed could also explain the minimal damage to the palm tree and the facts the rear tires rested against the curb. It also provides an explanation for the location of the engine and drive train at more than 100 feet from the tree impact area.

This new information prompted another round of FOIA/CPRAs and only adds to the questions that remain unanswered. One of those questions is where was Mr. Hastings going at 4:30 in the morning? Based on the accident location, Hastings was only 1.5 miles from his home and was headed away from his address.

Other unanswered questions point to the contents (computer, phones, notes, etc.) of his home, so far there has been no response from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) FOIA request regarding these issues. Also, numerous FOIAs have been filed with other federal agencies concerning details of Hastings suspicious car “accident.”

I would like to thank the tens of thousands of people following this important story and the supportive comments that include many helpful tips. You can post anonymous tips for me at theKDreport.com or sandiego6.com or email: Kimberly.dvorak@hotmail.com

[elfismiles]

Just heard AJ name drop hanging out skiing, surfing, boating with the Steiner bros and Biggs yesterday.

[8bitagent]

Just heard AJ name drop hanging out skiing, surfing, boating with the Steiner bros and Biggs yesterday.

The pro wrestling team?

That San Diego reporter seems genuine, but yeah perpetuating spurious "facts" is never productive if one can help it.

[Forgetting2]

Watched the Biggs interview with Alex Jones. Thanks for tipping that Elfismiles. Interesting stuff if you can ignore that AJ factor. (Mr. Spurious Facts himself.)
Biggs seems to think Barrett Brown is important. He also describes the 180 from Elise Jordan from what she said at the memorial, that she was going find out who killed Hastings, to what she said on Piers, that it was a tragic accident. According to Biggs, she was supportive of Biggs' own investigation prior to the Piers interview, or at least didn't mind that he was doing it, and then there's a sudden change after the Piers interview where it sounds as if she's practically begging him in texts not to go to L.A. and investigate. Watching Biggs talk I believe he's genuine. His responses to AJ are thoughtful and measured, in my opinion. (He doesn't take Jones' bait to start speculating and call it fact.)



Dvorak is making up shit and throwing it in the stew. Consciously or unconsciously, out of unethical self promotion, hidden agenda or enterprising stupidity, she's a hazard. (In my opinion anyways.)