Thread: Witness: Hastings’ speeding car ‘shook my car like a freight truck going by’

Witness: Hastings’ speeding car ‘shook my car like a freight truck going by’

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News
Senior Media Reporter
4 hrs ago

A driver who witnessed the fiery crash that killed journalist Michael Hastings says the vehicle the 33-year-old was driving shook his car "like a freight truck" as it flew by early Tuesday morning in Los Angeles.
"Was stopped at a red light tonight when a pearl white Mercedes flew past," Michael Carter wrote on Facebook a few hours later. "It shook my car like a freight truck going by. Saw it burst into flames a quarter mile down the road when it hit a tree."
In a Facebook message to Yahoo News, Carter explained in detail what he saw:

I was stopped at the light at Santa Monica [Boulevard], headed south on Highland [Avenue]. I looked down to turn my radio down, and this car just blasted past me through the red light—it shook my car. No telling how fast the driver was going. A taxi driver was in the far right lane and we looked at each other, both saying, "What the hell was that?"... By the time the light changed, I could only see the tail lights of the white Mercedes—it was probably past Willoughby by then which was the next red light that I got stopped at. The Mercedes was flying down Highland. The same cab driver pulled up to the light at Willoughby [Avenue] and I looked over at him again in disbelief. Right as I did, the cab driver said something to the effect of, "He didn't make it." The [Mercedes] was all the way south of Melrose [Avenue] at this point.
I looked down Highland and saw a giant fireball at the base of one of the palms that line the medians on Highland. It was surreal. Even from as far away as I was, I could see how violent an impact it had been. I live in the area so parked near my place and sprinted over the the scene of the accident. As I was running, a couple of workers from the service station at the corner of Melrose and Highland were also running over. In broken English, one of them and I traded stories of what we saw as we ran. From what I could understand, he saw the car come off the ground at some point—maybe when [it] crossed Melrose.
A Hancock Park resident was already spraying the car with his water hose when we got to it, but wasn't making any progress. The car was engulfed. I couldn't see inside it. Fire trucks and police cars were at the scene almost immediately, it seemed.
I stayed and watched firefighters extinguish the the blaze. Bummed a cigarette from a guy named Jeremy and traded stories about what we saw. He was right around Melrose and Highland when it happened. I gave a statement to police and walked home.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the driver was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 4:25 a.m. Initially, neither the department nor the Los Angeles County coroner's office could positively identify the victim because the body was too badly burned. On Wednesday, the coroner confirmed the body taken from the vehicle was Hastings but said it would likely take several weeks to determine a cause of death.
Raw video taken from the scene—posted on LAWeekly.com—shows Hastings' vehicle engulfed in flames. The crash remains under investigation, the LAPD said on Thursday, but police officials told the Los Angeles Times they do not suspect foul play.
Hastings, a Vermont native whose 2010 Rolling Stone profile of U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal ("The Runaway General") led to McChrystal's resignation, was hired by BuzzFeed last spring to cover President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign and had been working for the site's 6-month-old Los Angeles bureau.
News of Hastings' death was met with a variety of conspiracy theories.
According to the Times, he had been working on a story about Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite who recently filed a privacy lawsuit against the Department of Defense and the FBI.
On Wednesday, WikiLeaks claimed Hastings had contacted a lawyer for the anti-secrecy organization shortly before the crash.
"Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him," WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter:

But on Thursday, the FBI said it was conducting no such investigation. "At no time was journalist Michael Hastings ever under investigation by the FBI," the bureau said in a statement to the Burlington Free Press.
Hastings is survived by his wife, Elise Jordan, a journalist and former speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"Michael was a great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story, and a gift for finding ways to make his readers care about anything he covered from wars to politicians," BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said in a statement announcing Hastings' death. "He wrote stories that would otherwise have gone unwritten, and without him there are great stories that will go untold."
"Great reporters exude a certain kind of electricity," Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will Dana said in a statement of his own. "The sense that there are stories burning inside them, and that there's no higher calling or greater way to live life than to be always relentlessly trying to find and tell those stories. I'm sad that I'll never get to publish all the great stories that he was going to write."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/hastings-crash-witness-113514329.html

CHILLING: Evidence Indicates Michael Hastings Was Assassinated...

June 20, 2013

INFOWARS

(Paul Joseph Watson) -- The revelation that Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

Hastings died early Tuesday morning in Hollywood when his car allegedly hit a tree at high speed. The Los Angeles Coroner’s office has not yet been able to officially identify the body as Hastings because it is so badly burned.

Skeptics of the official narrative have highlighted eyewitness accounts which state that Hastings’ Mercedes “exploded”.

Images of the vehicle appear to show more damage to the rear, around the area of the fuel tank, than the front, leading to speculation that a car bomb which ignited the fuel could have been responsible for the incident.

“No matter how you slice this particular pie, a Mercedes is not just going to explode into flames without a little assistance,” writes freelance journalist Jim Stone. “Car fires in new cars happen for three main reasons — running the engine out of oil, or running the engine out of coolant, or after an absolutely huge car mangling accident, having the hot side of the battery short out against the frame before it reaches the fuse panel. And for all 3 of those normal reasons, which account for virtually all car fires in modern cars, the fire would have started in the engine compartment, progressed slowly, and scorched the hell out of the paint before ever reaching the gas tank. That clean paint is the be all tell all, Michael Hastings was murdered, and the rest is detail.”

Stone also questions why a white sheet has been draped over the vehicle in the image below.

AP
The questions surrounding the precise nature of the “accident” that killed Hastings are given more weight by the fact that the journalist had made enemies within both the FBI and the CIA.

“Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him,” the official Wikileaks Twitter account announced yesterday.

Hastings “had the Central Intelligence Agency in his sights” and was set to release an article exposing the agency, according to L.A. Weekly.

The Obama administration and the Justice Department have openly claimed the authority to assassinate American citizens anywhere in the world if they are deemed a national security threat. A number of American citizens have already been killed as a result of this policy. Is it really that crazy to suggest that Michael Hastings was merely the latest victim of this doctrine?

The New York Daily News highlights the fact that Hastings had received multiple death threats before his demise.

Following his role in bringing down Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, Hastings was told by a McChrystal staffer, “We’ll hunt you down and kill you if we don’t like what you write.”

“Whenever I’d been reporting around groups of dudes whose job it was to kill people, one of them would usually mention that they were going to kill me,” said Hastings.

Hastings was renowned for being “only interested in writing stories someone didn’t want him to write — often his subjects,” according to Buzzflash editor Ben Smith, adding, “He knew that there are certain truths that nobody has an interest in speaking, ones that will make you both your subjects and their enemies uncomfortable. They’re stories that don’t get told because nobody in power has much of an interest in telling them.”

The fact that Hastings had made a plethora of enemies as a result of his hard-hitting investigative journalism has prompted a deluge of online comment speculating that the writer’s “car crash” was no accident.

“Hastings’ wreck might make sense on the freeway, but I doubt he’d be dumb enough to go 100 mph on Highland. He’s not some dumb college kid,” said one commenter on a local news site.

“A warning to other journalists to not dig too deep,” another Reddit user wrote. “Stick with the party line if you want a long, happy life.”

If this was an isolated incident then there wouldn’t be so many questions swirling about Hastings’ death. However, he’s certainly not the first individual to go up against the military-industrial complex and wind up in a coffin.

Other journalists who have proven to be a thorn in the side of the establishment have met the same fate, from Andrew Breitbart who was about to release damaging pre-election information about Barack Obama before he collapsed and died in strange circumstances, to Gary Webb, the Pullitzer prize-winning author who exposed the CIA’s involvement in the drug trade and subsequently committed “suicide” after apparently shooting himself in the head – twice.

More recently, Ibragim Todashev, friend of accused Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnev, was shot in the head six times by the FBI, who initially claimed Todashev was armed but later had to admit this was a lie. Speculation has raged that Todashev was assassinated because he had knowledge about the Boston bombings which the feds didn’t want to see the light of public scrutiny.
Despite his actions, the murder of Christopher Dorner, who was burned to death by LAPD officers while hiding inside a cabin, shows that authorities will not hesitate to resort to such methods.

It’s virtually inevitable that the true cause of Michael Hastings death will never be known and that the mainstream media will demonize anyone who questions the official narrative as a conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, journalists and others who pose a threat to the military-industrial complex will continue to die in bizarre “accidents” that stink of foul play. Read more via Infowars...

http://redflagnews.com/headlines/ale...s-assassinated

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Journalist Michael Hastings Died in a Car Crash. Is There a Story Here?

Much has been written and speculated about the death of 33 year old journalist Michael Hastings in a car crash. Here's what Wikipedia says about Hasting:

Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) was an American journalist, writer and reporter for BuzzFeed.[5] Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek. After his fiancee died in Iraq, he wrote the memoir I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (200. His Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war, documented the widespread contempt of him and his staff for civilian officials in the US government and resulted in the general's resignation.....

In June 2010, Rolling Stone published "The Runaway General", Hastings's profile of US Army general Stanley McChrystal,[12] then commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article reported remarks by McChrystal's staff that were overtly critical and contemptuous of White House staff and other civilian officials. On June 22, the news of the forthcoming article reached the attention of the American print media and the White House. McChrystal immediately issued an extensive apology, and Duncan Boothby, the civilian contractor responsible for coordinating the article with Hastings, resigned. U.S. President Barack Obama summoned McChrystal to the White House on June 23,[13][14] and relieved him of command.

When a prominent young journalist dies under possibly mysterious circumstance, it's not at all unusual for conspiracy theorists to jump into high gear. However, we live in an age where conspiracy is no longer theory or definitely not always theory. The alternate media started to immediately buzz about the death of Hastings who was a Buzzfeed journalist at the time of his death.

What really caught my attention about the death of Hasting was the fact that Economic Policy Journal (EPJ) is posting on the issue. Robert Wenzel and his Economic Policy Journal is not a website that chases conspiracy theories, although it will publish well documented contrarian pieces on issues deemed by the government and mainstream media to be conspiracy nonsense. Wenzel is a guy who loves well document facts, not conspiracies. EPJ recently posted:

Was Michael Hastings Running for His Life When He Crashed? by By Paul Huebl

Award winning journalist Michael Hastings reportedly was under investigation by the FBI after his explosive interview and news story that led to the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal.

The sudden rash of conspiracy theories surrounding Hastings death seems to have serious merit. As a long time investigator, I have obvious questions. I have learned that Hastings was a good and temperate driver. The 4:15 AM, June 18th fiery crash of his Mercedes sedan in Los Angeles show signs of incredibly high speed that apparently caused the loss of control of the car by Hastings.

Very recently Hastings had complained to several people that he was under surveillance by the FBI. The FBI is nothing more than an arm of Eric Holder’s Justice Departmentand they often get instructions from the very highest levels of government.

BREAKING Just Hours Before His Death Hastings Contacted Lawyer About FBI Investigation

Wikileaks reports that investigative reporter Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died in a fiery car crash, saying that the FBI was investigating him.

Automotive Writer on Hastings Crash: Fire Doesn't Happen Like That

Jack Baruth writes at The Truth About Cars about the car crash that killed Michael Hastings, be sure to view the video of the fire...

A Google of Michael Hastings will result in a ton of information. Infowars, the extremely popular website of Alex Jones, is writing about Hastings.

Evidence Indicates Michael Hastings Was Assassinated

The revelation that Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

I'm confident that whatever happened to Hastings will be thoroughly investigated and documented by highly competent independent journalists. This isn't a story that is going away and in the Age of the Internet, the government and its mainstream media partners in crime no longer hold absolute power over information and its reach. Hastings only died 2 days ago and already the alternate truth media is wildly buzzing.

Ultimately, there's a truth in every story and the propaganda powers of government continue to grow weaker and and less credible. The government has a very long history of killing people or in the words of NSA spooks caught chatting at the airport about Edward Snowden "just disappear him".

RELATED http://www.alipac.us/f19/mysterious-...oggers-274749/

Michael Hastings’ Chilling Final Story



by
Bryan Preston
Bio


June 19, 2013 - 9:46 am Journalist Michael Hastings was killed early Tuesday morning in a bizarre car incident in Los Angeles. Hastings, 33, was best known for writing the Rolling Stone story that ended in Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s resignation as head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Hastings’ final story, “Why Democrats Love to Spy on Americans,” was a searing take on the NSA snooping scandal, which Hastings described as “North Korea-esque.” Hastings pulled no punches as he linked the NSA scandal to the Department of Justice’s spying on reporters and the IRS abuse scandal. Hastings built a case that the same Democrats who turned Bush-era anti-terrorism techniques into wedge issues that helped them capture Congress and the White House in 2006 and 2008 were now defending much worse and more widespread spying on American citizens by the Obama administration.
As Hastings detailed likely short-term fallout as the NSA leak is investigated, he wrote:

[J]udging by the DOJ’s and FBI’s recent history, it would seem that any new leak case would involve obtaining the phone records of reporters at the Guardian, the Washington Post, employees at various agencies who would have had access to the leaked material, as well as politicians and staffers in Congress—records, we now can safely posit, they already have unchecked and full access to.
In short: any so-called credible DOJ/FBI leak investigation, by its very nature, would have to involve the Obama administration invasively using the very surveillance and data techniques it is attempting to hide in order to snoop on a few Democratic Senators and more media outlets, including one based overseas.

At the end of the story, Hastings mentions by name several Americans who have come under questionable government scrutiny in the Obama years. Several are household names, but some are not.
Hastings died in a fatal single-car crash at 4:25 on Tuesday morning. A witness said his car “suddenly jackknifed” before crossing the median and hitting a tree, causing a ferocious explosion that reportedly threw the engine block of the brand new Mercedes Hastings was driving 30 or 40 yards from the car. Mercedes engine blocks typically weigh between 290 and 540 pounds. It would take tremendous speed or force to throw one nearly half the length of a football field.

“It sounded like a bomb went off in the middle of the night,” another witness told the TV station. “The house shook, my windows were rattling.”

Hastings’ body was burned “beyond recognition,” according to reports.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/06/19...g-final-story/

Everything that happens in the world isn't a conspiracy. Some things just happen.

FBI: No investigation involving journalist Michael Hastings

By Adam Silverman , Burlington Free Press 9:12 p.m. EDT June 20, 2013


Flowers are placed at a makeshift memorial at the crash site for award-winning journalist Michael Hastings on June 19 in Los Angeles, Calif.(Photo: Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images)
Story Highlights

• Conspiracy theories have emerged since Hasting's death Tuesday
• The FBI, though, is saying there was never an investigation surrounding the journalist
• He died at the scene of a car crash, when his car hit a tree and burst into flames

BURLINGTON, Vt. – The FBI is denying reports that journalist and Vermonter Michael Hastings, who was killed in a single-vehicle car wreck Tuesday in Los Angeles, was the subject of a bureau inquiry.
"At no time was journalist Michael Hastings ever under investigation by the FBI," L.A. Field Office spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told the Burlington Free Press on Thursday.
In other developments Thursday in the death of Hastings, 33, a prominent war correspondent and a 1998 graduate of Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington, Vt.:

• The L.A. Police Department said detectives have concluded no foul play was involved in the crash.
• The Los Angeles County Department of Coroner said it has positively identified Hastings as the victim, using his fingerprints.
• Hastings' family, in an obituary appearing Friday in the Burlington Free Press, said a celebration of his life is set for Sunday in Milton "where his family will greet friends," and a prayer service and reception will follow.

The crash occurred at about 4:25 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of North Highland and Melrose avenues, police have said. Hastings' car crossed the median, slammed into a tree and burst into flames. Reports indicated the vehicle was speeding before the wreck. Hastings was pronounced dead at the scene.
The LAPD's comment about foul play followed a surge of conspiracy theories online that wondered whether the government might have targeted Hastings for his reporting on security, war and terrorism issues, including the National Security Agency's widespread phone and Internet snooping programs.
Spokesman Richard French said detectives did not share with his office the reasons behind their conclusion that the crash was an accident.
The Department of Coroner said an autopsy on Hastings has been performed, but the cause of death was listed as deferred pending further investigation, including toxicology and pathology reports.
"The question is 'Why? Why did he crash?'" said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigation. "Was it something mechanical that the traffic division of the LAPD is going to be able to find? Did he have a medical condition that caused him to pass out? Did the accelerator stick? Was he under medication? Was there some other factor?"
The inquiry could take up to six weeks, Winter said. The LAPD, too, said its investigation was ongoing.
Hastings was widely known for his profile in Rolling Stone magazine of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, as he and his staff disparaged President Barack Obama and administration officials. The piece, "The Runaway General," led to McChrystal's forced resignation.
Hastings also wrote books, and he reported for the website BuzzFeed, which announced in October that Hastings would start working from its new L.A. bureau to cover national security and politics, and to contribute to entertainment coverage.
He was born in Malone, N.Y., to Brent and Molly Hastings, who now live in Milton, Vt., according to his obituary in the Free Press. A profile of Hastings in the summer issue of Vermont Life magazine says Hastings considered Vermont his home state and a sanctuary for him and his wife, Elise Jordan, who live in New York City.
The question about whether the FBI was looking into Hastings arose Wednesday after the website WikiLeaks posted a tweet that read: "Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him."
The site Thursday followed up with a second tweet: "It is not acceptable that the FBI was investigating yet another national security journalist, this time Michael Hastings."
But Eimiller, the FBI spokeswoman in L.A., categorically denied the reports.
When asked whether she was speaking just for her office or for the bureau period, she replied: "Period."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/20/fbi-no-investigation-hastings/2444101/

Tony Soprano killed by the Mob

New York Times (blog) ‎- by Dave Itzkoff
‎- 1 day ago
@ James Gandolfini Is Dead at 51; a Complex Mob Boss in 'Sopranos'

Quote from : Wikipedia : Paranoia

Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion.

Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself.

In the original Greek, παράνοια (paranoia) simply means madness (para = outside; nous = mind).

Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.
Just Because You're Paranoid, Doesn't Mean They Aren't Out To Get You . . . http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread548437/pg1

Michael Hastings was not working on Jill Kelley story, wife says

Journalist Michael Hastings in Washington in May. He died last week in a one-car crash in Los Angeles. (Paul Morigi / AFP/Getty Images / May 1, 2012)

By Andrew BlanksteinJune 25, 2013, 8:25 a.m.


Journalist Michael Hastings, who died last week in a fiery single-car crash in Hancock Park, was not working on a story about Florida socialite Jill Kelley, his wife said.
Elise Jordan posted a message on Twitter on Tuesday morning: "To correct the record, since I've seen it erroneously reported a few times: @mmhastings was not working on a story about Jill Kelley."
She also thanked people for their "love, support and friendship" after the death of Hastings, who was best known for a 2010 Rolling Stone profile that led to the resignation of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
A person close to Kelley had told The Times that Hastings was scheduled to meet with a representative of Kelley's this week in Los Angeles to discuss the case.
Kelley alleges that military officials and the FBI leaked her name to the media to discredit her after she reported receiving a stream of emails that were traced to Paula Broadwell, a biographer of former CIA Director David H. Petraeus, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on June 3.
Petraeus resigned from the CIA after publicly admitting that he and Broadwell had had an extramarital affair.
Hastings' portfolio of stories has spawned numerous conspiracy theories about his death.
The FBI issued a statement last week: "At no time was journalist Michael Hastings ever under investigation by the FBI."
Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said there appears to be no foul play in the one-vehicle accident that killed the 33-year-old on June 18.
Officials still are trying to determine if his car had a mechanical problem or if Hastings may have had a medical condition or was somehow impaired. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Authorities say it may be weeks before toxicology test results are available.
Video of the accident scene showed the car engulfed in flames. Law enforcement sources said the car appeared to be going at a high rate of speed but emphasized that the investigation was ongoing.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-michael-hastings-jill-kelley-20130625,0,436906.story