Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As erudite and informed as I pretend to be, the fact is that there is much that is important that I either miss, or fail to see any significance in. The death of investigative reporter Michael Hastings showed me that because my first reaction to the news flash was “who is Michael Hastings?” Reading further into the story I discovered that he was the reporter who brought down General William McChrystal and that he was considered to be one of America’s premier investigative journalists. As I read that original story, the thought occurred to me that possibly Hastings’s death in an auto “accident” was not simply a case of reckless driving, but I initially dismissed that as merely the operation of my cynical mindset. Nevertheless, the thought nagged at the back of my consciousness and then I saw a story on http://whowhatwhy.com/ , my favorite investigative website, run by the renowned Russ Baker. The stories title: “The Michael Hastings Wreck-Video Evidence Offers a few Clues” http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/07/14/the-michael-hastings-wreck-video-evidence-offers-a-few-clues/
For my own benefit and perhaps yours, I’ve done a little research into who Michael Hastings was and what he did that deserves attention. I explore the possibility that his death was no accident. I admit that I have no proof beyond speculation. Hopefully I can give you enough information to make your own judgments. In a world where American Presidents openly arrogate to themselves the right to kill people deemed enemies of the United States, all things suddenly become possible. When the basic right of habeas corpus can be denied to American citizens, based upon unproven allegations of their being threats to this country, isn’t it possible for those with the power to detain and to eliminate individuals, to make decisions as to someone’s existence doing harm to this country? Finally, doesn’t this unconstitutional expansion of powers give individuals with government connections the leeway to take revenge on those who expose them? While I’m not privy to knowledge of the actions of those in power and can claim no inside information, I certainly can speculate based on the experience of my lifetime. This then is my speculation about the death and life of Michael Hastings in the context of current life in these United States.
At about 4:30am a man driving a Mercedes swerved off of the straight as an arrow North Highland Avenue, in Los Angeles and into a Palm Tree. It is known that the man was driving at a high rate of speed. That man was:
“Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) an American journalist, author, contributing editor to Rolling Stone, and reporter for BuzzFeed.[4] He was raised in New York, Canada, and Vermont, and attended New York University. Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek in the 2000s. After his fiancee, Andrea Parhamovich, was killed when her car was ambushed in Iraq, Hastings wrote his first book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008), a memoir about his relationship with Parhamovich and the violent insurgency that took her life.”
“He received the George Polk Award for “The Runaway General” (2010), a Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO‘s International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article documented the widespread contempt for civilian officials in the US government by the general and his staff and resulted in McChrystal’s resignation. Hastings followed up with The Operators (2012), a detailed book account of his month-long stay with McChrystal in Europe and Afghanistan.
Hastings became a vocal critic of the surveillance state during the investigation of reporters by the US Department of Justice in 2013, referring to the restrictions on the freedom of the press by the Obama administration as a “war” on journalism.[5] His last story, “Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans”, was published by BuzzFeed on June 7.[6] Hastings died in a fiery high-speed automobile crash on June 18, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.[7]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_%28journalist%29
It is of course possible that Michael Hastings death was an accident and that he was merely driving too fast on the wrong road. The WhoWhatWhy article linked above looks into the accident and I think fairly concludes that foul play was possible, but certainly not proven. We do know from Hastings’s friends that in the days before his death he felt he was being harassed our government:
“Earlier the previous day, Hastings indicated that he believed he was being investigated by the FBI. In an email to colleagues, which was copied to and released by Hastings’ friend, Army Staff Sergeant Joe Biggs,[45] Hastings said that he was “onto a big story”, that he needed to “go off the radar”, and that the FBI might interview them.[46][47] WikiLeaks announced that Hastings had also contacted one of its lawyers a few hours prior to the crash,[48] and the LA Times reported that he was preparing new reports on the CIA at the time of his demise.[49] The FBI released a statement denying that Hastings was being investigated.[44]
Hastings was eulogized by co-workers at Buzzfeed,[50] media figures such as Christopher Hayes[51] and Rachel Maddow[52] and others.[53]
According to Biggs, Hastings’ remains were cremated and returned to Vermont. Biggs stated that his family did not want Hastings to be cremated. Los Angeles medical examiner and police authorities indicated that it took two days to identify Hastings because he had been burned beyond recognition, and that the cause of death was undetermined, pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests.[54]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist
We probably will never know what CIA stories Michael Hastings was working on before he died in that auto crash, or if indeed the FBI was investigating him, but given all that we have learned and are beginning to learn about the excessive use of government powers both by civilian and military intelligence, is it possible that Hastings was deemed a “threat” to our country and eliminated? Were I not a young adult in the 60’s I might have banished that type of idea with dismissive disdain. However, as I have written before, the assassinations of the 60’s and the murders at Kent State, have taught me to not be dismissive of the possibilities of conspiratorial actions by some with present or past connections to government. http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/17/a-real-history-of-the-last-sixty-two-years/ and: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/10/27/murder-at-kent-state/
Hastings’ article that led to the McChrystal dismissal is a detailed and nuanced story of a tough, Spartan-like General: “McChrystal is reported to run 7 to 8 miles daily, eat one meal per day, and sleep four hours a night.” The General and his hand-picked staff had disdain for civilian leadership and basically he was given carte blanche by the President, who the General felt he had cowed in their meetings together. If you read it, as linked below, it seems a fair appraisal of the man and those men who he surrounded himself with.
“Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,” says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his fucking war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss [McChrystal] was pretty disappointed.” This was a statement from one of McChrystal’s aides.
“As McChrystal leaned on Obama to ramp up the war, he did it with the same fearlessness he used to track down terrorists in Iraq: Figure out how your enemy operates, be faster and more ruthless than everybody else, then take the fuckers out. After arriving in Afghanistan last June, the general conducted his own policy review, ordered up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The now-infamous report was leaked to the press, and its conclusion was dire: If we didn’t send another 40,000 troops – swelling the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by nearly half – we were in danger of “mission failure.” The White House was furious. McChrystal, they felt, was trying to bully Obama, opening him up to charges of being weak on national security unless he did what the general wanted. It was Obama versus the Pentagon, and the Pentagon was determined to kick the president’s ass.” This was Michael Hastings’s interpretation based on his access to General McChrystal and his team.
Below was Hastings assessment of the staff and culture that McChrystal surrounded himself with as taken from an evening in Paris:
“The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority. After arriving in Kabul last summer, Team America set about changing the culture of the International Security Assistance Force, as the NATO-led mission is known. (U.S. soldiers had taken to deriding ISAF as short for “I Suck at Fighting” or “In Sandals and Flip-Flops.”) McChrystal banned alcohol on base, kicked out Burger King and other symbols of American excess, expanded the morning briefing to include thousands of officers and refashioned the command center into a Situational Awareness Room, a free-flowing information hub modeled after Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s offices in New York. He also set a manic pace for his staff, becoming legendary for sleeping four hours a night, running seven miles each morning, and eating one meal a day. (In the month I spend around the general, I witness him eating only once.) It’s a kind of superhuman narrative that has built up around him, a staple in almost every media profile, as if the ability to go without sleep and food translates into the possibility of a man single-handedly winning the war.
By midnight at Kitty O’Shea’s, much of Team America is completely shitfaced. Two officers do an Irish jig mixed with steps from a traditional Afghan wedding dance, while McChrystal’s top advisers lock arms and sing a slurred song of their own invention. “Afghanistan!” they bellow. “Afghanistan!” They call it their Afghanistan song.
McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. “All these men,” he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622
Those three quotations can give you a feeling for why Michael Hastings article in Rolling Stone was explosive enough to lead to the end of Stanley McChrystal’s military career. Hastings was an excellent writer and whether you agree with his conclusions or not the full Rolling Stone article will give you a flavor of his competence as a journalist and I suggest to reading it in its entirety.
I’ve written much on what I call the “Corporate/Military/Intelligence/Complex” (CMIC) as I see it. http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/12/who-do-you-trust-us-or-your-lying-eyes/#more-66997 One of its’ features is that there is an interrelationship between those in the Military and Intelligence fields with those corporations who receive funding for providing supplies for them. I see this interrelationship as rather incestuous and harmful to our country, since the permeability between these entities can and often does leads to corruption of all parties. In General McChrystal’s case one can see that his Army Retirement has certainly not ended his career:
“In 2010, after leaving the Army, McChrystal joined Yale University as a Jackson Institute for Global Affairs senior fellow. He teaches a course entitled “Leadership,” a graduate-level seminar with some spots reserved for undergraduates. The course received 250 applications for 20 spots in 2011 and is being taught for a third time in 2013.[69][70][71]
In November 2010, JetBlue Airways announced that McChrystal would join its board of directors.[72] On February 16, 2011, Navistar International announced that McChrystal would join its board of directors.[73] He is also Chairman of the Board of Siemens Government Systems, and is on the strategic advisory board of Knowledge International, a licensed arms dealer whose parent company is EAI, a business “very close” to the United Arab Emirates government.[74]
McChrystal co-founded and is a partner at the McChrystal Group LLC, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm.[75][76]
In 2011, McChrystal advocated instituting a national service program in the United States. McChrystal stated, “‘Service member’ should not apply only to those in uniform, but to us all … America is falling short in endeavors that occur far away from any battlefield: education, science, politics, the environment, and cultivating leadership, among others. Without a sustained focus on these foundations of our society, America’s long-term security and prosperity are at risk.”[77][78]
McChrystal’s memoir, My Share of the Task, published by Portfolio of the Penguin Group, was released on January 7, 2013.[79] The autobiography had been scheduled to be released in November 2012, but was delayed due to security clearance approvals required from the Department of Defense. Portfolio publishers stated, “We have decided to delay the publication date of General McChrystal’s book, My Share of the Task, as the book continues to undergo a security review by the Department of Defense … General McChrystal has spent 22 months working closely with military officials to make sure he follows all the rules for writing about the armed forces, including special operations.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal This is a case of Old (General) Soldiers not only not dying but certainly not fading away. In fact one can detect a political future in the making.
Based on what I presented above let me present a hypothetical, which is only buttressed by my background as a psychotherapist, life experience and love of history. I have little doubt that the General and his cronies believe themselves to be good men and patriots all. They view the world from a perspective that arrogates to themselves knowledge not available to those who have never “walked in their shoes”. While capable of nuanced judgment, it is a judgment nevertheless informed by their world perspective and self-concept of being heroic individuals. Among his men the General is no doubt looked at as the Alpha. As he was quoted in saying: “McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team.”All these men,” he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.” I believe the General is stating the truth. So then hypothetically, how would he and/or his men view Hastings’s article that led to the General’s retirement? They believed that the General had the insight to bring the war to a successful conclusion. They believed that our President and his vice President didn’t have a clue as to how to successfully prosecute this war. They therefore then believed that those who opposed the General and his plans were acting against the best interests of the United States, possibly skirting treason. Finally though, Hastings’s was a person who they opened up to and allowed to sit in on their inner circle. They trusted him to produce an article that would highlight the greatness and successes of Stanly McChrystal, after all how could he not after spending so much time with them? Hastings’s article and McChrystal’s ouster probably infuriated them all and raised an angry reaction in men who were described by Hastings as:
“The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority.”
Am I being unfair in speculating that perhaps the death of this Journalist, three years after this article, may well have been payback? Who knows, not I, but my senses tell me that there are at least two scenario’s whereby Michael Hastings death may be no accident. One could be the government itself, or certain parts of it related to the CMIC and another could be those able to take revenge on someone who in their opinion “brought a good man down to the detriment of our country”. I doubt that the public will ever know the truth if the death was not accidental and really that is not my point in writing this. What I’m trying to bring out is that beyond the unconstitutional behavior of our government in the name of “National Security”, which escalated after 9/11, a situation which in itself is terrible, is the heightened speculation and concomitant loss of faith in our government which follows in its wake. We are supposed to be a nation that exists under the rule of law and guided by our Constitution. How can we maintain faith in these institutions if we suspect that those in government or in the Corporate/Military/Intelligence Complex are able to act outside the law with impunity? What do you think?
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Other links about Hastings death and the suspicions about it:
http://www.infowars.com/friend-michael-hastings-marked-for-death/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hastings-panicked-email-fbi-death-article-1.1380539
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-09/elusive-details-michael-hastings-death
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/email-sent-by-michael-hastings-hours-before-his…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-rolling-stone-muckracker-the-michael-hastings-wreck-…
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/18/19027717-journalist-michael-hastings-dies-at-33..
http://www.sandiego6.com/story/details-of-reporter-hastings-death-remain-elusive-20130708
Exclusive— Hastings ‘Unauthorized Cremation’ Mega-Rumor False, Family Says
By Russ Baker on Aug 13, 2013
http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/08/13/exclusive-hastings-unauthorized-cremation-mega-rumor-false-family-says/
Thanks for the TED link, Michael Beaton. I’m still listening…
Krikorian the LA journalist who released the Pizzeria Mozza surveillance tape, that backed up his previous statements has written 3 blogs concerning the MH wreck. The comments he added to the “Hastings’ Tox Report” blog were interesting. “An old colleague from the Times was with Mike the night before.” He doesn’t want to communicate over the internet or phone because NSA.”
@anonymously posted Thanks for the link. There is more to this story as is even apparent in this interview. She says what she can, but it is not her next move yet. Things have to work thru the process. It will be interesting to see what happens then.
@bigfatmike
I am always intrigued by how we use the notion of conspiracy theory. It is, or has become, a pejorative term, one that is tainted with notions of crazy.
It occurs to me that it is along the lines of “just because your paranoid doesn’t mean “they” are not following you..”
Meaning, what if the “authorities” such as they are, are the ones propagating the conspiracy? If it happens that the authorities are not telling the truth about what they know to be true and then they spin another tale is that not a true conspiracy?
And haven’t we seen that happen repeatedly even as documented by this blog over the last few months?
I would love to redeem the term, or use another more poignant to describe that event that questions the “authorized” account of anything with a theory that accounts for more (hopefully all) of the facts as known.
I know you were not making a pejorative comment… But it makes me think about how actual inquiry gets shut down too often by the charge “oh thats just a conspiracy theory”…
Yeah. I have a theory about your conspiracy…
Sure, I would love for someone to suggest a different term that communicates something like:
“without taking a position on wrong doing, more investigation is required to assure that all relevant facts have been documented and made available to the public – and this is one of those cases”
Now where is my thesaurus?
v.good. I think it used to be called an investigation.
Sometimes investigations seem to be more intended to discover what needs to be hidden so as to sustain a theory designed to be a cover up….
So maybe the term is simply : honest investigation.
But even writing it like that exposes the droll humor and cynical wit. Can you image an honest inquiry/investigation into the Snowden/NSA bits. To take a current example. Every time there is an new announcemnt of “we would never do that”, it is exposed that , no, in fact, you are doing just that…
This is a critical point being raised in this example of hastings. It will be v.interesting to see what the actual official report shows, and whether it will actually account for the observable facts of this case.
On a related but separate note I came across this ted talk earlier today : It seems relevant to the conversation in terms of how we, the public, deal with information, or non-information as ladled out by the “authorities”. We have to be willing to see what we see…
http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_willful_blindness.html
CIA Director Brennan Confirmed as Reporter Michael Hastings Next Target
http://www.sandiego6.com/story/cia-director-brennan-confirmed-as-reporter-michael-hastings-next-target-20130812
Thanks, I would not have seen this other wise.
I usually don’t follow conspiracy theories very closely.
But, I am intrigued by this event because there is at least the suggestion that some of the local official actions were hasty or in other ways might have obscured rather than revealed facts of the crash site.
I don’t know if that is true, but if so, it would be troubling even if the accident were no more than an run of the mill fender bender – and of course this was not.
A tape of the Pizzeria Mozza security tape of Hastings crash is available at blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/07/michael_hastings_crash_video.
Excerpt from the Reuter’s piece about Barnaby Jack:
“The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office said it was conducting an autopsy, although it could be a month before the cause of death is determined.
Jack was one of the world’s most prominent “white hat” hackers — those who use their technical skills to find security holes before criminals can exploit them.
His genius was finding bugs in the tiny computers embedded in equipment, such as medical devices and cash machines. He often received standing ovations at conferences for his creativity and showmanship while his research forced equipment makers to fix bugs in their software.
Jack had planned to demonstrate his techniques to hack into pacemakers and implanted defibrillators at the Black Hat hackers convention in Las Vegas next Thursday. He told Reuters last week that he could kill a man from 30 feet away by attacking an implanted heart device.
“He was passionate about finding security bugs before the bad guys,” said long-time security industry executive Stuart McClure, who gave Jack one of his first jobs and also had worked with him at Intel Inc’s McAfee, the computer security company.
“He was one of those people who was put on this Earth to find vulnerabilities that can be exploited in a malicious way to hurt people,” McClure said.
Jack became one of the world’s most famous hackers after a 2010 demonstration of “Jackpotting” — getting ATMs to spew out bills. A clip of his presentation has been viewed more than 2.6 million times on YouTube.
Two years ago, Jack turned his attention to medical devices, while working on a team at McAfee that engineered methods for attacking insulin pumps. Their research prompted medical device maker Medtronic to revamp the way it designs its products.
The U.S. government also noticed Jack’s work.
“The work that Barnaby Jack and others have done to highlight some of these vulnerabilities has contributed importantly to progress in the field,” said William Maisel, deputy director for science at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
Jack’s passion for hacking sometimes got him into trouble.
In 2012, he connected his laptop to a gold bullion dispensing machine at a casino in Abu Dhabi, according to fellow hacker Tiffany Strauchs Rad. She said Jack had permission from a hotel manager to hack the machine but security intervened.
It turned out the hotel did not actually own the gold machine and the American Embassy had to be called in to help resolve the misunderstanding, Rad said.
“He would hack everything he touched, she said. “
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/us-hacker-death-idUSBRE96P0K120130726
1) “At the time of his death, Jack was director of embedded security research at security firm IOActive.” -from the Guardian article about Barnaby Jack
2) IOActive:
https://www.facebook.com/IOActive
IOActive shared a link.
22 hours ago
Great car hacking research IOActive’s director of security intelligence, Chris Valasek, and Twitter’s Charlie Miller http://onforb.es/1bNjPCa
3) From the Forbes hacking article posted earlier:
Luckily, all of this is happening at less than 5mph. So the Escape merely plows into a stand of 6-foot-high weeds growing in the abandoned parking lot of a South Bend, Ind. strip mall that Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have chosen as the testing grounds for the day’s experiments, a few of which are shown in the video below.
4) So. IOActive’s director of security intelligence is Chris Valasek.
4) Oh, never mind. It’s Friday night and a good, stiff drink is in order, I believe.
Thank you Michael B for your support. Bruce Woych’s link to http://www.justice-integrity.org is highly recommended. It brilliantly describes the broken state of democracy in the USA and the importance of reestablishment of free press and an informed citizenry.
Hacker Barnaby Jack dies in San Francisco aged 35
Jack, who became famous after demonstrating an ATM hack, died on Thursday – but coroners did not give details
by Amanda Holpuch
Friday 26 July 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/26/hacker-barnaby-jack-san-francisco-dies
Full article:
(Jack was due to speak at the Black Hat conference, which starts Saturday in Las Vegas. Photograph: Isaac Brekken/AP)
Barnaby Jack, a hacker who was due to present his findings on the security vulnerabilities of implanted medical devices, has died.
The San Francisco medical examiner’s office said Jack, 35, died in the city on Thursday – but did not provide details on the circumstances surrounding his death.
Jack had exposed a security flaw in insulin pumps that could be made to dispense a fatal dose by a hacker 300ft away, pushing some medical companies to review the security of these devices.
He was also a popular and respected figure in the information security scene. Within that small scene, reverse engineers are especially close, said Matthieu Suiche, a friend of Jack’s and chief scientist at CloudVolumes Inc in an email. “We pretty much all know each other, or have lots of common friends,” Suiche said. “It’s almost like we all grew up together.”
He added: “There isn’t much to say except that Barnaby was one of the rare people in InfoSec who was a brilliant researcher but also a good friend to many of us.”
Suiche met Jack at the Black Hat conference a few years ago and said they had been really good friends since. He said he had drinks with Jack and his girlfriend in San Francisco just over a week ago.
He called his friend “brilliant”, and said Jack’s latest research on medical devices could help save the lives of many people. “In this world full of people fearfully complying and worrying, very few people are crazy enough to challenge the rules, to approach life in an unconventional paradigm and to speak up to contribute to change this world,” Suiche said.
Jack was due to speak at the Black Hat conference, which starts Saturday in Las Vegas. His presentation, “Implantable medical devices: hacking humans,” would have explained how these devices could be compromised and would have suggested ways to improve device security.
Black Hat said the room his discussion was meant to take place will instead be used as a place for his friends and colleagues to gather and remember him on 1 August, when the session was set to take place.
Black Hat said in a statement:
We have lost a member of our family. Everyone would agree that the life and work of Barnaby Jack are legendary and irreplaceable. Barnaby had the ability to take complex technology and intricate research and make it tangible and accessible for everyone to learn and grow from. Beyond his work in our industry, Barnaby was an incredibly warm hearted and welcoming individual with a passion for celebrating life. We all have a hilarious and upbeat story about Barnaby. He is truly a shining example of what we love about this community.
Black Hat will not be replacing Barnaby’s talk on Thursday, Aug. 1. No one could possibly replace him, nor would we want them to. The community needs time to process this loss. The hour will be left vacant as a time to commemorate his life and work, and we welcome our attendees to come and share in what we hope to be a celebration of his life. Barnaby Jack meant so much to so many people, and we hope this forum will offer an opportunity for us all to recognize the legacy that he leaves behind.
Our deepest sympathies go out to Barnaby Jack’s family and loved ones. Words cannot adequately describe how much he will be missed, but it is certain that Barnaby will NEVER be forgotten.
At the time of his death, Jack was director of embedded security research at security firm IOActive. On Twitter, the company said: “Lost but never forgotten our beloved pirate, Barnaby Jack has passed. He was a master hacker and dear friend. Here’s to you Barnes!”
End of article
Worth Noting:
http://www.justice-integrity.org/
and:
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/22/irish-politician-calls-obama-as-war-criminal-and-hypocrite-in-parliament/#comment-619349
@anonymously previously called attention to a Forbes article describing events that are the the same or very similar to those that I mentioned from a WAPO article.
It is not my intention to be redundant. The Forbes article seems to cover the material very well. Unless you are an enthusiast there is no reason to read both articles.
I tend to be a bit skeptical that Hastings was assassinated by a misguided car simply because there are so many more direct ways to do the deed.
But the WAPO has an article that describes hacker work demonstrating the ability to interfere with the safe operation of two models of autos.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/25/heres-how-hackers-could-crash-your-car/
The article does not demonstrate that Hastings car could be or was hacked.
But the article is a sort of proof of concept demonstration.
I suppose the moral is if you think the CIA is after you then drive some old iron with well shielded electronic control module. Stay in public view. Don’t be the single point of failure, the single link to the data that supports your story. Distribute your files.
It amazes me that we could be talking like this.
Yet, in consideration of the administrations claim that is has the legal power to assassinate US citizens with out benefit of judicial process or prior warning, I see no alternative to serious consideration of the possibility.
Don’t call a 9/11 truth poster a vandal, as in the apparent Conecticut highway postings. Vandalism is the deliberate destruction of property. Its a bold move & I guess it is illegal to so post without permision, but so were Snowden’s action according to our corrupt government and he is still a major hero in my book. Thanks for the info. Good to hear. By the way, for years I’ve had NO NWO Ca plates; no bullets have ever come my way. It is better to get your message across legally. Be bold people!
Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks–With Me Behind The Wheel (Video)
This story appears in the August 12, 2013 issue of Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/
Res ipsa loquitur
Police Notify Family of Son’s Homicide, Shoot Pet Dog
Spate of similar incidents causes outrage
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
July 24, 2013
Police in Henrico County, Virginia ………..
http://www.prisonplanet.com/police-notify-family-of-sons-homicide-shoot-pet-dog.html
Leonard Cohen – Everybody knows
More & more people , (For No Pay), are demanding redress for their grievences & they will be heard & grievences addressed one way or another.
**
DOT officials trying to stop 9/11 graffiti on bridges, overpasses
Hena Daniels & Maggie Lohmiller
wfsb.com
July 23, 2013
HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – Some graffiti popping up on highways has a lot of people talking, and the state isn’t too happy about how a group of vandals are trying to get their message across.
Eyewitness News explains what it all means and the lengths one state agency is going to cut down on it.
When people drive around central Connecticut, it’s hard to miss some of the graffiti popping up on bridges, overpasses and road signs that says “9-11 Truth,” “W-T-C” and “Building 7.” **
http://www.prisonplanet.com/dot-officials-trying-to-stop-911-graffiti-on-bridges-overpasses.html
Copy that.
Hang in there, Robin.
RobinH,
What Mike Spindell said. Length of time here is much less relevant than quality of your commentary. Yours is doing just fine.
Interesting blog and comments. RIP M Hastings. Tragic. I do not know if his death was an accident or murder. I agree that the greatest tragedy is that so many citizens in and out of the USA suspect people in or associated with our government are likely responsible for the murder of a journalist.
We have witnessed the increasing corruption of all branches of our government. We have witnessed the intimidation of reporters, federal employees, and the entire citizenry. This death shown in graphic detail fits the pattern of intimidation.
I agree that it is likely that Hastings death will officially be ruled an accident. I agree that we will be told that the toxicology reports will be positive. Me and many other people will still be suspect of these results and general lack of, and pace of, information.
Lobbying our politicians is not effective. Pressure the journalist and experts that you have influence with to stand up and get involved. If small cases like Hastings can be proven, tried, and convict perpetrator(s), it will instill fear in people inclined to intimidate, steal, rape, and murder.
If the rule of law is to be established fairly in the USA, reporting is going to play a key role. Hastings is one of your own. I get that many reporters did not approve of some of his methods. I get that many reporters are intimidated. Protect your colleague and fight back.
Why have reporters not put out facts about this accident? Where was Hastings going? Who were the last people to see him? Talk to him? Was the car his or a rental? Did he live in LA? Have a house, apartment, garage, roommate? Can it be verified that the email MSgt Biggs released came from Hastings? Why isn’t Biggs making his disclosures through Hastings wife or colleagues instead of non mainstream journalist? Why didn’t Hastings family go to LA and claim his remains? Is it possible for that model of car to erupt into an intense fire upon impact? Did he have any contact with Snowden or his information? And so many more facts to be disclosed. There is interest in this story.
@barabajagal You well express some of the essential questions and, to my mind, the essential question in this case: “Where are the reporters? Where is the inquiry?”
I spent some time over the last few days asking that and other questions, trying to keep close to the facts and basics before appealing to “what everbody knows”.
Very little was to be found. And what little there was stopped after the first go. There was a woman in San Diego on a local news who said she was on it and was going to get answers. I looked for more, found her twitter, and found nothing further about the case.
And that is itself, as you suggest, indicative of something. I hope more comes out over time. We shall see.
When I look at the way the press/journalism has been treated lately, the recent scandals are well known as well as the trend since 9/11. Bush was the perfect foil for the transition : ‘your with us or against us…’. And so it has become. I dont think we fully appreciated the full application of that dictum.
Now, with the force that is brought to bear on those to resist the capitulation into into being “embedded” (as well as the pleasant perks for those who do…David Gregory comes to mind… but many others also… ) it is becoming true that to be a journalist in these days is an act of some courage and heroism.
I am thinking of Jane Mayer (I think) of the New Yorker who said as a consequence of the Snowden affair, and the unprecedented criminalization and retaliation of whistle blowers et al, that “sources have completely dried up”. There is a strange fear being inculcated in our country. It has some historical parallels.
The government seems to be increasingly moving into this mode of self protection and is loosing the grip on the reason for its being. Anyone who would threaten it becomes — in the silly but ubiquitous simplistic phrase used to make sense and contextualize everything these days : The Bad Guy.
And we know what happens to Bad Guys these days.
Michael H. might be one example.
Good post. I hope your questions get answered.
Michael.