News:

The End of the World is Coming, and YOU MAY DIE

Main Menu

Michael Hastings

Started by Cain, June 20, 2013, 12:36:08 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Cain

The reporter Michael Hastings has died in a car crash:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/18/hastings-car-accident-journalist/2436549/

QuoteMichael Hastings, a native Vermonter and a journalist widely known for his profile in Rolling Stone magazine of a general who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was killed Tuesday in a car crash in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.

He was 33.

News of his death was first reported Tuesday evening by the website BuzzFeed, for which Hastings also wrote, and by Rolling Stone.

QuoteHis reporting on Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the subsequent story in June 2010 led to the commander's resignation after he was quoted ridiculing President Obama, Vice President Biden and other administration officials. The story was titled "The Runaway General" and resulted from the considerable access to McChrystal and others that Hastings was granted.

"You never know how a story will be received," Hastings told the Burlington Free Press shortly before the piece hit newsstands and as the article was being widely distributed online. "I knew the reporting was new and different, but I'm kind of surprised at the impact."

QuoteThe L.A. Police Department was unable Tuesday night to release the name of the man killed in the early morning wreck that media reports said was Hastings, spokesman Officer Christopher No told the Burlington Free Press. No said information could be made available later Tuesday or Wednesday.

The crash occurred at about 4:25 a.m. in Hollywood near North Highland and Melrose avenues, just north of the Wilshire Country Club. A vehicle crossed the median, slammed into a tree and burst into flames, No said. The male driver, believed to be the car's only occupant, was pronounced dead at the scene. No said he did not know the make and model of the vehicle.

Video and photos from the scene posted on the website of L.A. television station KTLA showed a mangled car crumpled against a tree and engulfed in flames. The KTLA report quoted LAPD Officer Lillian Carranza as saying the car appeared to be speeding when the crash occurred.

Doktor Howl

Molon Lube

Salty

Journalists die in seeminfly mysterious flaming wrecks all the time. Its practically part of the job description.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Q. G. Pennyworth


Left

#4
Quote from: Queen Gogira Pennyworth, BSW on June 22, 2013, 03:56:37 PM
Quote from: hylierandom, A.D.D. on June 22, 2013, 04:09:28 AM
Quote from: Cardinal Pizza Deliverance. on June 22, 2013, 02:48:49 AM
Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on June 22, 2013, 01:29:26 AM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on June 22, 2013, 12:11:58 AM
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/21/19079389-us-charges-nsa-leaker-snowden-with-espionage?lite

That is so fucked up.
Agreed.  I hope he gets asylum in Iceland.

If not, off with he's going to have a 'bad car accident' like Michael Hastings.

On that?  It might have been a guy driving too fast.
Though reporters who investigate the CIA do have a funny way of just dying, don't they?

Driving too fast doesn't make engines explode before you hit a tree.
[/quote]

...I searched that, came up with this article
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/email-sent-by-michael-hastings-hours-before-his-death-mentions-a-big-story-and-a-need-to-go-off-the-radar/
...Back in '96 or '97, the commies and I happened to come upon a car that had gone out of control and hit a concrete freeway pillar, almost precisely the way this car seemed to have nailed that tree, right on the driver's side.
The guy's hand was stuck between the steering wheel and the door, so I wiggled it out and checked for a pulse-no pulse, and cold.
(It came out later that the guy had had a massive heart attack prior to hitting the pillar, which explains the lack of skidmarks.)

At any rate, I look at this image:


I note several things:

-No skidmarks.  They may not be in the shot, but there...but I don't see them...I do see what appear to be tire shreds.

-Gas tank area was not struck.

-Vehicle did not roll.

-The front end looks like it was torn off violently from inside.

-One of the commenters thinks that silver object behind the car is the gas tank.  I honestly can't tell b/c I've never had the displeasure of having to drop a gas tank on any of my cars.  But I think that's right...here's a random auto gas tank off the 'net for comparison:


-I'd heard about the engine being flung a distance from the car, so I expected the engine compartment to have been torn in half at the firewall, or expected the vehicle to have been rolled multiple times.  That does not appear to have happened.

This site claims that is a very safe car:
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Mercedes-Benz_C-Class/Safety/
..In fact, it gets top ratings for side impact protection.
This was a brand new car.

...One of the places I've babysat was an auto-auction yard...they bring vehicles and remains of vehicles there after wrecks...I have seen vehicles that were no longer identifiable because they were so mangled, and those vehicles did not burn.
In a lot full of destroyed vehicles, there was usually only a handful that had caught on fire, and it usually seemed to involve some sort of short or a brake fire (don't drive with a locked caliper, folks.) Or arson in one case-the vehicle also had "bitch" and "whore" spraypainted on it.
So I'm leaning towards "Yeah, his ass got blown up."  I'm not an expert, but that's what it looks like to me.
Caveat though, I am no rocket surgeon.  Trying to do calculus would make my brains fling themselves violently from my head and burst into flame.

This blog presents a pretty evenhanded approach to it:
http://ohtarzie.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/admit-it-michael-hastings-death-is-weird-and-scary/

...And someone the writer quotes opines that the engine can be jettisoned during a wreck at speed. upward is the least-reinforced way out of an engine compartment, followed by forward, so this seems...sorta logical.
Though I would have thought it would take the hood with it.

Also notes that Hastings was dead on impact.  No doubt in my mind.

It's the whole exploding in flames thing.  That is REALLY weird.

And another cropping of the same photo (I think)

Still no skidmarks.

Apparently he was running redlights though:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/06/michael_hastings_red_light_video_speeding.php
(fixed for wrong link)
Hope was the thing with feathers.
I smacked it with a hammer until it was red and squashy

Golden Applesauce

#5
I'm really, really skeptical about amateurs doing crash forensics through a photo. No offense, it just isn't a thing humans are good at. Most of human intuition is based around objects moving at substantially less than 35mph. Statements like "I would have expected X to happen in a normal crash" require you to have a lot of experience with car crashes to develop good expectations. "Unusual" things happen with any fire/explosion/car wreck/tornado/earthquake, just because disasters themselves are unusual so we aren't used to how things shake out.
Q: How regularly do you hire 8th graders?
A: We have hired a number of FORMER 8th graders.

Left

Quote from: Golden Applesauce on June 23, 2013, 06:05:05 AM
I'm really, really skeptical about amateurs doing crash forensics through a photo. No offense, it just isn't a thing humans are good at. Most of human intuition is based around objects moving at substantially less than 35mph. Statements like "I would have expected X to happen in a normal crash" require you to have a lot of experience with car crashes to develop good expectations. "Unusual" things happen with any fire/explosion/car wreck/tornado/earthquake, just because disasters themselves are unusual so we aren't used to how things shake out.
Oh, true that.  I've only totalled six cars, none of them at speeds that fast.

Quote from: Golden Applesauce on June 23, 2013, 06:19:31 AM
I wonder how many current math & related majors have decided that they will never consider applying for the NSA after this. I really hope it puts a dent in their recruitment. There aren't all that many people who have the right aptitude and education to be truly good at the kinds of math the NSA needs - they wouldn't need to alienate very many to cut off their talent stream.

:) There's a happy thought!
Hope was the thing with feathers.
I smacked it with a hammer until it was red and squashy

The Johnny

Quote from: Golden Applesauce on June 23, 2013, 06:05:05 AM
I'm really, really skeptical about amateurs doing crash forensics through a photo. No offense, it just isn't a thing humans are good at. Most of human intuition is based around objects moving at substantially less than 35mph. Statements like "I would have expected X to happen in a normal crash" require you to have a lot of experience with car crashes to develop good expectations. "Unusual" things happen with any fire/explosion/car wreck/tornado/earthquake, just because disasters themselves are unusual so we aren't used to how things shake out.

how dare you discredit my wildly speculative conspiracy theories!?
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

Q. G. Pennyworth

Quote from: Golden Applesauce on June 23, 2013, 06:05:05 AM
I'm really, really skeptical about amateurs doing crash forensics through a photo. No offense, it just isn't a thing humans are good at. Most of human intuition is based around objects moving at substantially less than 35mph. Statements like "I would have expected X to happen in a normal crash" require you to have a lot of experience with car crashes to develop good expectations. "Unusual" things happen with any fire/explosion/car wreck/tornado/earthquake, just because disasters themselves are unusual so we aren't used to how things shake out.

I dunno, I trust amateurs these days a lot more than I would have ten years ago. Between Nascar and movie stunts, people have a basic understanding of what a high speed collision does and their expectations are more explosions/less fatalities, so when they are suspicious of an explosion it could very well be an appropriate suspicion. Things like MythBusters and crime science fiction have also exposed more people to the basics of what it takes to make a car explode and how car crash investigations move forward (mostly with sunglasses and "YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH") so they at least know some of what to look for: skid marks, how the metal bent, crumple zones, gas tank, etc.

Even if this weren't a weird looking crash, and it is a very weird looking crash, just given who he is and the caliber of enemies he's made over his short career, any police department that did not investigate this as a possible homicide would be grossly negligent. I'm not 100% convinced this was murder, but I am convinced that it needs a very honest and thorough investigation, and I worry that may not happen given who the potential suspects would be. I think it's a pretty sane position, but so does the guy on the street corner yelling about the bugs on his face.

Cain

Hasting's death does certainly give me reason to pause. 

However, like GA says, I'm simply not versed enough in car crash forensics to make a judgement here.  Some of the evidence put forward certainly gives me reason to more suspicious...but in a day and age where the death of Andrew Breitbart has been turned into a conspiracy theory, there is always someone willing to push the covert forces angle, whether it is justified or not.

For what it's worth, if someone did kill Hastings, I'd be looking towards the military first.  His takedown of McChrystal got a lot of people extremely angry. People skilled in the art of assassination and covert warfare.  People who said "We'll hunt you down and kill you if we don't like what you write."

Then I'd look at what he was working on currently.  And apart from it involving "the CIA" and possibly Anonymous, we don't have all that much information on what it is.

Cain

Bump.

Hasting's death merged into a single thread from the three it was currently in.

Cain

Bump again:

http://www.sandiego6.com/story/hastings-investigation-20130714

QuoteHastings' 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.

Nevertheless LA County assistant corner, Ed Winter, said it took two days to identify the burned-beyond recognition body of Hastings. Officials also confirmed that an autopsy has been performed, but the cause of death is still pending. Unfortunately the family will have to wait for cause of death answers as LAPD media spokesperson Lieutenant Andrew Neiman indicated, "It will take several weeks to get the toxicology results."

Website seems legit, though I note the main source for all of this is SSgt. Biggs, whose credibility or lack thereof I have no knowledge of.  Still, cremating the body against family wishes is at the very least somewhat suspicious...

Q. G. Pennyworth

It's horse shit, that's what it is.

Junkenstein

It's a cracking way to mark it as super suspicious. If you had any doubts before then surely that removes them.

There's probably something to be said for the fact that this shit isn't subtle really. Shows a certain level of contempt I'd guess.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Left

Quote from: Junkenstein on July 17, 2013, 06:31:54 PM
It's a cracking way to mark it as super suspicious. If you had any doubts before then surely that removes them.

There's probably something to be said for the fact that this shit isn't subtle really. Shows a certain level of contempt I'd guess.

All about plausible deniability
Hope was the thing with feathers.
I smacked it with a hammer until it was red and squashy