Journalist Michael Hastings is dead at 33

[elfismiles]

Russ Baker - Hour 1 - Michael Hastings, Libya Repeating in Syria & JFK
October 14, 2013

AUDIO: http://rediceradio.net/radio/2013/RIR-1 ... er-hr1.mp3

Russ Baker is an investigative reporter and the best-selling author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government and the Secret History of the Last Fifty Years, which features numerous chapters containing original research on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Watergate, and other improperly explained national traumas. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the news site WhoWhatWhy, which frequently covers new developments on deep political events. He has been a Contributing Editor of the Columbia Journalism Review and he has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post an dozens of other domestic and foreign publications. We'll discuss the fiery ending of the journalist Michael Hastings. We proceed in the second hour discussing Syria and the striking similarities to how the situation in Libya went down. Russia has been instrumental in halting the plans of the west but how long can it hold? Later, we tie in the fate of Barrett Brown, Edward Snowden, NSA surveillance and the Saudi connection to the oil economy and geopolitical events. At the end of the hour, we talk about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. Russ shares his research on who was part of it.
http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/20 ... 131014.php

[elfismiles]

Why is NATO stalking our schoolchildren?
Beginning his working life in the aviation industry and trained by the BBC, Tony Gosling is a British land rights activist, historian & investigative radio journalist.
Published time: October 18, 2013 14:41
...
Technocrats under the bonnet

The front cover of this week's Autoweek magazine is a case in point: 'Who is in control of your car? The Government and private entities can now control your car remotely'. It raises enormous questions about the reliability and hackability of Audi, Toyota, Mercedes and other 'computer assisted' vehicles. Who is liable for death or injury if a Toyota's onboard computer freezes causing 'unintended acceleration'? The Toyota CEO? The programer? Who?

Award winning investigative journalist, Michael Hastings, died in a ball of flames while driving a 2013 Mercedes through L A in the early hours of Tuesday, 18th June 2013. He had been to see his friend, Jordanna Thigpen, on the night he died, asking to borrow her Volvo as he believed his Mercedes C250 'was being tampered with'.

Michael Hastings (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP)

According to his wife, Elise Jordan, Michael had begun investigating new CIA Director John Brennan's 'War on The Press'. Echoing the Watergate scandal, Hastings expressed his belief that the CIA, with or without authorization, had begun using sophisticated military psychological warfare techniques against domestic journalists and politicians.

Even former US National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism, Richard Clarke, weighed in saying that such a single vehicle crash was "consistent with a car cyber attack." Like heart attacks these 'Boston brakes' incidents are rumored to be a favorite of organized crime and intelligence services since they're so easy to put down to 'misfortune'.

Our judicial, police and investigative journalists are simply unable to understand complex, commercially sensitive technology, let alone gather enough evidence to decide whether these catastrophes are accidents... or assassinations. So if Michael Hastings' death means nothing else, it should signal loud and clear that we have to catch up, or watch our liberties crumble.

http://rt.com/op-edge/nato-europe-hacki ... vices-376/

Cyber threats targeting your car
Who's really driving your car?
http://www.autoweek.com/article/2013101 ... /131019856

[KeenInsight]

so you'd think AT LEAST the FBI would want to know who was impersonating FBI agents.

You'd think, but have done nothing about it. And the CIA has done nothing about the Contracting out of Assassins in the 60s/70s period. All very "hush hush," wouldn't want to ruin their "credibility."

[MacCruiskeen]

EXCLUSIVE: WHO KILLED MICHAEL HASTINGS?

THU, 10/24/2013 - BY CARL GIBSON

http://www.occupy.com/article/exclusive ... ZkoaF.dpuf

Please read at source - it appears to be a serious, in-depth investigative feature, and it's certainly long & detailed and has many photos, graphics & embedded links. (Haven''t read it myself yet, btw.)

[MacCruiskeen]

This summer, after Michael Hastings' sudden death, the German investigative journalist Lars Schall wrote to LAPD; to the global press office of Daimler (dialog@daimler.com) in Stuttgart, Germany; and to Mercedes-Benz USA.

Here are the emails he wrote and the responses he got (all of it's in English):

The Flying Engine

by Lars Schall

June 26th 2013; last updated July 26th 2013

http://www.larsschall.com/2013/06/26/the-flying-engine/

See also, from Aug 2011:

"As if by magic..."

[stillrobertpaulsen]

2 Killed After Car Crashes Into Palm Tree in Riverside

Two people were killed Wednesday when a car burst into flames after hitting a tree in a Riverside neighborhood.


Two people were killed when a car crashed into a palm tree in Riverside Wednesday. (Credit: KTLA)

The crash happened on Jackson Street near Sage Avenue at about 3 a.m. when the car slammed into a palm tree, according to authorities.

Aerial video from Sky5 showed the car had split into pieces and burned on a neighborhood sidewalk.

The car was traveling through the neighborhood at a high rate of speed, according to neighbors.

“I thought a bomb went off,” one person said about the noise he heard when the car struck the tree.

Both victims were inside inside the car when it crashed. Their identities were not immediately released.

The cause of the crash was under investigation.

This is the story I woke up to this morning. I was immediately reminded of the similarities between this crash and the Hastings crash.

I'm wondering who got killed this time.

I'm also wondering how far out of the car the engine flew out this time.

One difference I noted: this car is clearly wrapped around the palm tree, whereas in Hastings case, the whole back half of his car is quite intact.

[Iamwhomiam]

It think the flying engines are limited edition Mercedes models.

Some time ago, perhaps 5 weeks ago I was visiting my daughter and on the TV was a show about some rich billionaire who organized a bunch of 'good guys' to combat crime, (I think). They utilized fantastic satellite cameras with facial recognition, scanning crowds at a time.

The thing is though, that this episode mimicked Hastings fatal incident, with someone hacking the car's computer to cause it to crash.

Really blew me away, but in a different fashion!

[elfismiles]

Could the series you saw be CBS's "Person Of Interest"?
http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/

It think the flying engines are limited edition Mercedes models.

Some time ago, perhaps 5 weeks ago I was visiting my daughter and on the TV was a show about some rich billionaire who organized a bunch of 'good guys' to combat crime, (I think). They utilized fantastic satellite cameras with facial recognition, scanning crowds at a time.

The thing is though, that this episode mimicked Hastings fatal incident, with someone hacking the car's computer to cause it to crash.

Really blew me away, but in a different fashion!

WHOA!! No kidding that is similar - especially the witness statement about it sounding like a bomb!!

2 Killed After Car Crashes Into Palm Tree in Riverside

Two people were killed Wednesday when a car burst into flames after hitting a tree in a Riverside neighborhood.


Two people were killed when a car crashed into a palm tree in Riverside Wednesday. (Credit: KTLA)

“I thought a bomb went off,” one person said about the noise he heard when the car struck the tree.

This is the story I woke up to this morning. I was immediately reminded of the similarities between this crash and the Hastings crash.

I'm wondering who got killed this time.

I'm also wondering how far out of the car the engine flew out this time.

One difference I noted: this car is clearly wrapped around the palm tree, whereas in Hastings case, the whole back half of his car is quite intact.

[Iamwhomiam]

Yes elfi, that was the show. I wouldn't have recognized it by name but the Actor on the left I recognize as the "Brains" behind this outfit.

It was really extraordinary and nearly duplicated the Hastings fatality, complete with an abrupt left turn before crashing into a tree.

This show would make anyone paranoid of the technology's capabilities.

[elfismiles]

Here it is:

47 2 "Nothing to Hide" Frederick E. O. Toye Erik Mountain October 1, 2013 (2013-10-01) 2J7602 12.35[53]
Wayne Kruger (David Alan Basche) is the owner of a business company known as Lifetrace, which specializes in revealing members' privacy on their profile pages and selling it to various organizations. Reese, Finch, and Shaw monitor Kruger's activities in the company, which is currently making a deal with another large retail company called Riverton, which is interested in purchasing Lifetrace data. Though the site is deemed harmless by Kruger, Finch discovers that there is a class-action suit against Kruger involving various victims of the site whose privacy has been eliminated. Members of the suit receive anonymous packages containing information on how to humiliate and attack Kruger in revenge for their lives being destroyed thanks to Lifetrace. One of these people is a Stu Sommers, a man whose daughter was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend after he used Lifetrace to follow her, and also because of Kruger and Lifetrace's incompetence and refusal to remove the daughter's profile. Sommers, a former engineer, uses his mechanical skills to hack the company's elevator and Kruger's car, causing both to go out of control and nearly kill Kruger. Reese and Finch take him to a safehouse, where he attempts to call his wife after she finds out about Kruger's affairs, which were publicly revealed in a sex tape during his own anniversary by another member of the suit. Finch learns that Peter Collier, the Riverton businessman who reviewed the company, has requested a meeting with Kruger and the executives. Kruger knocks out Finch and goes to the meeting, where he finds Sommers and Collier waiting for him, but no Riverton executive. Sommers takes Kruger's gun and attempts to kill him, but Reese intervenes and talks him out of doing so. Collier suddenly shoots Reese and Kruger, and reveals that he is the mastermind behind the suit against Kruger. He claims that he is part of an organization that has vowed to fight back against the abuse of people's online privacy, and executes Kruger before leaving. Shaw finds the wounded Reese, and later, Finch warns that Collier's attack on Kruger may just be the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pe ... t_episodes

Yes elfi, that was the show. I wouldn't have recognized it by name but the Actor on the left I recognize as the "Brains" behind this outfit.

It was really extraordinary and nearly duplicated the Hastings fatality, complete with an abrupt left turn before crashing into a tree.

This show would make anyone paranoid of the technology's capabilities.

[Luther Blissett]

An interview with Jonathan Hastings, putting all the rumors to rest, all while reading like a conversation with a digital sockpuppet.

http://uncouthreflections.wordpress.com ... -hastings/

[82_28]

Shit. It just occurred to me that Princess Diana died in a Mercedes.

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were also pronounced dead at the scene; the bodyguard of Diana and Dodi, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. Although the media pinned the blame on the paparazzi, the crash was found to be caused by the reckless actions of the chauffeur, who was the head of security at the Ritz and had earlier goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel.

[Elvis]

Shit. It just occurred to me that Princess Diana died in a Mercedes.

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were also pronounced dead at the scene; the bodyguard of Diana and Dodi, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. Although the media pinned the blame on the paparazzi, the crash was found to be caused by the reckless actions of the chauffeur, who was the head of security at the Ritz and had earlier goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel.

Hm, yes, and at least one writer has compared Diana's crash with the mysterious car crash of Sir Peter Horsley. So who's Horsley?:

Air Marshal Sir Beresford Peter Torrington Horsley KCB, CBE, LVO, AFC (25 March 1921 – 20 December 2001) was a senior Royal Air Force commander.
...
He joined the Royal Household in July 1949, as a Squadron Leader, as Extra Equerry to Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.[1] He was also concurrently Officer Commanding 29 Squadron, RAF Tangmere, Sussex, flying Meteor IX fighters. In 1952 he became a Wing Commander and Temporary Equerry to Her Majesty The Queen,[1] and in 1953 he became full-time as Equerry to the Duke of Edinburgh,[1] relinquishing the second appointment in command of his squadron. He remained the Duke’s Equerry until 1956.
...
He became an Air Vice Marshal and was made Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Operations) in 1968, then Commanding Officer No. 1 Group in 1971.[1] His last appointment in the RAF was as Deputy Commander-in-Chief RAF Strike Command in 1973 before he retired in 1975.[1]
...
Sir Peter wrote an autobiography, Sounds From Another Room (1997), which described his interest in UFOs, which began when Equerry to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, and a close encounter with an "alien" in London in 1954. He died in 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Horsley

(That second-to-last sentence doesn't make grammatical sense to me; maybe I'll check the edit history later.)

In Horsley's crash it was a BMW; forgive the source below -- cited for Horsley's quotes, which apparently come from Sounds From Another Room:

The death of Major Michael Marman is particularly relevant to what could have happened in Paris. He was driving a Citroen 2CV along the A303 near Stonehenge in November 1986 when a BMW coming the other way careered across the carriageway and killed him instantly.

Fiennes says that the BMW had been tampered with and the braking system was operated by remote control which could override the normal system via compressed air from a tiny scuba diving cylinder hidden in the engine compartment. The remote control equipment was operated from a Volvo which followed the BMW, Fiennes reported. The BMW was driven by Sir Peter Horsley, a retired Air Marshall, who survived the crash.

Fiennes says that the Clinic knew that Horsley would be travelling along that road at the same time as their target. In his autobiography, Sounds From Another Room, Horsley says that he was accelerating to about 60 miles an hour when the car began to react strangely. He saw a grey Volvo closing up quickly behind him and as he was about to wave it past, his BMW spun sharply to the left, the brakes screeching, and then sharply to the right and back again. This is remarkably similar to what happened to the Mercedes before it struck the 13th pillar.

Horsley was by now desperately trying to maintain control and he went on:

“Out of the corner of my eye I saw the grey Volvo accelerating past me at high speed. My car had now developed a mind of its own as it swung broadside and skidded down the road. With a lurch it hit the central reservation, mounted the grass verge separating the two lanes of the highway and crossed over into the opposite carriageway. I had just time to see a small car approaching from the opposite direction. I hit it sideways on with tremendous force. In a split-second the driver’s horror-stricken face was visible and I heard his hoarse scream.”50

http://eka-loveforliterature.blogspot.c ... ke-19.html

Here's BBC on Fiennes' take:

PRINCESS Diana was murdered using a method described in a 1991 book by adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, it has been claimed.

The “Boston Brakes” technique, allegedly developed by the CIA, involves planting remote control devices in the victim’s car so the assassins can cause it to crash.

After the accident the controls are removed by stealth, leaving no trace.

Sir Ranulph, a former SAS member, details the method in his book The Feather Men, which he calls a mixture of “fact and fiction”.

He describes a real accident in 1986 involving Air Marshal Sir Peter Horsley, former equerry to Prince Philip.

As Sir Peter was driving down a dual carriageway to Plymouth, his BMW inexplicably swerved into the path of an oncoming car, killing the other driver.

Sir Peter survived and investigated the crash himself. He was convinced he was a victim of the “Boston Brakes” method and that his car was caused to swerve by killers following him in a Volvo.

Afterwards they removed the controls.

In his book, Sir Ranulph claims the attempt was carried out by a hit squad called The Clinic but invites his readers to decide what is real and what isn’t.

Then five years ago, he says, he got a call from a friend he won’t name, who had read his book and had also closely examined photographs taken shortly after the Paris crash in which Diana died.

Sir Ranulph said: “I was told the Boston Brakes system I had detailed in my book had been re-used in the underpass [the Alma tunnel].

“The man said, ‘I looked at the comparative situation and I noticed that the car [Diana’s] had been tampered with after the accident’.”

Asked for his view on the Paris crash, he said: “I haven’t got any views on her death but I would say lots of women in the UK are devoted to her.

“In terms of her being assassinated, it would be absurd.”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/431298 ... -in-tunnel

Amazon sellers are asking from $68.06 to $185.56 for the Sounds From Another Room(!) -- £177.81 to £36.99 on the UK Amazon site, where there are more reviews, here's a snippet:

...The story of his mysterious car crash possibly being linked to a revenge vendetta from the Middle East and involving the SAS is equally fascinating.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sounds-Another- ... 0850525810

Then of course there's this:

Diana 'feared car accident plot'

Paul Burrell kept the letter confidential for six years
Princess Diana feared the brakes of her car were going to be tampered with, 10 months before she died in a crash in Paris, her former butler has claimed.

The princess allegedly wrote in a letter to Paul Burrell: "This phase in my life is the most dangerous".

She reportedly named someone who was "planning an accident in my car, brake failure and serious head injury."

The alleged letter, which Mr Burrell kept secret until now, has been published in the Daily Mirror.

The name of the alleged person has been blacked out by the newspaper for legal reasons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3206486.stm

I remain uncertain about these incidents -- Diana's, Horsley's and Hastings' (I might say less uncertain about the latter two) -- but these stories are compelling.

[8bitagent]

I hate to be one of those conspiracy people claiming insincerity....but...Hastings former Bush cabinet wife? Yeah...either Im in a twilight zone or she is not what she claims to be. And I hate being one of those people...but good god.

I can believe Uncle Drunky Ted Kennedy(RIP) really believed his brother didnt die at the hands of conspirators...but Hastings wife? Hastings last squeeze was murdered in Iraq!

I am almost 100% sure Andi Parhamovich was murdered in a hit, under the cover of "Sunni extremists". It was NOT random.
And I can almost guarantee that if Andi Parhamovich was still alive, Hastings would still be alive

[norton ash]

He was killed by the usual cabal: by himself, first of all; by the woman he knew; by the woman he did not know; by the man who granted his inmost wish; and by the inevitable fifth, who was the keeper of his conscience and keeper of the stone.

Robertson Davies Fifth Business