By: Marshall Ramsey II
Michael Hastings, the journalist whose explosive 2010 Rolling Stone profile of U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ("The Runaway General") led to McChrystal's ouster, died in an early morning car accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the magazine said. He was 33.(1)
Hastings, who covered the 2008 presidential election for Newsweek, was hired by BuzzFeed last spring to cover President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.
"We are shocked and devastated by the news that Michael Hastings is gone," BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith said in a statement. "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. He wrote stories that would otherwise have gone unwritten, and without him there are great stories that will go untold. Michael was also a wonderful, generous colleague and a joy to work with and a lover of corgis--especially his Bobby Sneakers."(1)
Hastings was also a contributor to Rolling Stone, and it was his profile in that magazine about McChrystal that led to the general leaving his position.(2)
In his profile, Hastings quoted McChrystal and his staff criticizing and mocking key administration officials. The young reported wrote that McChrystal and Obama "failed from the outset to connect," and that the president looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by top military officials. The fallout of the article was significant, with the general resigning form his post as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, followed by his retirement from the armed forces.(2)
"Hastings' hallmark as [a] reporter was his refusal to cozy up to power," his obituary in Rolling Stone read. "While other embedded reporters were charmed by McChrystal's bad-boy bravado and might have excused his insubordination as a joke,Hastings was determined to expose the recklessness of a man leading what Hastings believed to be a reckless war."(2)
How did Rolling Stone already have Mr. Hastings' obituary if he only died Tuesday? The only way this could be is if they had his obituary written in advance. Also, to whom did Mr. McChrystal answer to? "Gen. McChrystal's bad-boy bravado" was seen as "insubordination." The impression one gets from this is that General McChrystal had someone other than President Obama or a higher ranking general that he answered to. Did someone at Rolling Stone magazine have power over Gen. McChrystal? Or perhaps another reporter?
In the Tuesday, June 18, 2013, edition of rollingstone.com, President Obama is quoted in 2010 as saying that the United states military is controlled by civilians(3), and not members of the U.S. military. This cannot be mistaken for members of the State Department, or any non-military member of the federal government as they answer to President Obama and he is the "Commander-in-Chief" of the armed forces of the United States. President Obama can only be referring to someone outside of the normal operations of the United States military. A full copy of the obituary can be seen here.
Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana also remembered Hastings' uncompromising, aggressive reporting style. "Great reporters exude a certain kind of electricity," Dana said in the Rolling Stones' obituary, "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, and sad that he won't be stopping by my office for any more short visits which would stretch for two or three completely engrossing hours."(4)
Hastings' dedication to journalism shines through in ten pieces of advice for young journalists that he shared on Reddit last year. "Mainly you really have to love writing and reporting. Like it's more important to you than anything else in your life--family, friends, social life, whatever," he wrote.(4)
It is interesting to note, however, that despite the obituary being posted in Tuesday's edition of Rolling Stone, which announced that it definitely was Hastings, Los Angeles coroner's officials could not confirm whether or not Michael was indeed the victim. The only thing that was reported by them is that there was a car crash early Tuesday in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles that killed a man.(5) How can this be that Rolling Stone has an obituary already printed for him unless they had it written in advance?
One more point to bring out, is the possibility that Mr. Hastings' death was part of an occult ritual. While such things are generally laughed at whenever someone brings them up, there are documented cases where occult signatures have been detected. Satanic ritual and/or motivated murders do take place even if they are not widely publicized.(6)(7)(8)
(5) http://money.ca.msn.com/investing/news/business-news/award-winning-journalist-michael-hastings-dies
(8) http://thelumumbareport.blogspot.com/2009/12/occult-science-numerology-used-against.html
UPDATE: More evidence has now arisen that provides evidence that Michael Hastings was, in fact, murdered, and did not die in an automobile accident. Here are links to some of that evidence: undamaged front end of Hastings' car: http://the-tap.blogspot.com/2013/06/michael-hastings-murdered-by-bomb-on.html |
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