"Inexplicably, the palm tree Hastings’ car hit has scorched bark and slightly wounded base --approximately 16"W x 4.5" H x 1"D-- seemingly minimal damage for a 3,538 pound car striking the tree at a reportedly 100 mph."<p>Here's a data point. A street race on a street where I live got out of hand and a mid-size sedan went at an estimated 80mph into the trunk of a magnolia tree in the median. The car body was literally torn in half, and four of the five occupants were killed.<p>That magnolia has a chunk out of its bark about the size indicated in the quote. It is still very much alive, and five years later, people forget which tree to put memorial candles underneath.<p>I live about 150 meters from the site of that accident. It also sounded like an explosion (big "thump", that brought me and my neighbors out of our houses at around 10 or 11 at night).<p>I don't know one way or another about the specific crash in the OP -- just pointing out that armchair forensics is prone to error.
I'm going to preface this by saying that I am <i>very</i> open to the possibility that the US government is assassinating people that cause it trouble. No, I'm not open to it per se, rather I am <i>sure</i> it is happening.<p>This Michael Hastings stuff is getting pretty silly though. A careful, <i>transparent</i>, investigation is probably warranted, but some of the stuff seemingly being used to indicate foul play is just silly. Take for example this:<p><i>"Inexplicably, the palm tree Hastings’ car hit has scorched bark and slightly wounded base --approximately 16"W x 4.5" H x 1"D-- seemingly minimal damage for a 3,538 pound car striking the tree at a reportedly 100 mph. Also pictures taken by San Diego 6 News show the curb has a small scratch, but no major chipping or fractures and the rear tires resting against the curb."</i><p>They are careful to not actually say it, but the implication here seems to be that perhaps the car did not actually hit the tree, or perhaps did not even burn there. Didn't I just watch video footage of the car smacking the hell out of the tree, and then bursting into flames? Even if we go with <i>"radio controlled car with a fire bomb"</i>, it is <i>very</i> clear that a collision and fire <i>did</i> happen with that tree. You find it odd that a tree survived? <i>It's a fucking tree</i>.<p>If car accidents are the sort of thing that you don't mind viewing, you can google "Car split in half by a tree at high speed reddit". Car literally split in half by a tree. The bark was knocked off the tree and part of the car was wrapped around it, but otherwise it was fine (though the tree will eventually die without the bark)
People: don't speculate, don't buy into conspiracies, rely on hard evidence. The more you veer into conspiracy territory the more anything else you say will fail to be taken seriously. Remember that.
There's nothing new here as far as I can tell. This video has been out for a while, and some of the claims made in the article are unsupported.<p>Also, the woman in the interview has been wrong about several things regarding the case, so personally I'd take what she says with a grain of salt. See these threads over on the popular debunking forum Metabunk:<p><a href="http://metabunk.org/threads/debunked-michael-hastings-crash-engine-found-north-of-crash-going-south.1964/" rel="nofollow">http://metabunk.org/threads/debunked-michael-hastings-crash-...</a><p><a href="http://metabunk.org/threads/michael-hastings-death-brings-about-conspiracy-theories-reporters-deadly-car-crash.1819" rel="nofollow">http://metabunk.org/threads/michael-hastings-death-brings-ab...</a><p>It's still a quite mysterious case, sure, but it leaves one to wonder why some nefarious actor would choose to kill the guy <i>after</i> he'd already been in contact with wikileaks(among others) for some time beforehand.
Relevant:<p>"Gaining wireless access to a car’s network is old news. A team of researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, experimenting on a sedan from an unnamed company in 2010, found that they could wirelessly penetrate the same critical systems Miller and Valasek targeted using the car’s OnStar-like cellular connection, Bluetooth bugs, a rogue Android app that synched with the car’s network from the driver’s smartphone or even a malicious audio file on a CD in the car’s stereo system. “Academics have shown you can get remote code execution,” says Valasek, using hacker jargon for the ability to start running commands on a system. “We showed you can do a lot of crazy things once you’re inside.” [1]<p>[1] - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/" rel="nofollow">http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers...</a>
"...just hours before his death Hastings sent the following email to close friends: “Subject: FBI Investigation, re: NSA -Hey (redacted names) — the Feds are interviewing my “close friends and associates.” Perhaps if the authorities arrive “BuzzFeed GQ,” er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news gathering practices or related journalism issues. Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit.<p>Notice the symmetry/irony of:<p>"...The SURVEILLANCE VIDEO ...captures the final moments of Hastings life and provides intriguing details of the "crash....<p>We should hope ES and Glen Greenwald have this.
Please take Kimberly Dvorak's analysis with a grain of salt.
Her previous analysis cited the engine being behind the crash instead of being thrown forward and then citing that as suspicious (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4ujFHr0ZLI8&t=119" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4uj...</a>) and her other article cited Hasting's body as being cremated without consent as the lede, a fact refuted by her source (<a href="https://twitter.com/Rambobiggs/status/357352728499978240" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Rambobiggs/status/357352728499978240</a>).<p>The 911 calls aren't necessarily indicative of an explosive device as she seem to be implying. Just because it sounds like an explosion doesn't mean it's an explosion, especially to initial responders. Think about the difference between shots fired and fireworks.
This witness saw the entire event and per his interview, it doesn't seem like foul play (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fweyFCFKcp0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fweyFCFKcp0</a>).<p>Michael Krikorian (aka, the source of this surveilance video) wrote an article about the whole thing and it tracks closer to the eyewitness's telling of events(<a href="http://krikorianwrites.com/blog/2013/7/16/x9pujjqlzq6bbc0kvdkm1ff9f1mhjl" rel="nofollow">http://krikorianwrites.com/blog/2013/7/16/x9pujjqlzq6bbc0kvd...</a>).<p>One valuable insight Krikorian mentions in his article pertaining to the behavior of the recording device:<p><i>“That type of surveillance camera has auto exposure so it can change what it sees based by the ambient exposure day or night,” Anderson explained. “This camera is set at night and anything that happens very quickly, be it a flash light or a big ball of fire, the camera won’t react fast enough, so the first flash of light is going to appear much bigger in the viewing. So the initial explosion would always look bigger than it is.”<p>He suggested a simple demonstration using a cellphone video app: Strike a match in a dark room and it will flare up on camera much more than in reality.</i>
If someone in the government wanted to be rid of Hastings wouldn't it be far simpler to have him "just disappear"? You could always claim you didn't know where he was and there's nothing to investigate. Since he claimed to be going underground for a while, no one would even start asking soon enough to gather evidence.<p>So I'm skeptical of this crash being an assassination simply because it's one of the harder ways to pull it off <i>and</i> it's inviting investigation. This crash being a way for Hastings to disappear would be much more plausible.
To say that this is extremely suspicious is an understatement. I'll be very interested to see what comes of this. If it comes out that someone carried out a hit on a fairly renowned journalist in order to cover up some dirty laundry, there will be hell to pay.
I would like to see how the White House press office would have responded if this had happened in Russia to a journalist critical of Putin, hours after he said he thought he was being followed by the KGB.
You guys had me scared that something big was happening in San Diego until the name clicked.<p>I think it was the Mayflowers that were <i>really</i> behind it.
"But the most significant missing evidence was the absence of any skid marks—even though the car made a 60-degree turn into a palm tree.<p>Research of this topic reveals a new angle to this story, namely —Boston Brakes.<p>This theory was explained by a former Marine Gordon Duff who refers to the “Boston Brakes” technique, in which “drive by wire” cars, specifically a Mercedes Benz, can be manipulated remotely to simulate an out-of-control accident, according to his Veterans Today story (The 2010 story is a must read). The story details are eerily similar to Hastings fiery accident scene as there were no skid marks.<p>Adding credence to the possible car-hacking scenario is former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke. After news broke on the Hastings car accident, he confirmed the “drive by wire” concept.<p>Clarke told The Huffington Post that a single-vehicle crash is “consistent with a car cyber attack. There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers — including the United States — know how to remotely seize control of a car.”<p>Another significant detail pointed out by some members of law enforcement, is the intensity of the fire inside the car. It’s highly unusual since gasoline generally doesn’t burn that hot. Reviewing video footage from the scene, the intensity of the fire resembles a “thermite” burn.<p>Despite the LAPD’s categorization of the Hasting fatal accident as a “no (evidence of) foul play” accident, LAPD refuses to release the accident and toxicology reports, or make the Mercedes available for inspection which only fuels speculation.<p>LAPD on the case as usual."<p>from this:
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-09/elusive-details-michael-hastings-death" rel="nofollow">http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-09/elusive-details-mic...</a>