
Email Sent by Michael Hastings Hours Before His Death Mentions ‘Big Story’ - r0h1n
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
======
pyalot2
The probability of a journalist investigating a big story in the atmosphere of
recent scandals is significant. The probability of having a car crash, even a
weird one is also quite significant. I won't comment on the (alleged) history
of DUI offenses of hastings.

But if you really want to go off the conspiracy deep end, here's my take:
Hastings was driving a modern Mercedes. These come with everything like ABS,
EPS, Servo steering, Electronic throttle control, automatic transmission and
so forth. And as you might know, cars these days are basically computers on
wheels intrepreting the users input to the devices output. So if you really
wanted to "produce" a freak accident, like say, remote controlling the car
into a palm tree. All you'd need to do was hack the onboard control computer,
you probably wouldn't even need an RC receiver as you could probably reuse the
builtin wifi/radio to input commands to the computer. So unless you perform
forensic examination of the onboard computer (which is usually locked down
with DRM so you aren't able to repair your own car anymore) there'd be zero
evidence.

~~~
shin_lao
Please don't.

The computer doesn't control the steering and breaks are mechanical. There's
no remote control.

Unless you sabotage the car, what you're saying is impossible. But if you
sabotage the car, you don't need all the electronics. Just wear off the breaks
or whatever else.

I think you're overestimating the importance of Mr. Hastings. Maybe you'd like
to add some folklore or magic to what is a tragic, but trivial death.

~~~
mbenjaminsmith
Brakes in most modern cars are under computer control. They are in mine. I
know that because I can disable that control if I want to drive more
aggressively.

Before you say something's impossible, you might want to do some research.

[http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-
oakland2010.pdf](http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-oakland2010.pdf)

Cars can be controlled via their onboard computers.

> I think you're overestimating the importance of Mr. Hastings.

Wikipedia:

"His Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO's
International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war, documented the
widespread contempt of him and his staff for civilian officials in the US
government and resulted in the general's resignation."

On the journalistic threat scale of 1-10 I'd say Hastings was an 11.

~~~
tehwebguy
I'm under the impression that computer controlled brakes, like power steering,
default to mechanical control. So if the engine starts revving without his
consent the driver should still be able to apply the brakes enough to disable
or slow down the car.

~~~
mbenjaminsmith
Take a look at the paper I referenced above. Their tests show the ability to
disable braking while manual override isn't possible.

While that doesn't address this specific car, it shows that it's possible on
at least one type of car.

------
alan_cx
First I have seen of this, so I have no idea of the various theories. As I
understand it, the car crashed at the front and blew up? Correct? If so...

I find it very, very hard to believe a modern Mercedes would do that. Merc are
very safety conscious, they sell to well off people who expect not to blow up,
and that is on top of strict EU safety rules and testing. I assume the US also
has it's standards to comply with too. This is a luxury car manufacturer which
prides its self on safety above and beyond legislation or international
standards, and sells to customer who fully expect that.

So, is there no public Merc statement or full on internal investigation? A
Merc blowing up like that publicly should be a massive PR disaster for them.
Who wants a luxury car that blows up in a front impact? If it is as simple as
a front impact causing the car to blow up, I would have thought Merc would be
very, publicly, concerned about that.

If I were some one interested in investigating this, I'd be perusing Mercedes
to see what they have to say.

~~~
Steko
"I find it very, very hard to believe a modern Mercedes would do that. "

Mercedes cars are not immune to the rules of physics. Gasoline is flammable.

[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-
ha...](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-hastings-
crash-572699)

 _But post-crash fires are, in fact, depressingly typical, especially in high-
speed scenarios, says Philadelphia attorney Max Kennerly, whose firm
represents plaintiffs in car fires.

“If someone is driving at high speed and hits a very solid object, yeah,
you’ll get a fire out of that,” Kennerly says. “It wouldn’t be an
underestimation to say that every day, a lawsuit is filed over a car fire
right after an accident. There are every year 300,000 vehicle fires...”

Frank Markus, technical director of Motor Trend, points out that “any impact
at speeds high enough to rip the drive train out of a car is highly likely to
force some object to rupture the fuel tank. There is a lot of potential
chemical energy in a gas tank that's even a quarter full...

So while the casual evidence might suggest otherwise, the prosaic reality is
that cars involved in high-speed crashes often go up in flames_

edit: boo, beaten to the punch by 2 minutes with the same cite.

~~~
wavefunction
Gas is indeed flammable, but only under specific circumstances.

And citing hollywoodreporter.com? Thanks but I think I'll rely on more
reputable sources:

[http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-
shows/mythbusters/videos/crash-a...](http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-
shows/mythbusters/videos/crash-and-burn.htm)

~~~
tptacek
That's not original reporting from THR, it's an aggregation of other stories,
written by THR.

Here, maybe you'll trust NFPA instead:

[http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=296...](http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=29658)

~~~
wavefunction
I'll just say that you, Steko and jlgreco seem pretty invested in presenting
the same case, ad nauseum. With that, I have some projects to head off to work
on.

Cheers

~~~
jlgreco
Curiously, if you read our histories you will see that tptacek and I could not
possibly disagree more on most of the other aspects of this continuum of
stories.

But hey, if I were a government shill in Virginia I wouldn't want to make it
_too_ obvious right? Gotta keep it mixed up a bit.

~~~
wavefunction
Who said you were a government shill? dun dun dun...

~~~
jlgreco
Oh crimey, I've been had!

------
ghshephard
Somewhat ironic (or perhaps disturbing is more appropriate) the recent posting
on HN [1] of the historic CIA review of assassinations, in which staged car
accidents were fairly prominent.

This line from that post comes to mind,

"If the subject's personal habits make it feasible, alcohol may be used [2
words excised] to prepare him for a contrived accident of any kind."

[1]
[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/ciaguat2.html](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/ciaguat2.html)

~~~
l33tbro
How could it be staged, exactly? The guy was flying down Melrose. The engine
of his Merc flew like 100 feet from site of impact. I just don't see how it
could be staged.

~~~
dakrisht
Flying down Highland. And that was a transmission, not an engine.

~~~
l33tbro
Re: Engine.
[http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/06/michael_hastings_...](http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/06/michael_hastings_crash_engine_flew_speeding_recovery.php)

Obviously crashed on Highland. CCTV of of him flying on Melrose ... link
evades me right now.

~~~
dakrisht
Check my post above for the flying by link...

It's a transmission connected to the engine. Forgot this car has a small
motor. But they're both out there, laying 200 feet out. Strange.

------
Udo
I remember actually rolling my eyes when the first Hastings crash conspiracy
statements were made here on HN, now they don't seem so far fetched. Crazy
world. Still, chances are it was an unfortunately timed accident. However
small it might be though, the (perceived) realistic probability of government
involvement is kind of a big deal, at least for people like me who
historically never believed in that sort of thing.

------
crocowhile
This is a video from a UCSD researcher on malicious attacks on modern
automobiles
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHfOziIwXic](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHfOziIwXic)

Examples of what can be done: Insert in the radio a CD containing a malicious
WMA file that would play fine on the computer but once in the car could
completely compromise the car electronics...

~~~
contingencies
Link to the original paper and one additional paper:
[http://www.autosec.org/publications.html](http://www.autosec.org/publications.html)

The money shot - single image comparing all attack vectors:
[http://i.imgur.com/ylXoPmz.png](http://i.imgur.com/ylXoPmz.png)

------
l33tbro
I still call poppy-cock. It's just such a ridiculous proposition.

Look, the guy contacted Wikileaks a few hours before his death. Wikileaks! He
also contacted his employers about a story he was writing on the subject of
NSA. Now, if .. IF the FBI/NSA were intent on ending him, surely they would
have been privy to said communications. This being the case - what motive
would they have to go through with it? I mean, by doing so, they would
knowingly and invariably be drawing more heat to that which they were covering
up. How? Well,

a) Wikileaks knows about it. Therefore a suspicious death would draw more
attention to whatever it was he was about to report.

b) A suspicious death would make him a journalistic martyr, prompting one of
his fellow reporters to pick up on where his research was left and give even
greater salience to the issue reported. The FBI aren't stupid. They know that
murdering a reporter would only magnify the issue down the track.

I'm sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me that they would willingly self-
immolate by killing the dude and igniting several spotfires.

I'd like to believe it too. I'd love to see these Prism guards go down,
believe me. Honestly thought the people of HN were a bit beyond the conspiracy
crap you find on Reddit and such places.

~~~
crocowhile
Well, he was one of the most successful journalists of his age; he previously
destroyed a former CIA general with his writings; he claimed one year ago to
have lots of sources in governmental agencies (
[http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/uaha0/iam_michael_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/uaha0/iam_michael_hastings_a_reporter_for_buzzfeed_and/c4tpn8s)
); he recently wrote messages saying he was onto something big re: NSA; he
was, basically, at the apex of his career. Why would he go "yeah, let's see
how fast this car can go now!" all of a sudden? I am not saying he was killed
but I would not find hard at all to believe TBH.

~~~
rdouble
_Why would he go "yeah, let's see how fast this car can go now!" all of a
sudden?_

Maybe he was drunk.

~~~
crocowhile
In his book he claimed he had his last drink when he was 20 yo.

~~~
DanBC
He has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, so it's possible that he relapsed
and went on a bender.

Important to note that I haven't seen anything to say that he had any drugs or
alcohol in his system. I haven't read any of the reports. Maybe someone has
already done the test and said there wasn't any drugs or alcohol in his blood.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
One thing that sucks about him dying in a fire is that it may frustrate
efforts at toxicology/autopsy.

------
TerraHertz
Does anyone know the name of the street where the crash occurred? Said to be
in Hancock Park, but I can't find that palm lined center-row street in google
maps. Want to check something out.

My opinion on the crash - from the pictures online of the crash almost
immediately after impact, the whole car is very much on fire, yet the R-side
door paint is unburned. This just doesn't fit with modern fuel safety
construction.

In the current political climate, and given the evidence he was onto some big
story, the 'dead man in a wifi-controlled car' idea seems quite realistic.

~~~
dakrisht
Highland Avenue - pretty decent two-lane street (in each direction) with a
large center divider full of relatively skinny palm trees and grass.

[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highland+Avenue,+hancock+park...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highland+Avenue,+hancock+park&hl=en&ll=34.083038,-118.338368&spn=0.001067,0.00142&sll=33.999883,-118.473362&sspn=0.012079,0.022724&hnear=N+Highland+Ave,+California&t=h&z=20)

------
Kylekramer
The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy
theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting.
The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the
Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from
another dimension that are in control. The truth is more frightening, nobody
is in control. - Alan Moore

~~~
blueprint
What is the evidence that this world operates chaotically? Are you sure you
understand what that word means?

When we talk about the term "truth" it's absolutely critical that we have
evidence in our words.

~~~
blueprint
Being downvoted for asking for evidence of claims about the term 'truth' is
not a good sign.

------
aaronbrethorst
Seriously, Glenn Beck's website is showing up on the front page of Hacker
News? It's like the worst of Rush Limbaugh meets Alex Jones. Flagged.

~~~
stfu
I don't see this as an issue.

We often have links on hn by left wing sources such as MotherJones. Quite
frankly I enjoy reading stories written by the different viewpoints and am
most certain hn readers are able to detract personal biases from articles as
well.

~~~
rattray
I'd prefer not to be supporting Glenn Beck's company by boosting his
impressions if I can avoid it. Especially if another source (LA Times) broke
the story.

------
ohwp
Cars almost never get fire when they crash. It seems more likely that you
crash a car that caught fire.

~~~
tomjen3
Fuel tanks don't catch fire if you shoot at them with tracer bullets (see the
old episode of mythbusters), why should they explode when the car hit a tree?
It was a nice car, well designed, and surely the engineers at BMW had
considered various crash situations, including a front colliosion with a blunt
object.

~~~
hysterix
People mentioning mythbusters as if it is actually a relevant data point is
really annoying.

They are an entertainment show, nothing more. Because they shot a tracer
bullet at a gas tank (really that's the "evidence"?) means exactly nothing in
the real world.

------
dakrisht
Want to consolidate all of my comments into one, so here goes:

1\. Raw footage of the crash, that Mercedes (appears to be a 2012 C-Class
Coupe) is fully engulfed in flames. The car blew up on impact. How is another
question.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LSY3wVuASg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LSY3wVuASg)

2\. Dash cam footage of driver running red light (Highland Avenue & Santa
Monica Blvd) at a high rate of speed. Video dissolves moments later (something
was cut from it)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNhqKRugk8Q](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNhqKRugk8Q)

3\. 5:00 into first video (crash) - you can see the entire transmission thrown
over 200 feet into the sidewalk.

4\. Car is really on fire here, not sure a C-250 fuel tank (17.4 gallons)
could create that big of a fireball? And that's a full tank.

5\. I will assume Mercedes would engineer the car with the fuel pump cutting
off from the engine at the moment of impact. All electrical systems, fuel,
combustion, etc. would be disconnected for this reason.

6\. He was traveling at a high rate of speed (80+ mph). Highland Avenue is a
nice two-land (in each direction) street, no potholes, bumps, smooth like a
baby's ass (that particular section of the street). The palm trees are also
fairly thin compared to some bigger ones we have here.

7\. Who are these LANewsLOUDLABS people? Why are they filming a) the red light
at that gas station, b) the accident site shortly after (but going through
side streets as opposed to simply going straight and making a right turn?) and
c) have an LAPD police scanner (LAPD uses trunked communication, you need a
$500+ scanner, of course, accessible to anyone (and legal) with $500.00. But
a, b, and c just seem odd...

8\. You can tell briefly that the car used by "news" above has a silver
exterior. I'm not sure of the make/model, does NOT really sound like a V8 to
me, maybe a turbo 6... Driver saying "oh shit" seems genuine, if that makes a
difference.

Prelim thoughts:

1) He was going fast, really fast.

2) He ran a red light (there's always a reason for this: alcohol, bad
judgment, being chased by someone, etc.)

3) Vehicle burst into flames - but when?

4) Engine and transmission over 200 feet away from crash site (tree)

5) That roof is gone, there's a big hole with flames shooting out - but this
car has a panorama sunroof. That glass shattering + high impact collision =
hole.

6) Any arson specialists, chemists - feel free to chime in on the pattern,
color, position, spread of the burns at 3:00 of the video.

7) The cockpit is intact - so is the drivers seat - the engine is gone, the
car is badly damaged in the front, but if there was no fire, I'd say bad
injuries but alive. Fire killed the guy.

~~~
sheri
> 2) He ran a red light (there's always a reason for this: alcohol, bad
> judgment, being chased by someone, etc.)

This is the most interesting part of the story to me. Even if he was drunk,
I'm finding it hard to believe he would race through a light at that speed.

~~~
mpyne
Really? Maybe it's just my perspective reading safety reports in the Navy, but
"drunk guy driving fast in completely wrong area" is not at all unusual.

------
reledi
> _Meanwhile, investigators are still looking into what caused Hastings to
> crash on Tuesday. They are trying to find out if the car had a technical
> problem or if he may have had a medical condition that caused him to wreck._

There's speculation online that it was a bomb, which isn't under technical
problems or medical conditions. Which makes me wonder, would investigators
conclude it was a bomb if there was ample evidence?

~~~
jlgreco
Why would some nefarious conspiracy orchestrator put a bomb in the car? If you
are going to cause a crash, why throw a bomb into the mix too? It would only
serve to cause more suspicious and loose ends. The absolute _most_ that makes
any sense is a gallon jug or two of gas under the seat just to be sure, but
even that is _really_ pushing it.

Think about it, if _you_ were tasked with causing somebody to be declared dead
in a car crash, would _you_ also put a bomb in the car? Only if you wanted to
be caught maybe...

~~~
tomjen3
No, I wouldn't.

But then the car blow up (sending the transmission way away) and cought fire.
A car doesn't blow up and doesn't catch fire from hitting a tree.

A bomb fits the evidence much better.

~~~
jlgreco
It makes no goddamn sense to put a bomb in the car. Unless your hypothetical
conspirators are idiots or suicidal, then _" sometimes crazy, unusual, or
unintuitive shit can happen during high-energy collisions"_ is far more
plausible, regardless of if it was intentional.

> _A car doesn 't blow up and doesn't catch fire from hitting a tree._

Yeah, you keep saying that... Here is Ryan Dunn's 911 after a tree was done
with it:
[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/06/21/article-2006369-0C...](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/06/21/article-2006369-0CA708FE00000578-802_634x471.jpg)

~~~
mpyne
That's a tow truck dude, where's the car?

~~~
jlgreco
Exactly. Another angle:
[http://www.montgomerynews.com/content/articles/2011/06/23/mo...](http://www.montgomerynews.com/content/articles/2011/06/23/montgomery_life/news/doc4e039d5dee0082782844751.jpg)

------
tptacek
The Blaze. Glenn Beck's site. Really?

------
dakrisht
Raw footage of the crash - that Mercedes (appears to be a 2012 C-Class Coupe)
is totally engulfed. The car blew up on impact. How is another question.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LSY3wVuASg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LSY3wVuASg)

~~~
Amadou
Correction for anyone likely to be disappointed as I was - raw footage of the
fire after the crash. The guy with the video camera gets there and interviews
an eye witness after the car is already burning.

What is amazing to me is just how much the entire car burns. I really don't
know anything about car fires but it looks crazy how much the entire vehicle
is engulfed in flames from what appears to be a one-car head-on accident in a
relatively new mercedes.

I had a, I guess unfounded, belief that a modern luxury-brand car would be
fairly fire retardant. Not much you can do about gasoline and the tires, but
seems like all the interior upholstery and cushions, etc could be reasonably
non-flammable.

~~~
dredmorbius
Having seen a few car fires (including several arsons): once they _do_ catch
fire, they tend to burn for a good 10-30 minutes, depending on variables.
There's a lot of plastic in cars, and that's little more than solid oil.
Accelerant will help start the process.

And yes: fires in the event of accidents are fairly rare, even at high rates
of speed.

------
dakrisht
"I need to go off the radar for a bit."

Not sure how big this guy is, let's just say average build, average height -
is it me - or is there no visible body in the driver's seat at 3:00 in the
video?

If he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he would have been ejected to where the
engine was. Otherwise, that seatbelt keeps him in the same place, even if he
leaned over, etc.

Not into conspiracies but definitely some interesting observations from others
on this thread.

The BIGGEST red flag of course is WHY he was speeding through a red light at a
high rate of speed.

Could be many, many things.

~~~
DanBC
> The BIGGEST red flag of course is WHY he was speeding through a red light at
> a high rate of speed.

I'd be interested to know how many people drive through red lights, and how
many people drive at that speed, and how many people drive at red lights at
that speed. (Not because it has any bearing on this story, I just want to put
it in some kind of context.)

~~~
rdouble
In LA people drive like that all the time. I am not sure why that part of the
story is suspicious.

~~~
dakrisht
Idiots, drunks, criminals, people fleeing the police do. Not sure this guy
falls into ANY of those categories. Just strange, that's all.

------
brokenparser
Well, he's definitely "off the radar" now.

------
TerraHertz
I'm sure many here will roll their eyes at this source:

[http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1687.htm](http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1687.htm)
Top US Journalist Attempting To Reach Israeli Consulate Assassinated - By
Sorcha Faal

But it's an interesting set of dots. The address they give for the Israeli
consulate is correct: [http://www.israeliconsulatela.org/index.php/en/get-
direction...](http://www.israeliconsulatela.org/index.php/en/get-directions)
Which does make it about 9 miles from Hastings' crash site, fwiw.

But I'm more interested in identifying the exact crash location, and the
direction he was going. In this article:
[http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/email-sent-by-
mic...](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/) there are two photos of the crash site that should allow location of
the exact site using google maps and streetview. Particularly this one:
[http://www.theblaze.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/600x39998...](http://www.theblaze.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/600x39998.jpg)

It seems to be somewhere sth of the intersection of Highland and Melrose Av,
here:
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highland+and+Melrose+avenues&...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Highland+and+Melrose+avenues&hl=en&ll=34.082379,-118.338423&spn=0.004417,0.004308&z=18)

I've tried, but still can't pinpoint it.

From this image: [http://www.theblaze.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/600x339.j...](http://www.theblaze.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/600x339.jpg) I'm wondering if the car clipped the
foreground palm tree, then hit the next tree solidly on the front left of the
car. So the car ends up spinning to the right, stopping at 90 deg to the
street. This would explain why there's little visible damage to the RH side of
the car. But not really why the rear damage.

If that's so, it must have been traveling away from the camera view point. But
is that going Nth or Sth? In either case, it's hard to see how that fits with
heading to the Israeli consulate.

Someone might like to go and see if there's any shrapnel damage in the road
surface anywhere before the impact point.

------
informatimago
So, nothing new on the Voynich front.

------
throwaway10001
Accidents do happen, even after sending email warning about big stories and
Fed investigations. But then it all depends on his "big story." It need not be
the Government doing it, maybe some big fish to avoid jail, embarrassment or a
fortune loss, called in a favor or paid to have the problem solved. Personally
I could see both of them happening.

