Michael Hastings: Unlikely coincidence or conspiracy?

[rorymac]

yes.

There is a CIA department devoted to killing people who are just about to reveal something damning.

Here is a picture:

With a bit of help from

Ever noticed in these sorts of conspiracy fantasies that the victim is always just about to reveal something? It's always "I have important information that I'm totes giving you tomorrow but I'm being followed and I think I might get murdered" and never "Hi, hope you are well, attached is a file containing lots of evidence the government wants covered up, and in case I'm killed tonight I've also sent it to a hundred major news organisations in a dozen countries"?

Have they never seen a spy thriller?

[The Noose]

I know some people who were in a bad car accident. The engine of the porsche that hit them popped out and flew all the way down the road.

[squealpiggy]

I know some people who were in a bad car accident. The engine of the porsche that hit them popped out and flew all the way down the road.

NO! It must have been a hijacked computer car that... wait a minute, if they were going to blow the engine out and this is unusual behaviour in a car crash, then why not just use a car bomb?

The plot gets thicker.

[ShoulderRoll]

Alright, let's just say that this guy really was about to break some embarrassing news about government spying and they really did want to silence him. Why hack his car? Why would you choose that method? There are hundreds of ways of getting rid of the guy much more efficiently and reliably than hacking his car and making it speed. For example stealing his car. That would be a much better way of making sure he was dead. Killed in a carjacking. Or a home invasion. Or a street robbery. That way you could use actual weapons to actually kill him, rather than relying on a car that is designed mainly for keeping the occupants as safe as possible.

Instead of using reliable weapons like shotguns or knives they go with a method that is completely unreliable and very very public. They staged a big crash scene? There was a dummy in the car? They pretended to extract a body? Why would they add all these layers of complication?

It's the same deal as those guys who say a missile hit the Pentagon, not a plane. Why? Why would you bother using a missile? You already had a plane! Or those guys that are saying that the evil west is planning to murder Africans by pretending they are giving an Ebola vaccine. Considering that Ebola has a very high death rate why not just... you know, not use the vaccine at all?

In real life if you want someone whacked and you have unlimited resources to do it then you're putting a bullet in their head, because it's quick and efficient and reliable. The only people who concoct these elaborate schemes are conspiracy fantasists and Batman villains.

At least you're starting to move away from the "car hacking is impossible without future technology" argument. Good for you.

This is about as close as we are going to get to you admitting that you were wrong about something.

[squealpiggy]

At least you're starting to move away from the "car hacking is impossible without future technology" argument. Good for you.

This is about as close as we are going to get to you admitting that you were wrong about something.

I believe the initial argument was remote car hacking, like it ain't no thing. The claim being made at the start of this thread was basically future technology.

I mean somebody quite rightly pointed out that MIT technicians managed to remotely control a car they had full access to in order to reprogramme the safety computers on board. But we're talking about an alleged CIA assassination. Have you ever met any civil servants? You really think that they are at the level of MIT techs?

[7forever]

I'm not reading any posts.

People have only asked where Hastings was headed right before his car exploded, but few ever asked a much more important question. Assuming that Hastings left in his car after leaving Thigpen's place, where the hell did he go for as many as 4 hours? This huge amount of time would've allowed him to be killed elsewhere and to remotely control the Mercedes a very short distance before it absolutely exploded. He was only 1.5 miles from home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1UjSSeE1s

Michael Hastings' Dangerous Mind: Journalistic Star Was Loved, Feared and Haunted - Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly

In February, Hastings had rented a one-bedroom apartment with a gorgeous view overlooking Hollywood. The landlord allowed him to use another unit, the one below Thigpen's, to write.

Often, when Hastings was done for the day, he would visit Thigpen. He would talk passionately about the stories he was working on. They talked about other things in the news, about stories she thought he should pursue, and about their shared sense of grief.

"We both suffered the same thing, which was depression," she says.

Hastings was intensely interested in government surveillance of journalists. In May, the story broke about the Department of Justice obtaining the phone records of Associated Press reporters. A couple weeks later, Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's massive surveillance program became public. Hastings was convinced he was a target.

His behavior grew increasingly erratic. Helicopters often circle over the hills, but Hastings believed there were more of them around whenever he was at home, keeping an eye on him. He came to believe his Mercedes was being tampered with. "Nothing I could say could console him," Thigpen says.

One night in June, he came to Thigpen's apartment after midnight and urgently asked to borrow her Volvo. He said he was afraid to drive his own car. She declined, telling him her car was having mechanical problems.

"He was scared, and he wanted to leave town," she says.

The next day, around 11:15 a.m., she got a call from her landlord, who told her Hastings had died early that morning. His car had crashed into a palm tree at 75 mph and exploded in a ball of fire.

"I burst into tears," Thigpen says. "I couldn't believe it had happened again."

https://www.google.com/search?q=jord...g&ved=0CCoQ7Ak

[squealpiggy]

People have only asked where Hastings was headed right before his car exploded, but few ever asked a much more important question. Assuming that Hastings left in his car after leaving Thigpen's place, where the hell did he go for as many as 4 hours? This huge amount of time would've allowed him to be killed elsewhere and to remotely control the Mercedes a very short distance before it absolutely exploded. He was only 1.5 miles from home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1UjSSeE1s

Michael Hastings' Dangerous Mind: Journalistic Star Was Loved, Feared and Haunted - Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly

In February, Hastings had rented a one-bedroom apartment with a gorgeous view overlooking Hollywood. The landlord allowed him to use another unit, the one below Thigpen's, to write.

Often, when Hastings was done for the day, he would visit Thigpen. He would talk passionately about the stories he was working on. They talked about other things in the news, about stories she thought he should pursue, and about their shared sense of grief.

"We both suffered the same thing, which was depression," she says.

Hastings was intensely interested in government surveillance of journalists. In May, the story broke about the Department of Justice obtaining the phone records of Associated Press reporters. A couple weeks later, Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's massive surveillance program became public. Hastings was convinced he was a target.

His behavior grew increasingly erratic. Helicopters often circle over the hills, but Hastings believed there were more of them around whenever he was at home, keeping an eye on him. He came to believe his Mercedes was being tampered with. "Nothing I could say could console him," Thigpen says.

One night in June, he came to Thigpen's apartment after midnight and urgently asked to borrow her Volvo. He said he was afraid to drive his own car. She declined, telling him her car was having mechanical problems.

"He was scared, and he wanted to leave town," she says.

The next day, around 11:15 a.m., she got a call from her landlord, who told her Hastings had died early that morning. His car had crashed into a palm tree at 75 mph and exploded in a ball of fire.

"I burst into tears," Thigpen says. "I couldn't believe it had happened again."

https://www.google.com/search?q=jord...g&ved=0CCoQ7Ak

Didn't read.

[ShoulderRoll]

But we're talking about an alleged CIA assassination. Have you ever met any civil servants? You really think that they are at the level of MIT techs?

You don't think that the CIA recruits from MIT and other top universities?

[7forever]

You don't think that the CIA recruits from MIT and other top universities?

Did read.

[squealpiggy]

You don't think that the CIA recruits from MIT and other top universities?

And pays them what?