Why Was the FBI Investigating Michael Hastings’ Reporting on Bowe Bergdahl?

Mods, please move if this is not in the appropriate forum.

I haven't seen anything about this on ATS yet, so thought i'd share, even though it was published June 3rd.

Why Was the FBI Investigating Michael Hastings’ Reporting on Bowe Bergdahl?

Key excerpts from the story:

He spoke to Bergdahl’s parents, who had by that time stopped talking to the press, following “subtle pressure” from the army, and he quoted from emails the young soldier had sent to them, documenting his growing disillusion with the war and the US military. Hastings also spoke to several unnamed men in Bergdahl’s unit — soldiers who, we now know, had to sign a strict nondisclosure agreement forbidding them from discussing the soldier’s disappearance and search with anyone — let alone one of the top investigative journalists in the country.

“Then the question became, why was the FBI looking at this, what were they looking at?” Leopold added. “The FBI says Hastings was not a target of their investigation but his reporting was. How do you investigate someone's reporting without investigating them?"

Farwell declined to discuss the details of the file, but told VICE News, “I’m happy the FBI is reading Rolling Stone on the job.”

“For five years, soldiers have been forced to stay silent about the disappearance and search for Bergdahl. Now we can talk about what really happened,” Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served in Bergdahl’s battalion, wrote in the Daily Beast on Monday. “I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.”

Dead men tell no tales....

Shocking that the last investigative journalist is the dead man? Pretty convenient no? The corporate swills won't touch this. But, anyone with a brain can see there is something very very wrong with this story.

Btw your link didn't work for me.

Makes perfect sense. I was wondering why they killed him.

Anyone notice that Hastings accident is similar to Paul Walkers accident?

www.westernjournalism.com...

originally posted by: Maluhia
Dead men tell no tales....

Shocking that the last investigative journalist is the dead man? Pretty convenient no? The corporate swills won't touch this. But, anyone with a brain can see there is something very very wrong with this story.

Btw your link didn't work for me.

Try it again, edited OP and think I just did a sloppy copy paste job on the link embed. Works for me.

He's not the last, but he definitely touched a nerve. Haven't read any of his recent work but Matt Taibbi was also excellent.

a reply to: CloudsTasteMetallic
They were purportedly investigating his, Matt Farwell's & Rolling Stone Magazine's investigative practices.
They (the Feds) thought they had a lid on the story...and out comes Hastings with an article, with inside sources - being, the family, numerous military personnel, conversations between Senators McCain and Kerry - etc...
The wealth of information, apparently, available to Hastings at the time was, in many ways, better (more in depth, and covering a broader range of views) than, perhaps, anything that will be available...again.
If this was a 'surprise' to them...one has to wonder 'how' it came as a surprise.
There was definitely a growing movement within government/military/national-security circles that wanted access to & control of ALL electronic &/or wireless communications...with a genuine emphasis on investigative journalists.
I am thinking they wanted access to the journalists because of the journalists' sources.
Just a...guess.

a reply to: Diabolical

No to be offensive here but, I believe Walker was involved in an actual accident. A Porsche Carrera GT is not a vehicle to be toyed with. In a high performance MR drivetrain layout (engine behind passenger compartment - mid engine, rear drive) there is a phenomenon known as "lift-off oversteer." Meaning, if you lift off the accelerator while turning, weight will transfer forward causing a loss of traction to the drive wheels, making the rear end swing out wide and drift. Walker was an avid race enthusiast, and unfortunately let his buddy push his car beyond its limits (or, the driver's capabilities) on public streets.

There are far too many inconsistencies in the Hastings "accident." Yes, "accident" is in quotes for a reason. I don't believe it for a second.

I'm so glad you brought this up!

It's been bugging me. Hastings and the guy who helped him with background on the article were both being investigated..the guy who is still alive, is still being investigated.

Before his death, Hastings told his friends that he felt something was amiss..he feared for his well being, at the very least.

I fully agree with you. Look at the subpoena issued by DOJ to seize all phone records from the AP. Seems to me like they're taking lessons from the Nixon admin, and applying modern tech to make sure there can't be a modern day "Deep Throat."

If it's widely known that they can, and will, go after confidential journalist/source connections... That alone will make potential sources FAR less likely to step forward.

No wonder the Kremlin issued a statement right after the initial Snowden leaks saying they were going back to old-fashioned typewriters for highly sensitive internal docs.

ETA: meant as reply to WanDash

a reply to: CloudsTasteMetallic

I'll read more of your article later. Off to bed now.

S&F for a great thread, and an important topic.

I agree with you, what happened was no accident.

originally posted by: CloudsTasteMetallic
a reply to: Diabolical

No to be offensive here but, I believe Walker was involved in an actual accident. A Porsche Carrera GT is not a vehicle to be toyed with. In a high performance MR drivetrain layout (engine behind passenger compartment - mid engine, rear drive) there is a phenomenon known as "lift-off oversteer." Meaning, if you lift off the accelerator while turning, weight will transfer forward causing a loss of traction to the drive wheels, making the rear end swing out wide and drift.

Lift oversteer doesn't happen to mid-engine cars, only the rear-engined 911 line. Mid-engine is the most stable layout that can be designed into a car.

This whole ordeal reminds me of the Bourne movies -

Moral of the story - If your investigating something you really feel like you shouldnt be - Watch your back because people accidently die or go missing over stuff like this all the time.

Its not what you know, Its what you can prove - And you cant prove s**t if your dead.

a reply to: FlyingFox

Yes, the RR layout of a 911 variant is more susceptible, due to its rearward weight bias. Technically, lift-off oversteer can happen in any layout, it's simple physics of weight transfer. Also, Porsche engineers who investigated the car noted that Walker's car had worn tires that were nine years old.

MR cars have always been notorious for snap-oversteer because they have their mass centered in the car (this is not the same as having 50/50 weight distribution). Imagine a single large ball at the center of a long stick (MR car) as opposed to two balls at each end of a long stick, like a barbell (FR car). Both have 50/50 weight distribution, but the first has all its mass centered, while the second has its mass pushed out to the ends.

This centralized mass means that MR cars have very low polar moments of inertia. The benefit of this is that it makes the cars more willing to change direction. The drawback is that this makes the car VERY sensitive to throttle inputs and weight transfer and therefore MUCH more prone to sudden spins at the limit.

People assume that because supercars and race cars are generally MR that this layout must be "better" and that the "betterness" must mean more benign handling. This is simply not true. While the ability to change direction more quickly does improve the maximum potential for the car's handling, it also makes the car much more tricky at the limit. Since most people don't drive at the limit, they don't realize that a car that is benign at 8/10ths can be a widow-maker at 10/10ths.

This is not meant as a personal attack, just an area of knowledge I have a considerable amount of experience with.

*takes deep breath*

Now then, anything to add that's on topic?

In my personal opinion the CIA began using vehicle "accidents" sometime in the 60's. I'm sure they realized that once they could actually kill US citizens to cover up anything they wished to, or for any other reason they might have, they needed a way that would make it difficult to tell what actually occurred. An automobile accident with an explosion and/or fire will destroy things that could potentially be linked to tampering. I believe they experimented with other methods before this, Frank Olson being a notable example back in the 50's. I am not talking about the entire agency, as there are various types of jobs one can have when working for an intelligence agency. Those who would be doing stuff like this would be a relatively small group. And I imagine that it is cross-agency as well. The FBI is definitely not known for targeted killings like the CIA, but I imagine that they too possess the know-how and capabilities. So if the motive and willingness are there, what will stop them? The law? HA!

I am not saying that in this journalist was killed by US intelligence or by the FBI, but it is strange that his widow is saying this stuff, which is corroborated by the guy's own communications to some extent. There are some things that seem quite strange. One can look back through important events that were deemed to be government coverups or conspiracies, and there are always highly questionable deaths surrounding these incidents. From people dying in car crashes, people committing suicide, etc...I do not think that most people truly know the awful things that we KNOW the CIA and FBI have done in the past. Documented stuff and sometimes stuff that is just so obvious that you know what likely occurred, even if it cannot be proven. From the slaying of Black Panther leaders lying unarmed in their beds to being gunned down in broad daylight, to executing tens of thousands of civilians during the Vietnam War, and the list goes on and on. These agencies DO kill US citizens within the United States with absolutely no legal authority.

Knowing this, I cannot say that it is impossible that this person was not killed by the government. The problem here is unchecked authority and the idea that "anything" is acceptable for "national security" purposes, or simply to cover one's own butt or their agency's butt. The truth of the matter is that the buck stops somewhere. Somebody CAN make these calls and does.

Could it be possible that the CIA was behind the whole thing...and that bergdahl was kidnapped by the CIA to later set up the release of these prisoners at gitmo...only to let them come back at the USA and carry out an attack on the country perhaps.


Something just don't seem right about the whole thing....I think bergdahl's parents probably knew everything that was going on and his soldier mates...maybe he wasn't even really living that bad for the last 5 years...Hastings got to close to the truth

False flag.

a reply to: Proman

Yes, the whole thing doesn't quite pass the smell test.

Here's some pure speculation on possible involvement by the Agency. Anyone else remember this story? The White House "accidentally" outs the Afghanistan Chief of Station (highest ranking Agency Officer in country) in a print pool email sent to over 6,000 journalists, including foreign news outlets. Supposed to be a list of people attending a military briefing for Obama during his surprise visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

Roughly a week later, Bowe is being retrieved by Spec Forces operatives, after 5 years of alleged captivity. Hmmmm....

I'll leave it at that, draw your own conclusions.

Dude what did you smoke. We talking about hastings and bergdahl not paul walker. a reply to: CloudsTasteMetallic

originally posted by: neversaynever
Dude what did you smoke. We talking about hastings and bergdahl not paul walker. a reply to: CloudsTasteMetallic

Camel Filter Shorts, full flavor. Cigarette of choice. See post #4, to which I was replying, suggesting similarities between Walker's accident and Hasting's "accident."

On Topic: after further research, just learned that very shortly before Hasting's death, he expressed concerns to those close to him that he believed his car to have been tampered with. And the "big story" he was working on covered John Brennan, CIA Director, and head of JSOC.

Link

According to the book Benghazi: The Definitive Report, John Brennan runs the secret black ops army JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command)—that operates with zero oversight—outside the purview of Congress, the Courts and even the Pentagon—essentially giving Brennan more power than the President of the United States!

....

But funneling weapons to al-Qaeda-linked rebels is a secondary function of Brennan’s JSOC. Their primary mission is to kill and/or capture anyone—worldwide.

Whether that includes Americans is a guarded secret. And whether Michael Hastings was someone who needed to be killed because of bad press on Bergdahl, or for some other big story he was working on—i.e., exposing Brennan’s illegal activities—is also an unanswered question.

a reply to: CloudsTasteMetallic

A few minutes I was watching this nine-minute video I found elsewhere. It makes a convincing case for Hastings death in light of recent developments.

govtslaves.info...

a reply to: CloudsTasteMetallic

Oh stop with that. The guy driving was a professional. He raced that car.