Michael Hastings & Things That Make You Go 'Hmmmm...'

 

From: Michael Hastings
Date: Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 12:56 PM
Subject: FBI investigation, re: NSA
To: Redacted

Hey, (redacted), 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 radar for a bit. 

All the best, and hope to see you all soon.

Michael

____________

Michael Hastings
Rolling Stone
BuzzFeed

Hastings died at 4:20 AM on 18 June 2013 – approximately 15 hours later.

*******************

Names of some of the Special Forces, who were involved in bin Laden raid, who have died in 'accidents, military exercises or training': 

 

Lt. Cmdr. (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport, LA

, 

Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J. Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, CA

Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, AR

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Kraig M. Vickers 36, of Kokomo, HI

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Brian R. Bill, 31, of Stamford, CT

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) John W. Faas, 31, of Minneapolis, MN

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Kevin A. Houston, 35, of West Hyannisport, MA

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Matthew D. Mason, 37, of Kansas City, MO

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, TX

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist/Diver) Nicholas H. Null, 30, of Washington, WV

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Robert J. Reeves, 32, of Shreveport, LA

Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Heath M. Robinson, 34, of Detroit, MI

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Darrik C. Benson, 28, of Angwin, CA

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Parachutist) Christopher G. Campbell, 36, of Jacksonville, NC

Information Systems Technician Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Jared W. Day, 28, of Taylorsville, UT

Master-at-Arms Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist) John Douangdara, 26, of South Sioux City, NE

Cryptologist Technician (Collection) Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist) Michael J. Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, PA

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist) Jon T. Tumilson, 35, of Rockford, IA

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Aaron C. Vaughn, 30, of Stuart, FL

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Jason R. Workman, 32, of Blanding, UT

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Jesse D. Pittman, 27, of Ukiah, CA

Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL) Nicholas P. Spehar, 24, ofSaint Paul, MN

Chief Warrant Officer David R. Carter, 47, of Centennial, CO

Chief Warrant Officer Bryan J. Nichols, 31, of Hays, KS

Staff Sgt. Patrick D. Hamburger, 30, of Lincoln, NE

Sgt. Alexander J. Bennett, 24, of Tacoma, WA

Spc. Spencer C. Duncan, 21, of Olathe, KA

Tech. Sgt. John W. Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, FL

Staff Sgt. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, CA

Tech. Sgt. Daniel L. Zerbe, 28, of York, PA

Navy Chief Cryptologist Christian Pike, 31, of Peoria, AZ

Army Spc. David Proctor, 26, of Hickory, NC

During the gun control hysteria following Newtown:

John Noveske, 36, owner of Noveske Rifleworks, killed in a single-vehicle accident on Highway 260 in Oregon on 4 January 2013.

Keith Ratliff, 32, well-known producer of a series of videos on Youtube, known as 'FPSRussia,' in which various high-powered firearms were demonstrated. found murdered at FPS in Franklin County, GA, on 3 January 2013.

Chris Kyle, 36, known as 'the most lethal sniper in American military history,' murdered on 2 February 2013.

For some reason, I was reminded of this...

'Early in the morning on February 7, 1962, Lyndon Johnson called for his airplane. The day was heavily overcast, not safe for flying. His pilots had stayed in Austin the night before to be with their families, knowing they would have to fly to the Johnson Ranch in the morning; however, on seeing the weather, they did not want to fly in the thick fog.

For further insight into the key event, in an exercise of the journalistic novel and an attorney's right in jury argument to develop a case, the discussion between Johnson and Clark is included in chapter 17 on Desperation at page 245. They ordered the pilots to make the trip and, at the same time, Clark realized the depth of the problems Johnson faced. As events turned out after that morning of deep fog at the ranch, Johnson had over a year before the scandal made the headlines.

The pilots had only a few hours. Flying into the muck, they looked for the ranch's airstrip. No luck. Flying too low as they looked for a landmark, the two pilots crashed and died on a hillside near Johnson's ranch. In the dense and rocky brush, the bodies were not recovered for three days.

Apologists for Johnson assert he was a compassionate man. This first tragedy of the assassination underscores, once again, the obvious fact that he was not. When the pressure was great enough, particularly as it was in this case where criminal disclosures were threatened, Johnson would do anything.

In the resulting investigation, Johnson was appropriately distressed, even traveling to the crash site to show his false concern. The families of the two pilots were paid handsomely, the record was sealed, and the matter was closed. Within the next year, it would be reopened.

The death of the two pilots was a forecast of things to come. Johnson had killed men before, he was now responsible for the death of the two pilots, and he would in his desperation kill again. For him, there was no value to human life when it meant saving his future, his ambitions, his reputation, and his life.

Soon after, Johnson would take a military plane to Abilene, Texas, hoping for secrecy as he went to a meet Estes and his representatives. All went well until the plane went off the runway and a report had to be filed. Questions were raised about what had happened, but Johnson simply ignored media inquiries. After all, peace had been preserved with Estes, in person.

Over the next four months as USDA'S investigation dragged back and forth, Wallace prepared for his fateful meeting. An important first step had already been taken. Wallace had moved to California, giving him a new cover. His job was with the same group of companies. The move had been made just before the end of January, right after Estes met with Johnson in Washington.

The effort at containing Marshall came to a head when, on June 3, 1961, Wallace arrived at Marshall's small ranch near Bryan, Texas. The confrontation took place in Robertson County, an agricultural area north and west of Bryan. Wallace had driven to the meeting, stopping at a filling station to ask for directions. He then went to the ranch where the two men met in a quiet, isolated place. They had to get to the heart of the matter at a location where they could talk freely, meaning without witnesses.

Wallace was not successful in bringing an end to the investigation. Marshall refused to cooperate. During the heated argument that resulted, acting pursuant to his vague instructions, Wallace attacked.

Angered at an inability to get Marshall to cooperate at all, Wallace viciously hit the man with a pistol. Marshall fell to the ground, the side of his head cut and his eye badly bruised. Since Marshall was unconscious, Wallace felt he had time to stage a suicide. Rigging a plastic liner to the exhaust and starting Marshall's truck, Wallace counted on carbon monoxide poisoning to kill. Marshall inhaled a substantial amount of the exhaust's fumes, almost a fatal dose. While the poisoning was underway, Wallace removed Marshall's personal belongings and placed them on the seat of the pickup.

Then Wallace panicked. The exhaust was taking too long. He reportedly heard a truck driving nearby. Although he saw no one and no one saw the crime, Wallace had to get out of there. There was a bolt-action rifle in Marshall's truck so Wallace used the man's own weapon to shoot him five times in the side of his lower torso. Three of the shots were sufficient to kill him. After the fifth shot, finally convinced Marshall was dead, Wallace left.

At the first phone he could find, Wallace called Carter to let him know what happened. Carter told Wallace to stick around, to see if anything else needed to be done. They had to get word from Clark.

Later that afternoon, Marshall's cousin discovered the body. He was with a man from Cliff Carter's Pepsi Cola bottling company in nearby Bryan. The body was near the exhaust, the rifle nearby. Personal effects were on the seat of the pickup. There was no suicide note.

The next day, the coroner ruled the death was a suicide. Working with Carter, the local authorities took quick action to cover up the crime. There was no need for an investigation. Somehow, it was accepted that a man nearly dead could work a bolt-action rifle several times, to fire bullets in his own body. Only a fix with the justice of the peace could do it, and, as we have seen, that just happened to be Clark's modus operandi.

Wallace, believing everything was okay, went back to the filling station the next morning, to tell the attendant he had not really needed to go to the Marshall ranch and had not gone there. He then returned to California, his perfect cover, out of reach of Texas criminal authorities.

Over twenty years later, a grand jury was again convened to investigate the Marshall death. It concluded murder had been committed and that Johnson, Carter and Wallace were the co-conspirators in the murderer.'

Unfortunately, this startling decision by the grand jury was not issued until 1985. Johnson was not charged because he was dead. The other two other conspirators had also passed on and escaped justice. Estes had immunity and told what had happened in 1961, from January in Washington to June in Robertson County. The key testimony and evidence was not just from Estes; the jury also heard from Texas Ranger Clint Peoples, finally able to obtain Estes's testimony and fit the facts together.

In the history of any event, what happened is usually told chronologically. Since the indictment report was not issued until 24 years after the murder, the all-important chronology of Johnson's motivations in 1961 may be difficult to appreciate. The public record is very different when Clark was not there in 1985 to provide the needed defense. By placing the grand jury action where it belongs, the motivations for what followed should be far easier to understand.

Historians will play games with history. One will write the story of what would have happened if the South had won the Civil War. Another will write what life in America would be like if he was living in a nation where the South won and he was trying to figure what it would be like if the Union won. Still another imagines Hitler had conquered England and Russia.

Johnson's history has a similar feature. Events did not happen they way they should have. To avoid guessing, the belated indictment is placed where it belongs. What we have to do is assume the indictment was returned in the summer of 1961, and that law enforcement acted in a timely and proper way. If so, one of those different worlds historians imagine would be still here, one in which John Kennedy remained president and Lyndon Johnson was convicted of murder.

Here's another although I can't find a link for it presently:

In a county in the South (IIRC, it was in Arkansas), a man, who had been investigating and about to blow the whistle on massive government corruption, was found beaten, stabbed, strangled, shot in the head, and tied to railroad tracks.  He was discovered by the engineer of the train that ran over and mutilated his body post-death.  About 75 to 100 yards away, his truck was engulfed in accelerant-fueled flames with no licence plate or other personal property.

His death was ruled a suicide.

Not kidding.

Of course, the government and/or its officials would never, ever, ever murder anyone.

http://tinyurl.com/ozf8xeh