Michael Hastings' Friend: 'He Drove Like a Grandma,' Crash Scenario Doesn't Add Up

[Karmadillo]

This is from a recent interview with Sgt. Joe Biggs, a friend of Hastings and one of the recipients of his final email. He avoids claims of conspiracy, but he argues the evidence suggests there is a need for a real investigation of Hastings' death. His statements add to the weight of Richard Clarke's assertion that the crash was "consistent with a car cyber attack." It's surprising (to me, anyways) no one has come forth yet with a timeline for Hastings' whereabouts and behavior that last night. That might go some ways to clear up the mystery. WARNING NOTE: The interview is from FOX, but Biggs is pretty much given free rein to say what he wants to say.

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/06/25/michael-hastings-friend-joe-biggs-he-drove-grandma-crash-doesnt-add#ixzz2XMaQ3wcw

BuzzFeed editor and Rolling Stone investigative journalist Michael Hastings died last week in Los Angeles in a fiery car crash. But there is growing speculation about whether his death was really just a tragic accident.

Hastings, 33, was best known for his 2010 Rolling Stone report on the Afghan war that ended up bringing down Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Close friends and associates, including Sgt. Joe Biggs, said Hastings sent out a chilling email shortly before his death, saying he believed the feds were investigating him and that he was onto a big story.

Biggs joined Megyn Kelly today on America Live, saying the email was "very panicked... and something didn't feel right." The LAPD has said that Hastings was driving his Mercedes at a high rate of speed and crashed, with the car bursting into flames, and that foul play is not suspected. Biggs said he finds the cops' version of events very hard to believe.

"His friends and family who know him, everyone says he drives like a grandma. So that right there doesn't seem like something that he would be doing. He had a lot of friends and family that cared about him. He had a good life to live. There's no way he would be acting erratic like that and acting that out of control," said Biggs.

more...

[avaistheone1]

1. As former NSA chief adviser Richard Clarke said the government does have the capability to remotely

blow up a vehicle.

[Narkos]

2. Is it me, or is DU looking more like Infowars?

[Democracyinkind]

4. From my perspective, it's you.

I see nothing wrobg with posting an interview about current events. especially since the op goes out of his way to curb any potential crazytalk.

[SidDithers]

21. No. It's not just you...

there's lots of crazy on display.

Sid

[DeSwiss]

37. Of course Sid......

...everyone knows Eisenhower, Church and Inouye are all cranks.

They kept trying to tell us. Ike. Then JFK. And Senators Frank Church and Daniel Inouye. Then the revelations seemed to just stop. Maybe they were in control now. It all sounds so absurd, doesn't it? No one wants to even consider it. And if you repeat it, you're just another crazy CT. That's the beauty of it. It's a self-correcting system of oversight integrity which relies principally upon its victims to protect its existence through their own ignorance and incredulity. And through the constant use of ridicule against those able to see things more objectively and realistically, they maintain a consistent hard outer shell made of incredulous, unknowing people. Because it is understood in our society that being accused of being stupid is the one thing an truly ignorant person hates to be accused of the most.

- No need to worry folks. We're in good hands with the MIC.

[center]

[/center]

[SidDithers]

40. Inouye thinks Hastings was killed?...

That's impossible. Inouye died last year.

Unless, they preemptively got to Inouye, to make sure he didn't talk about the Hastings murder.

My God, how deep does it go??

Sid

[Fuddnik]

41. Whoosh........

[DeSwiss]

59. ....

[EOTE]

87. Thank you. nt

[DeSwiss]

88. De nada.

[sabrina 1]

69. Well, there's always been 'crazy' on DU.

But it's just a minority as it always was.

It's him/her in answer to the question!

[avaistheone1]

24. It's definitely you.

[malaise]

27. It's you n/t

[ljm2002]

33. The fact that fool's gold exists...

...does not mean that real gold does not exist.

Similarly, the fact that there are wacky conspiracy theory mongers like Alex Jones, does not mean that real conspiracies do not exist.

If a project director at DARPA, as well as Richard Clark, tell us it is possible to hack automobiles like the one Hastings was driving, then I believe it to be possible. Furthermore, the timing is suspect.

That does not make me a conspiracy theorist, it makes me someone who is willing to consider possibilities, especially when those possibilities are backed up by highly intelligent and trained people who have insider knowledge on this sort of thing.

And if you do choose to reply, please note: what I said is (and I quote): "I believe it to be possible." Okay? So please don't try twisting it.

[name not needed]

43. DU has been this way for a while.

You should have seen the threads about Dubya's secret tsunami machine.

[1StrongBlackMan]

46. Yes ...

It is. And we have our "friends" on the "libertarian left" to thank for that.

Thanks Guys/Gals.

[MrMickeysMom]

49. No... it's you.

[Hissyspit]

62. Yeah, I know. Posting speculation as fact.

How dare they!

[Narkos]

63. mrrrrrRRRROOOOWWWWwwwwww!!!!!!!

[sabrina 1]

68. It's you!

[HiPointDem]

73. is it me, or is DU being invaded by people from ft meade?

[SidDithers]

82. Is it me, or is DU being invaded by zombies of previously banned posters?...nt

Sid

[bvar22]

86. My thoughts too.

!

[4bucksagallon]

75. I was thinking ATS, I checked there but on ATS their CT links Hasting to Snowden...

Coming soon to DU? Just found one, but really can't stomach their BS.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread954982/pg1
Hastings Death And The Snowden Leaks - Is There A Connection?
There is another one though, here.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread954328/pg1
Something tells me there is rampant infiltration, here, on DU!!!!!!! Or is that just another CT. LOL! Whew glad I don't stay in any of these bubbles long it can get to you.

[burnodo]

89. Let me try to understand

There's a new post, a new article, with information from a Hastings friend about the manner in which he drove. Have you just blotted out all other information besides "He crashed his car. That's it. End of story"?

[Democracyinkind]

3. Interesting. Thank you so much for posting.

People would be well advised to reflect on the epistemic conundrums involved here. Even if this all turns out to be a regular speedibg or DUI related accident, the revelations about hacking are a gamechanger and need to be discussed. How would one prove that an accident was due to hacking? Properly executed there would be no discernible difference to a "normal" accident.

[zappaman]

5. Thanks for the Fox News link!

I like my information to be fair and balanced!

[SoCalMusicLover]

6. Two Things Are Likely

First, that he was targeted and taken care of by someone with the ability to do so.

Second, that those who killed him, have covered their tracks in such a way that any investigation will go nowhere, assuming there even is an investigation.

My guess is that the authorities are working on closing this case quickly, before anything contradicting the official story line is discovered.

The cover story has been thrown out and bought by too many at this point. All they need to do now is label the doubters "conspiracy nuts," and that will take care of the remaining dissension.

[zappaman]

7. Yes, you have created the perfect scenario in...in your mind.

So, no matter what the evidence says, no matter what the toxicology report says, no matter what the video shows, no matter what the witnesses say, no matter what his history is with speeding...you know what happened!

Congrats!
Alex Jones would be proud.

By the way, to say those two things you mentioned are "likely" is the funniest thing I've read today.
Carry on!

[Vinnie From Indy]

17. Nice trade craft!

lol!

[struggle4progress]

38. Dollars to donuts Sasquatch is somehow involved in this, and not in a good way

[1StrongBlackMan]

48. You bet ...

He/she was riding the unicorn on the wrong side of the road.

[Scurrilous]

85. LOL

[warrior1]

8. The video shows he's driving like a bat out a hell

Maybe he just didn't drive like grandma that night.

[zappaman]

9. The video has been altered!!!!

See Post #6.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. Accellerator and brake ECM's can be hacked, according to DARPA:

[struggle4progress]

19. To be fair, nobody has specified exactly whose grandma we're talking about

[SidDithers]

28. Maybe his grandma drives like a lunatic...nt

Sid

[Lint Head]

10. Whatever happened it sure shuts up whatever investigative evidence he was gathering.

Kind of a convenient for whoever or whatever he was investigating.
Now people can get back to who's on Dancing With the Stars or The Voice or American Idol or American Pickers or Duck Dynasty or Honey Boo Boo or Pawn Stars or Hardcore Pawn or Ancient Aliens or Ghost Hunters or What the "F" ever.

[zappaman]

11. Who was he investigating?

and what evidence was he gathering?

[ohheckyeah]

12. We could ask him

if he were still alive.

In his email he said he was working on a big case, so it's probably safe to assume he was investigating something or someone.

What we don't know is where he had been, who he had been with, why he was out at 4:00 a.m. There is a lot we don't know.

You act like you know him better than his best friends and co-workers.

[zappaman]

14. Or maybe his editor will tell us?

Or his colleagues?
Or his girlfriend?
Or maybe they won't cuz the evildoers who took him out by remote control have scared them.

And how do we know he's not alive?
Maybe he faked his death!!!!

I don't know him, but I know that cars get in accidents and not everything has to be a conspiracy...especially when there is ZERO evidence of one.
But speculate away!
What's the latest from ALex Jones?

[ohheckyeah]

16. I wouldn't know what the latest is from Alex Jones.

What I do know is there are a lot of questions that either aren't being asked or we aren't being given the answers.

I didn't say it was a conspiracy. I do think that his friends, editor, girlfriend, and colleagues know him better than you do. And his email is troublesome.

And not all accidents are accidents just like everything isn't a conspiracy.

[arthritisR_US]

79. Lets stop with the girlfriend, he was married. n/t

[Lint Head]

13. That's why I said "whoever" or "whatever". Will we ever know?

He also indicated he was in pursuit of a big story. A big story? Usually big stories have evidence and people involved causing the stories. Read below:

"Hastings, 33, who wrote for BuzzFeed, was killed Tuesday when the car he was driving through Los Angeles crossed a median and smashed into a tree, exploding in flames. A day earlier, he sent an email to his colleagues saying that agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigations had been interviewing his friends and that he was going to go dark for a bit. He also indicated he was in pursuit of a big story, Slate reported."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/24/journalist-michael-hastings-last-email-fbis-invest/

[Scurrilous]

18. Drunken/Cracked-out Grandma is another thing altogether.

Michael Hastings Crash: Car Was Speeding, Engine Flew 100 Feet, Cops Say

<snip>

"It will take weeks for the coroner to conduct conclusive toxicology tests that could determine if Hastings was driving under the influence.

The writer does have a history with alcohol and drugs, however. In his first book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story, Hastings says that he crashed a car in a drunk-driving accident when he was 19.

And in this True/Slant piece from 2009, Hastings describes himself as a "a recovering drunk/addict/screw-up."

In another True/Slant piece, he says, "I have smoked crack."

Still, conspiracy theorists are coming out of the woodwork to cast suspicion on the crash, which was reported at 4:25 a.m. Tuesday."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/06/michael_hastings_crash_engine_flew_speeding_recovery.php

[elehhhhna]

20. perhaps he relapsed

perhaps he was being chased

perhaps a lot but what was he on to? THAT'S the burning question now.

[pnwmom]

26. He wasn't being chased. There are videos showing him speeding through a red light.

No other car is nearby.

[hollysmom]

30. could this be a stuck accelerator case?

didn't some guy drive to Germany at a high speed because he could not stop his car? Kept going until out of gas.

[struggle4progress]

32. So maybe that happened and he was too drunk to think of turning off his engine?

[hollysmom]

65. you must have missed the earlier discussion of the car in Germany

You never ever should shut off your engine, but should attempt to go into neutral if you can, sometimes in these cases, the gear shift has stuck.

No one said anything about being drunk - I live with a recovered alcoholic and the last thing he would do when he had a puzzle was to drink - drinking was more of something that happened in the quiet times, so I always kept him busy, which is how he got into computer programming (and met his current wife).

[jeff47]

51. Why would he aim at a tree if his accelerator was stuck?

And why not just turn off the key, thus shutting off the engine?

[hollysmom]

66. you can't shut off the engine

it could cause worse problems and an out f control car, but if you are going very fast, any bump in the road can cause you to lose control and/or be air born

I meant this as just a question about a stuck accelerator.

[HooptieWagon]

58. Shift transmission to neutral.

Doesn't matter what throttle does, car can be safely brought to a stop. None of the conspiracy theorists have answered that question.

[hollysmom]

67. talk to that guy in Germany

when I suggested that, I was told quite clearly by others here, that it was not always possible to do that. I can't remember why, but shutting off the engine was a no no for sure.

[HooptieWagon]

84. Shutting off engine is possible.

It would be a last resort, since shutting off the engine disables power-assist to steering and brakes, probably locks steering wheel. However, shifting to neutral is possible and safe. If manual transmission, merely disengaging the clutch will stop "runaway" vehicle. I don't know what happened in Germany....but it sounds like the driver wasn't knowledgeable to deal with an emergency. And having driven on Autobahn in Germany and Autostrada in Italy, it's very unlikely you can go top speed until gas runs out. Right lane traffic moves about 60 mph, left lane vehicles usually about 80 while passing. At 100 - 120 its likely a vehicle ahead pulls out to pass without seeing a you 1/4 mile behind approaching at high speed, and can't pull back over to right immediately. PS...I wasn't driving fast, was towing a 22' sailboat behind an old Volvo station wagon. Stayed to right, except for occassionally passing a really slow truck, which got all kinds of waving and honking from other drivers, since its illegal to use the left lane at all pulling a trailer. Had to look VERY carefully to check for fast cars approaching from behind, and to make sure there was time to pass and pull right back over.

[DevonRex]

22. i know so many young people who buy Merc sports coupes and "drive like grandmas."

Just buying a sports car will turn a 30-something into an old man in a second.

[cali]

76. It's not a sports car

. It's simply the entry level Mercedes. It's not particularly fast from 0 to 60; no faster, for instance than the 2013 Honda Civic.
(just looked it up and compared it to several decidedly non-sport cars).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_C-Class

[valerief]

23. Fascists kill truthtellers. nt

[zeemike]

42. And fascist enablers ridicule anyone who dares question it.

They show up quickly every time like they have radar...always scanning for some who strays from the official story.

[aquart]

72. You noticed that, too?

[pnwmom]

25. If neither the toxicology reports nor the autopsy show a physical cause,

then this should be thoroughly investigated.

But it's way too early to draw any conclusion now.

[former9thward]

29. He could have been slipped something causing him to drive crazy.

Whether they could see it on a tox screen I don't know.

[NutmegYankee]

31. How exactly would a car cyber attack cause this crash?

All it takes to stop a "stuck" throttle is turning the ignition key off or putting the transmission in neutral. The ignition key is a mechanical switch and not subject to hacking. The transmission is mainly mechanical. Even the brakes will work without the ABS system functioning.

[ljm2002]

36. I don't know about the model of car he was driving...

...but lots of newer model cars have no ignition key, just an electronic button to turn the car on, rather than a mechanical switch. Seems to me that might be subject to hacking.

Furthermore, even if it could not all be done remotely, if he was on the radar of one of our three-letter agencies, what's to say they didn't plant some device on the car? Stranger things have happened.

I don't know what really happened but I do think the whole thing is very suspicious. Hearing the DARPA project manager, as well as Richard Clark, tell us that yes it is possible, really made me sit up and go hmmmm. Call me crazy, I really don't care.

And finally, there have been other cases where people had mechanical failures of one sort or another and were unable to make their car stop. Maybe they panicked and did not do the right thing, or maybe it really was a mechanical or computer system failure that made it impossible to stop.

I remember many years ago in one of my first computer jobs. We were running some program against a database system. The database system crashed. The last error message that came out in the log was: This can never happen.

We laughed and laughed. I always remember it, and it reminds me that the smartest guys / gals in the world can't predict every eventuality. What we think "can never happen" in theory, sometimes happens in reality.

[KoKo]

39. +1!

[Gravitycollapse]

50. It's required by law that a car be able to enter into neutral directly from drive

On most, if not all vehicles, this action is mechanical and only requires one motion.

[zeemike]

44. It's like "fly by wire"

There is not actual throttle linkage...it is all controlled by the computer....brakes and all.
So if you control the computer you control the car.

[NutmegYankee]

47. The computer doesn't have complete control of the brakes.

The pressure applied still goes into the master cylinder and out to the brakes. If the ABS system fails the car will still stop from Hydraulic pressure in the brake lines.

[NutmegYankee]

54. You still have mechanical control of most systems

Brakes are still hydraulic, steering is still mechanical linkage, and the transmission is still able to be shifted. With a stick shift, like my car, I can just step on the clutch (also mechanical) and the runaway scenario is over.
And it would be sad if he had a sports car without stick shift. That should be a freaking crime in its own right.

[HooptieWagon]

60. Correct.

[zeemike]

61. /well honestly I don't know

Because the newest car I have is a 91 and I don't want one newer than that...I hate the new shit....I guess that makes me a luddite...
The one I like best is a 1967 International Scout...I can open the hood and I know what everything is and what it does...and can fix it myself.

I just heard people talk and it sounded like fly by wire that they use on aircraft...where there is no mechanical linkage to the controls

But it sill sounds suspect to me...how often do you hear of a car running into a tree and bursting into flames and the engine and trany flies out of it 100 feet down the road?...how is that possible with the engine in the front of the car and the front of the car hits the tree?...makes no sense to me.

But to question it is not allowed...it makes you a nut case so they say.

[NutmegYankee]

81. I've heard of engines breaking free in tree hits.

The tree only engages a small section of front end, and just tears into the car which is designed for collisions with wider objects. That can shear the motor mounts and transmission housing bolts and send the engine flying. When it comes to cars, few things are worse than trees for collisions. Most fatal crashes in my area involve a tree.

[zeemike]

83. I have seen a number of them too.

But it usually drives the engine up into the car and I have never seen one burst into flames...that problem was addressed when Nader published his book Unsafe at any speed...and forced them to make gas tanks that would not explode on impact.

Buy we must believe it was just an accident, because if we do not then we have to face the fact that someone murdered him and that would lead to the ones with a motive...

[JoeyT]

45. I think in a whole lot

of newer high end cars it's a fob transmitter rather than a mechanical switch.

Putting the car into neutral would've been the answer for all the people that were crashing Toyotas a while back too. I dunno why they didn't either.

That said, I doubt he was murdered.

[Major Nikon]

34. Grandma must have been hitting Granpa's cough syrup

[RebelOne]

35. Sgt. Biggs should ride with me and I am a grandma.

He would be wanting to get out and walk.

[Th1onein]

57. Come on, now. We all know what he meant by his statement.

[jeff47]

52. Conspiracy theories that aren't even good enough for Fox News?

Why yes, let's post that on DU!

I hear the reptilian aliens that landed at Roswell were silencing him for his investigation into the Illuminati.

[GeorgeGist]

53. My 2 cents.

Hastings last email sounds contrived to me; making his death the story.

[JenniferJuniper]

55. It was a strange sort of accident, that's true

Cars that hit trees don't usually burst into flames, even when the driver going at top speed. It's not impossible, just unusual.

In reading a bit of his bio, I noticed that the day before would have been the 35th birthday of his fiancée who was killed in a car bombing in '07. I really don't know much about his personal life. In addition to the substance abuse problems when he was younger, could he have had mental health or PTSD issues that were triggered over this? Was he going off radar because of a big story or because something else was going on with him?

We're missing a lot of information all around.

[Major Nikon]

80. The engine in the car traveled 100 feet

Which meant he was hauling ass at the time he hit the tree. It would have had to sever the gas lines.

He also ran over a fire hydrant and a median, either of which could have ruptured the gas tank.

[Narkos]

56. Jesus, this conspiracy shit is just getting unreal....

[siligut]

64. If his death is thought to be by design, it may deter other journalists from reporting the truth

And ultimately, getting all media in sync, seems to be the goal.

[liberal_at_heart]

70. My husband's friend just crashed his porche at a high rate of speed, demolished the car. It did not

burst into flames. It is very unusual for a car to burst into flames.

[HiPointDem]

74. unusual for a porche, too. is that the french for 'porch'? oh wait, spanish.

[Major Nikon]

77. It's not unusual for a car to burst into flames

“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 and a couple hundred deaths and a couple thousand injuries.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-hastings-crash-572699

[flamingdem]

71. I must add something --- I learned to drive in Vermont like Hastings

Vermonters know from cars and driving due to learning to drive in the snow, black ice and usually having to deal with manual transmission etc.

Reason I thought of this is first I was imagining him as a yuppie who doesn't even know to shift down in an automatic, and if he's like me it's a manual for better control, so it's strange he didn't do that.

My question to the drinkers out there is whether they've ever just zipped up to 90 mph on city streets when blotto?

There's some reason for the acceleration. But I can't imagine he didn't know how to gear down.

[proverbialwisdom]

78. More context.

Last edited Thu Jun 27, 2013, 05:28 PM - Edit history (1)

On private intelligence contractors as revealed by internal emails:

http://www.thenation.com/article/174851/strange-case-barrett-brown#axzz2Wl9m4xUD
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/the-real-war-on-reality/?_r=0


On Richard Clarke's comments as analyzed by TYT:

[Arkana]

90. Obama hacked his OnStar with his BlackBerry and Biden cut his brake lines.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED DON'T DISPUTE ME.