Update: I should add here that I have since writing this looked at the video of the car crash again. I’m not knowledgeable about cars at all, so this is just a random opinion, but I found the way the car veered off and exploded a bit eerie. Unnatural.

I don’t think that means the government took him out, though. I think, I’d need to know more about the security camera that caught the image and whether a certain kind of distortion is to be expected.

On the other hand, I can’t get rid of the feeling that there was something stagey about the whole thing.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

There was a lot of talk on the blogs about the death  in a car crash of journalist Michael Hastings, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine.

I didn’t post any of the theories about his death, because I got the distinct impression that they were largely speculation….and possibly disinformation.

Hastings wrote terrific reports, but he was too much an “establishment alternative” (Rolling Stone Magazine, Polk award etc.) for me to think he’d strayed far enough to warrant some kind of hit.

Now we have news that both the autopsy report and the family confirm that the reporter, a one-time meth addict, had slid back into taking drugs and was also taking medical marijuana for post-traumatic stress disorder, acquired during his years reporting on the Iraq war.  The report shows traces of amphetamines and marijuana in his blood, but also states that they were not the cause of his death. The evidence from the report and witness accounts from family members suggest that Hastings’ death was caused by crashing his car while driving at high-speed (at least 80 MPH, possibly 100 MPH or higher). What caused the speeding? No one can say for sure. But a troubled state of mind, exacerbated or caused by drug usage might well have led to the reckless driving, which was uncharacteristic of the reporter, from accounts from his family.

“Family members said Hastings had been using the hallucinogenic DMT recently, though the drug was not detected in a blood test after the crash.

The names of family members who spoke to investigators were redacted in the report.

The report said a family member had last seen Hastings passed out at home about three hours before the crash. The person said Hastings had been smoking marijuana the night before the crash.” (FoxNews.com)