An investigative journalist, Michael Hastings, died in a fiery car crash a short while back. He was associated with a story on Stratfor--a "contractor" popular in the corporate and intelligence community for providing specialized information---national security agencies among the clients. Hastings apparently published a story or two which revealed information hacked from Stratfor's computers. And then he ends up dead.
The initial report: driving way too fast and recklessly at odd hours. Conclusion: it was all his fault.
But then it was revealed he was currently working on a story which had caught the attention of the FBI. He emailed or texted some friends hours before his death that he needed to go off the radar for a while as he completed his story. Conclusion: the story was hot!
And hours later, so was Hastings. There is a surveillance tape of his car passing by the camera and a patrol car dashcam of the crash aftermath.
Car hits a palm tree and there is a big fire.
There are then reports that Richard Clark (remember him? 9-11 , national security agent in charge of anti-terrorism in the Clinton-Bush years, "I failed you", tried to warn the President about bin Laden---yeah, that guy) says Hastings could have conceivably had his car hacked--i.e., control taken over without his knowledge or ability to regain control. Sounds preposterpous at first, until you find serious researchers have also postulated this in peer-reviewed papers. Long and short of this one: conceivable "yes" and it has been demonstrated at a certain level (like making the engine race or shut down, or give false reading on the dashboard), but the average person does not seem to have experienced it----unless you recall the incidences of 'sudden acceleration' that plagued Toyota. Brake loss is not usually attributed to something "hackable". Besides, maybe Hastings was drunk or something. Stick with the plausible.
Eventually the story is forgotten. Hastings widow goes on CNN and says her husband had several stories going on, the FBI thing was just one of them. She says she doesn't think anything untoward had happened.
But this San Diego tv reporter stays on the case while it disappears elsewhere. See below:
http://www.sandiego6.com/story/cia-director-brennan-confirmed-as-reporter-michael-hastings-next-target-20130812
