Michael Hastings, the FBI and the Missing Soldier

VICE News with a big piece up just now on the long-forgotten Rolling Stone piece by Hastings--that sparked FBI interest--on Bergdahl, now very much in the news.  I've never been in the "conspiracy" camp on Hastings' death but still this is important reading.

At the time of the story’s publication, the media had all but forgotten about Bergdahl — who was released on Saturday after five years in the hands of the Taliban, in exchange for five Guantanamo prisoners. And, with the exception of some initial chatter, Hastings’ piece, which paints a deeply unflattering picture of Bergdahl’s unit and its leadership, hardly had the impact of some of his other investigations.

But someone did pay attention to it: the FBI.

That, at least, is what was revealed in a heavily redacted document released by the agency following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — filed on the day of Hastings’ death — by investigative journalist Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro, an MIT doctoral student whom the Justice Department once called the “most prolific” requester of FOIA documents.

Key WikiLeaks file today.