vice | 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.
The
document, partially un-redacted after Leopold and Shapiro engaged in a
lengthy legal battle with the FBI for failing to fulfill its FOIA
obligations, singles out Hastings’ Rolling Stone piece —
“America’s Last Prisoner of War” — as “controversial reporting.” It
names Hastings and Matthew Farwell, a former soldier in Afghanistan and a
contributing reporter to Hastings’ piece.
The document also included an Associated Press report based on the Rolling Stone
piece, and what it identifies as a “blog entry” penned by Gary
Farwell, Matthew’s father — which actually appears to be a comment entry
on the Idaho Statesman’s website.
“The article reveals
private email excerpts, from [redacted] to his parents. The excerpts
include quotes about being ‘ashamed to even be American,’ and threats
that, ‘If this deployment is lame, I’m just going to walk off into the
mountains of Pakistan,’” the FBI file reads. “The Rolling Stone
article ignited a media frenzy, speculating about the circumstances of
[redacted] capture, and whether US resources and effort should continue
to be expended for his recovery.”
The FBI file — as well as a Department of Justice document
released in response to Leopold and Shapiro’s lawsuit — suggests that
Hastings and Farwell’s reporting got swept up into an “international
terrorist investigation” into Bergdahl’s disappearance.
A
spokesperson for the FBI told VICE News that the agency does not
normally comment on pending investigations and that it lets FOIA
documents “speak for themselves.” The investigation was still pending as
of last month, Leopold said.
According to the files — and a rare public statement
by the FBI following Hastings’ death — Hastings was never directly
under investigation by the agency, despite having pissed off a lot of
people in very high places.
But
it is not exactly clear why Hastings and Farwell’s “controversial”
reporting made it into a criminal investigation that was already active
before they even wrote the Rolling Stone story.
