I didn't say the USG did assassinate him. I said they have the authority to.
What I have said however, is that Hastings was threatened with death repeatedly for his writings. I wouldn't find it the least bit surprising if someone did make an attempt on his life.
Indeed, I don't think the USG would bother with an official assassination of someone like Hastings. There are plenty of dark characters available for that type of simplistic grunt work. For example, the guy associated with McChrystal that directly threatened to murder Hastings.
You asked me, what conspiracy? And the answer is, the conspiracy theory that this crash was an assassination by the US government.
You may not find it surprising if someone attempted to kill him. I may not find it surprising either, I don't know. But what I do know is that nothing revealed about this particular case so far points toward an assassination, and all of the articles about it posted on HN have approached the crash with a conspiracy mindset, where they twist fairly mundane facts to try to support the idea that it was, in fact, an assassination.
What I have said however, is that Hastings was threatened with death repeatedly for his writings. I wouldn't find it the least bit surprising if someone did make an attempt on his life.
Indeed, I don't think the USG would bother with an official assassination of someone like Hastings. There are plenty of dark characters available for that type of simplistic grunt work. For example, the guy associated with McChrystal that directly threatened to murder Hastings.