U.S. Army brass told Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings that he would be hunted down and killed over his story that lead to General McChrystal’s downfall, according to Hasting’s closest friend.

Speaking on the Alex Jones Show, Staff Sgt Joe Biggs followed an appearance on Fox News confirmed Hastings was “working on his biggest story yet.”

“You get to learn a lot about a person in one day of combat, let alone three months of being around them,” Biggs said. The pair stayed in touch, becoming friends.

“I remember when the story broke with General McChrystal and he [Hastings] gave me a call and he’s like ‘man, I’m pretty scared,’” Biggs said. “I told him, ‘You have a reason to be, brother. You basically just got a general of a war fired. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t sit too well with him right now.’”

Hastings’ fear was very well-founded as he received severe death threats over the McChrystal story.

“He had been told, if we don’t like what you write, we will hunt you down and kill you,” Biggs stated.

Hastings warned that the FBI would be investigating his colleagues and his friends. He also said that he was on a big story and would need to go “off the radar.”

“It just didn’t seem like something that he normally started his e-mail off with,” Biggs said. “When I read it, I just got this horrible feeling, like something’s not right.All these alarms were going off and my gut feeling from day one, from before it happened, I knew that something wasn’t right,” Biggs said.

Hastings’ death in a fiery car accident has spurred many conspiracy theories.

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