Michael Hastings

“There is not much of a bureaucratic leap, if history is any guide, between a seemingly benign call for 'continuous situational awareness' and the onset of a covert and illegal campaign of domestic surveillance.”

“My younger brother is a decorated combat veteran and was a platoon leader in Iraq.”

“When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence.”

“If Bill O'Reilly is calling you a far-left critic, in my book, no matter what your political persuasion is, that's probably - that probably means you're doing a good job.”

“During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions.”

“I think when war becomes your life, I think it's very difficult to have the proper perspective to be able to create a fully balanced policy.”

“I welcome all interviews with 'Rolling Stone' magazine, and I'm sure people will talk to me in the future.”

“The use of drones is rapidly transforming the way we go to war. On the battlefield, a squad leader can receive real-time data from a drone that enables him to view the landscape for miles in every direction, dramatically expanding the capabilities of what would normally have been a small and isolated unit.”

“When my editors and I at 'Rolling Stone' came up with the idea to do a profile of General McChrystal, I simply just e-mailed General McChrystal's press staff, said we wanted to do a profile, and said if you could give us any time to hang out with the general, that would be great.”

“Obama's drone program, in fact, amounts to the largest unmanned aerial offensive ever conducted in military history: never have so few killed so many by remote control.”

“I think it's very difficult to make people care about natives in another country.”

“As for the like of Hillary Clinton, I - you know, I've covered Secretary of State Clinton before. I covered her during her campaign. And she's a very likable and charismatic person once you get the chance to spend any time close to her.”

“In late 2009, I returned to Baghdad after a lengthy absence. I was living alone, in the Hamra Hotel, the twice bombed-out de facto international news bureau.”

“The fact is, psychiatric help is not widely available to CIA agents - and as in the military, there is a stigma attached to admitting post-traumatic stress.”

“Oh, don't let him pull that 'Pearl Harbor I'm going off to war' stuff on you.”

“It was either write or die for me.”

“As the CIA tried to find itself, the threat of international terrorism emanating from the Middle East, Africa, North Africa and Central and Southeast Asia grew with each strike: the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole.”

“If someone tells you something is off the record, I don't print it. If they don't tell me something is off the record, then it's fair game.”

“I've been in this business now for almost ten years. I've done a lot of stories. I have a pretty good track record.”

“It's never a good thing to see a government agency talk in secret about the need to 'control protestors' - especially when that agency is charged with protecting the homeland against terrorists, not nonviolent demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceable dissent.”