hastings very transparently named right after himself. and in the book, michael m. stings is a character that is not particularly sympathetically rendered, but he is there. very recognizable in the middle of it all. writing it all down with the uncompromising willing to burn every bridge, willing to upset the powerful courage that we know from michael hastings in real life. the book is called "the last magazine." it's a novel. it's out tomorrow. and michael has been gone for a year now, but he has never been more in the middle of it all than he is with this trenchant punch in the media's guts at a time when we really need one. >>> joining us now for the interview, elise jordan, former speechwriter for the white house and state department and the wife of the late michael hastings. thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me and thanks for that beautiful memory of michael's reporting. >> well, i mean, i have to ask, if i know you through michael. we didn't know each other except through your relationship. did you see his reporting the way that those of us

it is an astounding piece you did with michael hastings.'t even know if you is being called to be o w by the us government at the time that you wrote this -- if you is being called a pow by the u.s. government at the time that you wrote this. >> anyone listed as missing/captured nowadays, so the designation pow is somewhat you're chronically obsolete. >> well, matthew farlow is also a writer for "rolling stone" magazine and an afghan war veteran. his family is from idaho. he helped michael hastings write the 2012 article on sergeant bowe bergdahl headline, "america's last prisoner of war." we will link to it at democracynow.org. when we come back, we deal with the second controversy around bowe bergdahl's release, and that is the controversy of the prisoner swap. we will speak with one of the lawyers for one of the five men who were just released and speak with a reporter who has been covering guantÁnamo for years. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan

mark the first anniversary of his death, which is actually tomorrow another major work from michael , hastings us. it's not an investigative report but a posthumous novel, a satire hastings wrote of the corporate news media based on his time at newsweek. the book is called "the last magazine." michael hastings' widow, elise jordan, helped bring the book to life after coming across the manuscript following her husband's death. is a journalist, political commentator, and was a speechwriter for condoleezza rice. in fact, you met michael when you are a speech writer. >> we knew each other for a couple of years, and we started dating when we were both in afghanistan. i was doing a story on marines and he was doing the scanning a crystal story. he was interviewing an embedded with the team. >> you met this young, crusading journalist, who never thought his piece on mcchrystal what actually take him down. >> he thought that it might cause waves for a day or two, but the message of the piece was the story of counterinsurgency in afghanistan and general mcchrystal strict engagement, courageous restrain

michael hastings' wife elyse hastings joins us. we know this must a tough day for you. iate it even more. >> thank you. i consider it such a blessing that michael left this amazing novel that i get to promote and his legacy is living on in so many ways. exactly what you were talking about. the indictment of the establishment media in the run-up to the iraq war. we're seeing the same voices today calling the drumbeat for war. trying to get us involved in what will be another sunni-shia choosing sides sectarian war in iraq. it's kind avenue amazing the lessons we don't learn. that's why i'm glad that michael hastings has tried to remind us hey, let's do better next time. >> absolutely. >> elyse, your husbands with very kind to me during my career. a few years ago i asked nancy pelosi a question as to why she should stay in power. i got a lot of pushback from it. he wrote me a very kind e-mail that said don't listen to the haters, way to stick to the follow-up. where did that come from? michael hastings just seemed to be better than any of his journalistic contemporaries wa

michael hastings joined me on hardball in 2012.s what he had to say about the futility of keeping u.s. forces in afghanistan. >> 99% of the people we fought and killed in afghanistan, pose no threat to the u.s. homeland. that is the big lie of this war, that is why we shouldn't be there, it's not making us safer, and it goes to what you say. the taliban are our enemies because we're in the villages where the taliban are. the taliban think they're fighting the soviets some of them, they never heard of 9/11. >> the things we argue here about every night. >> i wouldn't say i subscribe to my husband's thinking. i'm always my own person, i do think that what he did with the profile of general mcchrystal was to expose how counter insurgency wasn't working in afghanistan. that is what he felt the most important part of the story was, people really got into the political drama, he really wanted to hammer down on what our troops were experiencing on the ground in afghanistan. >> when we go into a country, whether we being the british or the

lou: i want to start first with the pressing reporting of michael hastings back in 2012. the facts and the elements of that article are superb reporting. and that was an exemplary piece of reporting, don't you think? >> what is so interesting is that yes, it's an amazing article. and senior officers for years have known the story and most of the story was not classified. and this includes swapping have the money and finally swapping for this taliban dream team eventually came to pass. and it is known to virtually everyone. >> the suggestion on the part of some general officers, the insistence on the part of the administration, that there are no apologies required here and this is a straightforward proposition that the americans should apply. >> i have to tell you something. i've been on fox for 13 years and i've covered everything from this and have never in 13 years seen the outcry that i have seen here. so the idea that somehow this is a surprise or the idea that the administration was done, not the people in washington that the american people are saying about this are

in this 2012 article, michael hastings talked about these issues. unfortunately bergdahl did not get a lot of press attention when he was in captivity. in fact, we talked about that. we called his case under covered here on "reliable sources" back in february but hastings was on it. unfortunately he died when his car crash in los angeles last year. he had a partner on this story, a former infantry man named matthew farwell. farwell was deployed to afghanistan for 16 months. he helped hastings with a lot of reporting about bergdahl and i spoke with him earlier about the press' role. thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> you called this the most important story you've ever written. why is that? >> probably ever will write. it deals with eternal themes. war, captivity, problems, and because we wrote it at a time two years ago michael hastings and i wrote this for "rolling stone," nobody covered it. nobody cared. and people were being shut up by the white house about it. >> tell me what you mean about that. how were they being shut up? >

this is such -- i mean the rolling stone article, michael hastings indepth.five would be swapped for bowe bergdahl. two years later, it's five. talk about extraordinary reporting. >> we might ask why we need these answers. if hastings knew that, why didn't congress know that? >> there is no excuse for them not to have known, is there? >> certainly right. don't they have staffs who read rolling stone? >> i ask the same question of the national media. why in the world -- i mean there is so much -- i reference it again. my hat is off to "rolling stone." it did an incredible job here. michael hastings, he nailed it. >> and it's also unfair to ask them if, the white house knew any of this and it certainly should have if it didn't, how much was out there, what was known about bowe bergdahl? why did it try to re-create a template where it's a day victory, a day of celebration? so the president goes in the rose guarden with the parents. susan rice goes and says served with honor and distinction? then the white house says we have to get him back because his health. he

in 2012, hastings -- first name? >> michael. >> outlined a piece and a letter that some of his teammate received or saw right before bergdahl walked away. and it said he may be denouncing -- >> allegedly walked away, right? >> allegedly walked away. he may be denouncing america. he may have even looked at possibly joining the taliban. is that -- >> so i don't think it's unreasonable for everyone to be questioning this when the only information that we have are for soldiers serving with honor and distinction. we'll get to susan rice's comment in a moment suggesting without qualification maybe it's totally true. maybe we'll find at the end of the process that there was no questions. look, i understand serving in wartime is a complex thing. i think there's four basic issues, and i'm not going to give explanations, i'm just going to list them. one is how the white house handled this in the rose garden ceremony when they could have just done a photo release of the president calling the family and saved the rose garden family for aft

michael hastings, the late michael hastings of "rolling stone" had a huge piece on it in 2012. >> thereout there. having his rightfully outraged unit members, we get that. it's when the politicians -- >> that's what made the optics so bad when you had unit member after unit member after unit member come out with a very consistent story and come out outraged -- >> ana, this is a pr campaign by republican professionals. >> no, it wasn't, donna. >> yes, it was. >> let's not discredit them by saying they're political. >> i will never discredit a soldier as long as i'm a daughter of a career veteran. that's not the issue. >> let's not call it a pr campaign. >> it was a pr campaign who sought to muddy the waters because that's all they do, candy. all they do is focus their vitriol, their rage against this president. the president woke up this morning, had scrambled eggs and bacon. they would say that's an unhealthy breakfast. if he had cereal and fruit, they'd say that's an unhealthy breakfast. >> you're not saying that there are not legitimate concerns about putting these five taliban member

there was also early on 2010, "rolling stone" and michael hastings did this report here talking about all of the information that we knew about how he possibly was a deserter, yet at the time that didn't make any sense and once all of this started to come forward everybody started referencing the article. >> also hastings also reported, the late michael hastings, that there were disciplinary problems with that unit which is now something that's been picked up in the last couple of days by not just "the new york times" and others, is that unfair to point out? >> hastings said the discipline problems that had plagued bowe's unit back home only got worse when immersed in the fog of war. as jim brought up, the headline today in the "new york times" is bergdahl was in unit known for its trouble. >> why is that a smear? >> i don't think -- i mean, a smear on who? i'm sorry. >> you said earlier "the new york times" was smearing -- >> here they are smearing the unit. bergdahl unit was known for its trouble. that's a smear. why are they focusing on this -- >> because there were problems accord

michael hastings would further right about that the late reporter for "rolling stone." mcintosh, can you talk about your feelings when you are in afghanistan, what was happening there? we have seen the e-mails that michael hastings wrote about in "rolling stone" of bowe to his parents, talking about his disillusionment with the war. what were your thoughts and the thoughts of other soldiers? sean smith, reporter, said it was not unusual, more so among americans and british soldiers in afghanistan, to be highly critical of what was happening. >> it is really hard to hear that clip because it reminded me so much of the conversations that i had while i was in afghanistan. talk with inmuch my unit about these afghan people and how they just want to be left alone. we were all aware of the role the u.s. played during the cold war. using the afghan people as a proxy to get back at the soviet union, using the lives of afghans as political chess pieces and gamesmanship? so to then be in afghanistan to help people, to help the afghan people felt very disingenuous. we never had an

that michael hastings profile, the late michael hastings did the profile of bergdahl in "rolling stone" that you read from. it's very moving, very disturbing. people who care about this should really read it. but there reese nothing in it that would say -- and there's nothing that any military personcensonnel has said which mean we should leave him behind. bill krystal is not entitled to weigh in on this. >> coming up, how will sergeant bergdahl come back into society? and what is it like to be held captive for over 300 days. our next guest knows. a former contractor who was kidnapped and imprisoned in baghdad for 311 days. he shares his amazing story tonight. and house republicans moving forward with a bill aimed at gutting the first lady's healthy lunch program. celebrity chef tom colicciho has been outspoken on this. and he joins us live. please stay with us. i'm their mom at the playground and i'm his mom at the dog park. the kids get trail mix, and here's what you get after a full day of chasing that cute little poodle from down the street. mm hmm delicious milo's kitchen chicken

michael hastings wrote about that video in 2012 report for "rolling stone," noting the footage of theiers break even the most a sick rules of combat like when baseball caps on patrol instead of helmets. but very critical of what they were doing in afghanistan. certainly, if the reports are accurate and the e-mail is accurate that he sent his parents, bowe bergdahl was not alone in his disillusionment, charles glass. >> we know from many soldiers who came back from vietnam and iraq and afghanistan that they'll disapprove of what the country was doing in those countries. they were invaders and occupiers who were telling their soldiers they were there as liberators and helping to build the country, discovered it was completely different from what they thought. i'm not surprised to hear those voices from the men in bergdahl 's unit, because they went through what he went through, which was terrible disillusionment. and my own research in the second world war, the front-line soldiers and all most all of the deserters in the second world war were from the frontlines, the very small minority

>> one of my favorite quotes i saw today was in this rolling stone piece that michael hastings wrote while ago before this story broke, the obama administration saying it could be a huge win if obama could bring him home during the campaign of 2012. amazing that they thought of that because look at the firestorm that it's wrought. >> what red flags stood out for you? >> a couple of things are important. i question the wisdom of having a rose garden ceremony with his family. one the message it sends to america and the message is tends to the enemy. the america is right to ask for a lot of these questions to be answered. i don't think it's good enough for the white house on saturday, rose garden ceremony, guy is returned, he's in good condition. we're moving on. i think that congress actually has a right to ask, and also i do wonder about susan rice's wisdom of going out on a sunday show and saying, bald faced, that bergdahl served with honor and distinction and without any qualification because to me in the pentagon report of 2010, they actually say the opposite. so at least i think t

the widow of michael hastings joins us next. and half a century since the passing of the civil rights act. later, a battle roy article over books, why jk rowling are caught up in the fighting. >>> why was a rolling stone journalist under investigation by the fbi for his detailed reporting on bowe bergdahl two years ago? that reporting eerily predicted virtually everything that happened since bowe bergdahl was freed in a prisoner swap three weeks ago. a freedom of information act found the fbi was tracking his reporting and emails. hastings was 33 when killed in a car accident. he was mourned as a fearless journalist, who in the words of frank rich, former u.s. oped, "doesn't care who he pisses off." a febzal -- fictional book he wrote "a last magazine" was published this week. his widow, a speech writer for condoleezza rice, i know it's been a year, my condolences. let's start talking about bowe bergdahl. as i said, it's eerie to read the rolling stone article that michael wrote. down the line, he talked about how bowe bergdahl

a first look at the new novel by the late michael hastings.es a man take things over♪ ♪fame, lets him loose, hard to swallow♪ ♪fame, puts you there where things are hollow♪ the evolution of luxury continues. the next generation 2015 escalade. ♪fame look at what i put together. cheddar and honey nut chex mix. get outta here! i made this belt with traditional, bold, and peanut butter chocolate chex mix. you guys are cute! i've got trail mix, peanut lovers, chipotle cheddar, dark chocolate, hot n' spicy... turtle, cookies 'n cream, italian herb & parmesan, sour cream 'n onion, and brownie supreme chex mix. and it rotates. 20 flavors, lots of pieces. chex mix pick your mix. now try popped in white cheddar and sweet and salty. brian: 25 years. matt: that's how long we've been talking about the most important social issues. savannah: education. al: conservation. chris: uniting the nation. jim: with a bit of imagination. the more you know. ♪ >>> the president said it was general mcchrystal's explosive comments and those of this aides criticizing the

but michael hastings wrote about this in 2012. >> jake, i think the focus of my conversations with thes on freeing a captive american, frankly. and we've seen from the statements by general dempsey and the secretary of the army that there are concerns that we looked into when he returned so there would be a full investigation. there are legitimate questions so there should be a legitimate investigation that. coulds. that was the focus of the white house. as dempsey put it, it was the last opportunity we had to free a captive american and they were taking advantage of that opportunity. >> do you believe that -- they view what happened on that base. do you believe that susan rice was not briefed on it? that she wasn't aware -- >> your problem is that she said he served with honor and distinction? >> i think the focus is, here is a soldier that put on the u.s. uniform and was serving in afghanistan and was captured and was held captive and needed to be free. i think that was the focus and not obama was the focus on how we message this the right way. >> are you kidding in the president bri

it is striking to me to go back today to read "the rolling stone" piece, about michael hastings, andquoted an administration official saying if we get bergdahl back it will be a great victory for the president. so they have long anticipated, their governing problem in part here is that they didn't understand -- the sharp reaction has not come from the military side from you know, soldiers about the release of the five. it has come more because they feel so insulted. they feel it was so offensive to treat this as a homecoming as a hero. and that just belittled them because they do see him as a deserter. and in the same article, what is now coming, we hear more and more of is an e-mail he apparently sent to see parents just before he left the outposts. in which he said quote, the horror that is america is disgusting. those kind of comments just rankled deeply within the military. and there are not a lot of military people who have served around the president. you know, it is a younger team and in the younger generation not a lot of people have served. so i'm not quite sure they got the

back when michael hastings wrote that article about bowe bergdahl, basically the deal that happened was described in that article. it happened now with the provision that those five guys stay in qatar where they are monitored and then a year after that go back to afghanistan by which point the hostility is stopping. >> i think that's going to have some negative ramifications and i think that's why so many people are unsure about this deal. they feel that you let go high level people when there had been a possibility of a ransom. and i think that's the real difference of opinion. >> wait a second. these people have been out of action for 12 years. it would be like bringing michael jordan back. the taliban today is so much different when they were there. we didn't capture them. in fact, one guy was trying to work with us to turn in another. so you're really overstating the capability of these people when they get back there, if they get back there. >> i think part of this is that this certainlily a proxy about ending the afghanistan war and more deeply what it actually means to end the af

e-mails reported by michael hastings in 2012 says that bergdahl's e-mail to his parents said that he no longer supported the efforts of the war in afghanistan. i have seen their ideas and i am ashamed to even be american. the horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive it. it is all revolting. did he ever express anything like that to you personally? >> yes, jake. pretty much as soon as we had gone to afghanistan and things started to turn a little bit harder for us, he immediately started separating himself away from us and everyone in the platoon started gravitating towards the afghan soldiers. >> did he ever say that he didn't support the effort in the war anymore to you? >> i didn't hear it directly out of his mouth but i did hear very often people talking about it. i think i overheard a conversation once where he was talking to somebody on the phone about it. he was always trying to spread that word to people. he was never really happy about it. >> why do you think he left the observation post that morning? >> honestly, i think he just wanted to go on an adventure wi

the widow of michael hastings joins us next. and half a century since the passing of the civil rights act. later, a battle roy article over >> australia passes some tough gun laws... >> after those laws came in, there have been no more mass shootings... >> should the u.s. take notice? 5 days: guns around the world a primetime news special series only on al jazeera america >> on tech know. >> that is immense... >> there a misunderstood... ...vital part of the ecosystem >> ...is a tiger shark... ...first one of the expodition >> can they be saved? >> sharks don't eat people... >> tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've every done, even though i can't see. >> tech know. >> we're here in the vortex. only on al jazeera america. >>> why was a rolling stone journalist under investigation by the fbi for his detailed reporting on bowe bergdahl two years ago? that reporting eerily predicted virtually everything that happened since bowe bergdahl was freed in a prisoner swap three

according to a 2012 profile in "rolling stone" magazine by the late reporter michael hastings, bergdahlhe army in 2008 after he first tried to enlist with the french foreign legion but was turned down. he was deployed to afghanistan just after president obama ordered the first troop surge in the spring of two thousand nine. >> in june 2009, bowe bergdahl reportedly walked off his base in afghanistan. he said to elect left a nosing you become disillusioned with the army, did not support the was mission in afghanistan, and was leaving to start a new life. within 24 hours, he was captured. for more we go now to london where we are joined by sean smith, the award-winning photographer and filmmaker for "the guardian." he met bowe bergdahl in afghanistan in 2009 when he was embedded with his unit, and later went to idaho to meet his father bob. who he profiled in the video we just broadcast. and washington, d.c. we're joined by colonel morris davis, retired air force colonel, resigned as a former chief military prosecutor at guantÁnamo in 2007. sean smith, tell us about meeting bowe bergdahl

. >>> journalists michael hasting's life was cut dramatically short. his 33 years were prolific.ystal which led to the general losing his command in afghanistan. it turns out hastings was even more prolific than we thought. his novel, the last magazine, was published, a tell-all of his time at newsweek magazine. joining me now is his widow who served in the bush administration as a speechwriter for secretary of state condoleezza rice. glad to have you here. >> thank you for having me. >> how did you discover thr book? >> a friend from newsweek sent me the novel a couple of weeks after michael died. michael spoke to me about it many times but i'd never actually read it. i sat down and in just one reading just pored through it. it's so funny. it's so him. his voice pops off the page. i think anyone who appreciates his work will really enjoy this novel. >> do you think he really intended to publish it? >> no doubt. he finish pd right before he went off with his embed with general mcchrystal. that story caused such an uproar. then he got his book deal. so he always planned to publish

white house didn't get the memo that bergdahl was radioactive despite the reporting by the late michael hastingsthat marc grossman who replaced richard holbrooke was given a direct warning about trading bo for five taliban prisoners during an election year. they kept telling me, it's going to be obama's willie horton moment. grossman warned the white house. still, president obama's advisers, to whom i highly recommend the google were apparently unprepared for the mine field they were sending the president in by arranging that rose garden ceremony with sergeant bergdahl's parents. for the first time in american history, it is a political mine field to conduct a standard end of war prisoner trade to get back an american pow. once we pull out of afghanistan and are no longer at war there, with he would have to return those taliban members anyway. meanwhile, republicans that once demanded the president do more to free bowe bergdahl are quickly deleting tweets. his hometown has canceled his welcome home celebration over concerns about not being able to handle potential protests. it is not to be consi

soldier who served there and helped report a 2012 feature on bergdahl with the late journalist michael hastingsr rolling stone magazine. matthew farwell, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> the debate in washington is completely about whether bergdahl was a hostage or whether he was a hero or whether he was a deserter. it seems like it is somewhere in between, it is a more complicated story than that. >> yeah, it's a more complicated and more nuanced storiment but at the end of the day the guy was a u.s. soldier in the hands of somebody we're fighting with. and regardless of any other circumstance, he needed to be brought home. and brought back into u.s. custody and u.s. jurisdiction. >> ifill: let's go back and tell people a little bit about who bowe bergdahl is. who he is. how did he come to be in the army in the first place? >> you know, he grew up in sun valley, idaho. and joined the army a little bit later on in life, i believe he was about 23 when he joined which was the same age i was when i joined. and i think you know, he didn't just join the army, he joined the in

making, even if he was making it inappropriately, was that there are many reports, not just the michael hastingsports, many reports about the possible dysfunction -- we don't know the facts, of course -- but about the possible dysfunction inside bergdahl's unit that could have been a contributory factor into why he actually left. and the central point here is that we would all be a lot more intelligent and more informed on this if we would wait to get more facts about this before drawing conclusions. >> you're referring to a "rolling stone" article about hastings years ago. >> correct. >> how does this taliban prisoner exchange threaten americans in the future? when asked whether the taliban would be inspired to kidnap others, they told "time" magazine, definitely, it's better to kidnap one person like bergdahl than kidnapping hundreds of useless people, it has encouraged our people. now everybody will work hard to capture such an important bird. guy, i guess we shouldn't be shocked -- or should we? >> we shouldn't be shocked. part of that is propaganda and trolling. but part of it makes sense.

. >> over the weekend i think a lot of people reread the michael hastings piece, the definitive piecen bowe bergdahl that he published in 2012. after years of seemingly endless war active soldiers are currently committing suicide at a record rate. other soldiers lash out with acts of violence. many come home traumatized. bowe bergdahl had a different response. he decided to walk away. does it seem to you implausible that a young man faced with dealing with the trauma of battle would have the response to go awol. >> we have a number of trainings that ready our service men and women for battle. however, we have to meet them at their point of need and you really cannot ready anyone for the battlefield. what you can do is give them the kind of unique training that you think will help them weather through a situation like this. we don't know what kind of crisis bowe bergdahl was in that night. we don't know what took him out into the field. we don't know if his platoon should have surrounded him and given him the kind of medical attention that he needed. i don't know. we don't know what ha

i mean, like i've said and like me and michael hastings wrote two years ago, by the way, before the mediaame up to this story, we wrote that he could have been freed ten days after he was captured, if the army had the guts to pull the trigger and make a deal. >> well, you know you're going to get criticized for that remark. i want to -- >> well, i don't care. i mean, i was in the army. i'll get criticized by a bunch of chicken hawks in the states? >> chicken hawks in the states? who are the chicken hawks in the states of which you speak? >> i don't know, i saw a bright bart thing where somehow they conflated me with al qaeda, so, you know. i'm happy to take any hits i need. i went over to afghanistan for 16 months, and i fought for my country. so i've earned the right to say whatever the hell i want. >> good for you, matthew. >> thank you, ma'am. >> a question about bowe bergdahl. it's becoming increasingly clear he really did walk away from his unit. we don't know what the intent was at this moment because we don't have his side of the story. and then you know, you hear these things abou