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" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Late
Twice
News
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" The night before I began my career as a presidential campaign reporter, in September 2007, I finished Theodore White's 'The Making of the President,' the classic account of the 1960 race, which opened up a new era of campaign reporting. "
Michael Hastings
Night
White
September
" Despite failing to get bin Laden, the U.S. government and media portrayed the early Afghanistan war as a great victory. "
Michael Hastings
Government
Great
Media
" It was either write or die for me. "
Michael Hastings
Me
Die
Write
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Someone
Tell
Fair
" You basically have to be willing to devote your life to journalism if you want to break in. Treat it like it's medical school or law school. "
Michael Hastings
Medical
Law
School
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Attached
Fact
Military
" Whenever you're reporting, there's always something you can't say or write, but the questions, you always want to get as close to that line as possible. You want to ask the tough questions. "
Michael Hastings
Say
You
Want
" I think it's very difficult to make people care about natives in another country. "
Michael Hastings
Care
Difficult
Country
" When interviewing for a job, tell the editor how you love to report. How your passion is gathering information. Do not mention how you want to be a writer, use the word 'prose,' or that deep down you have a sinking suspicion you are the next Norman Mailer. "
Michael Hastings
Deep
Passion
Love
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Leader
Small
Landscape
" For me, when I go in to write a profile, and no ground rules are laid down, and I'm there to write an on-the-record profile and cover readings while in the room, then that means it's on the record. "
Michael Hastings
Go
Down
Rules
" I welcome all interviews with 'Rolling Stone' magazine, and I'm sure people will talk to me in the future. "
Michael Hastings
Me
Talk
People
" My younger brother is a decorated combat veteran and was a platoon leader in Iraq. "
Michael Hastings
Leader
Younger Brother
Combat
" During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions. "
Michael Hastings
Only
Military
Invasion
" The genius of David Petraeus has always been his masterful manipulation of the media. "
Michael Hastings
Media
Always
His
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Good
Political
Book
" To General McChrystal, those men on his team are his family. You know, these guys, they would do anything. They would die for each other. "
Michael Hastings
Die
Know
Men
" I write for fun. I had written a kind of media satire, but I doubt it will see the light of day. It was just a personal project. "
Michael Hastings
Media
Day
Doubt
" Obama's people will all often complain about how trivial and silly the media is, but there's no president who's probably benefited from this sort of trivialness or superficial nature as President Obama. "
Michael Hastings
Media
Will
Silly
" Andrew Warren was a rarity in the CIA's Clandestine Service - African-American, fluent in Arabic, and relatively young for an agent who'd already spent nearly a decade chasing terrorists in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Algeria, so deep undercover that few of his friends or family knew the nature of his work. "
Michael Hastings
Family
Deep
Work
" I have to admit that the empty prestige and the stupid glory - yes, the horrible rush, the deadly sense of importance that war brings to life - are hard illusions to shake off. Look at me, a war correspondent. "
Michael Hastings
Glory
War
Stupid
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Great
You
Time
" I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising. "
Michael Hastings
Journalism
Advertising
" When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence. "
Michael Hastings
Writing
Sentence
Mass
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Never
Control
Fact
" General McChrystal wanted to be on the cover of 'Rolling Stone.' "
Michael Hastings
Stone
Rolling
General
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
Leap
Awareness
Surveillance
" I want to be the greatest investigative reporter of my generation. "
Michael Hastings
Generation
Reporter
Want
" 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. "
Michael Hastings
World
Trade
Terrorism
" General David Petraeus was so successful at getting on covers of magazines, having journalists fall in love with him, that in fact he was able to use that power to go around the normal chain of command. "
Michael Hastings
Normal
Love
Power