I deeply regret to report that our dear friend and great patriot Phil Haney, former DHS officer, intelligence expert and courageous truth-teller about Islam, has died violently in California yesterday. The initial reports I am hearing and also reading on social media is that he was shot and killed near San Francisco. I will post more details when they are confirmed.
UPDATE 1:20 pm ET: John Guandolo is reporting the following: "Preliminary investigation has ruled Phil’s death a suicide."
Given that findings of "suicide" in our time have become synomous with "Arkancide" and other framed and fixed murders, above all we owe Phil a vigorous investigation and vetting of the evidence.
RIP, friend.
UPDATE: 1:36 pm ET Just came across this on Twitter.
UPDATE: 2:39 pm ET From Law Enforcement Today
Friends of Haney told us that they spoke with Haney earlier this week and he’d “never been happier”. They’ve suggested there’s absolutely no way he would have taken his own life… and reinforce that he’s had many enemies since he blew the whistle on the Obama administration.
Close friends of Haney tell us that his wife lost her battle with cancer in 2019. Haney was engaged to be married later this year. The author of See Something, Say Nothing was preparing to go back on the road in advance of the upcoming election. He was currently living in California, just west of San Francisco.
In 2018, Haney told Intercessors for America prayer activists that he had been working on a “special assignment” in Minnesota to stop Rep. Keith Ellison from being elected Minnesota’s Attorney General. As we approach the 2020 elections, friends of Haney’s told us he was planning on doubling down on efforts to “protect America from progressive leftists socialists”.
UPDATE: 8:51pm ET. John L. Work, a longtime friend of this blog, writes in in response to the initial cornoner's report, posted at Gateway Pundit, which reports that Phil Haney "appeared to have suffered a single self-inflicted gunshot wound."
John's response is so valuable because he spent a career in law enforcement as a patrolman, detective, and patrol sergeant. As a sheriff's detective, he investigated hundreds of crimes, including eleven contract murder conspiracies. Here is what he wrote:
If I understand the initial coroner's report, the "determination" that Philip Haney died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound was immediately made at the scene when officers first arrived. Now, that is some shoddy police work, if ever I saw shoddy work - if that is in fact when the "determination" of apparent suicide was made. Very poorly written coroner's report.
Gunshot residue tests would have to be done, looking for nitrate traces on his strong hand and clothing. That takes some time and laboratory analysis. That test wouldn't have been done at the scene. Even that test would not rule out a homicide, if nitrates were found on his hand and clothing. A complete post-mortem should have been done and a thorough background investigation should have been conducted before this was declared an apparent suicide (emphasis added).
There has not been adequate time to do this investigation and come to any sort of conclusion. Whoever wrote that initial coroner's report should be fired for incompetence. This stinks to high Heaven.
UPDATE: February 23, 2020, 7:00am ET
Following the "Media Release" by the Amador County Coroner containing the snap-determination (disputed above) that a "self-infiicted" gunshot wound ended Philip Haney's life, the few media outlets to cover Phil's violent death had their story, no questions asked. A narrative is taking shape -- "self-inflicted"/suicide -- amidst the Sheriff's CYA "investigation is still active and ongoing."
UPDATE: 4:33 pm ET
TruePundit spoke with Phil's stepmother Judith Haney.
"EXCLUSIVE: Family of DHS Agent Turned Whistleblower “Seriously Doubts” Death Was Suicide; Agent Killed by Gunshot"
From the story:
“[Phil] was found in his car on a gravel pull-off shoulder off of Highway 49 in northern California,” [Judith] Haney told True Pundit. “I saw where they are saying on the internet that he was found in the woods or he was shot in San Francisco; that’s just not the case. Many rumors are spreading and we need to correct them.”
Haney said Phil had a single gunshot to the chest. Haney said Phil was only missing for hours, not days, as previously reported by other media outlets.
“No one in the family believes this is a suicide; I mean he was enjoying doing talk radio and was working on another book and was excited about that,” she said. “With his history with the government and everything, it is very very suspicious but with this kind of situation we realize we may never know the truth about what happened. That’s something we all know and live with but it is still early.”
An emotional Haney continued:
“I woke up this morning and was hoping it was just all a bad dream. But it’s real.”
Haney said the family is awaiting details from local law enforcement who are investigating the death. So far, police have not shared many details, she said. Haney said no funeral arrangements have been finalized for Phil Haney.
UPDATE: February 24, 2020: 7:59am ET
Leo Hohmann wrote a blazing piece about his friend and colleague Phil Haney yesterday.
Leo strongly rejects the hasty, pre-investigatory finding that Phil died of a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound, discussed above.
Leo writes:
Everyone is asking the same question. Could the reports of suicide be accurate?
These questions are based on erroneous news reports circulating in the mainstream media about his death, including reports by Fox News, suggesting that Phil took his own life. These fake-news reports stem from a statement, made almost immediately upon discovery of Phil’s body by Amador County Sheriff-Coroner Martin Ryan, before any investigative due diligence had been undertaken.
Don’t believe it for a minute. [Emphasis in the original.]
...
Is it possible he could have committed suicide, as suggested by the sheriff?
There were signs the Trump administration was ready to at least listen to what Phil Haney had to say. According to Kerry Picket of the Washington Examiner, Phil was “recently in contact with top officials about returning to work for the DHS.”
Phil lost his wife to cancer about a year ago. He had recently fallen for a new love and planned to marry her this year. He had every reason to be confident about the future. He was never happier. He had lots of speaking engagements lined up in the weeks ahead. In May he had planned a trip to Israel to visit the Holy Land, for which he had a special love.
Phil and I often discussed the dangerous nature of our work. Over the last couple of days, more than a few people have come forward, one of them to me personally, and said that Phil specifically warned about the possibility that he could be “suicided.”
“If I ever go on to meet my Maker, and it looks like I did myself in, don’t believe it!” he told a mutual friend who resides in Vermont.
UPDATE: 8:01pm ET
Via Gateway Pundit
UPDATE February 25, 2010: 11:10 am ET
Read Bill Marshall's column here.