How Did Rolling Stone Get the McChrystal Story?

By Jeremy Peters

Of all the questions surrounding the Rolling Stone article that detailed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s surprisingly blunt criticisms of the Obama administration’s handling of the war in Afghanistan, few are as puzzling as this: Why would a top military commander allow a journalist so much unfettered access to his inner circle?

The explanation, it seems, is a volcano.

Michael Hastings, the freelance journalist who wrote the provocative piece about General McChrystal’s displeasure with the war effort, met the general and his staff in Paris right as the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in Iceland, forcing the closure of the airspace over most of Europe.

As a result, Mr. Hastings waited in Paris with the general and his staff as they attempted to get to Berlin by bus. And Mr. Hastings then stayed in Berlin–whiling away days at the Ritz-Carlton hotel with General McChrystal for nearly a week while they waited for the ash cloud to clear so they could fly to Afghanistan.

Initially, Mr. Hastings was not scheduled to travel with the general and his staff to Afghanistan. Only after he arrived in Europe did Mr. Hastings learn that the general’s staff would be willing to take him with them.

“We assigned this story before we knew we had any access,” said Eric Bates, Rolling Stone’s executive editor. “We just wanted to profile McChrystal as the commander of the war in Afghanistan.”

Mr. Hastings ended up spending about a month on and off with the general and his staff while they were in Afghanistan — the vast majority of it in settings and interviews that the general allowed to be on the record. Very little of Mr. Hastings interactions with the general were off the record, Mr. Bates said.

Mr. Bates declined to speculate about why General McChrystal was so blunt in his assessment of the war. At one point in the story, the general is quoted as being dismissive of Vice President Joseph Biden, quipping, “Who’s that?” In another exchange, the general sarcastically complains about receiving an email message from Richard C. Holbrooke, a special envoy to Afghanistan, groaning, “Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke.”

Mr. Bates said that whether General McChrystal intended to be so direct or not is not the point. The general, Mr. Bates said, was clearly frustrated with the Obama administration’s prosecution of the war, and he let that slip out.

“I think there’s an enormous frustration there where they feel like people don’t get it. And that seeps through into a lot of those quotes. They feel that the people who are supposed to be working with them aren’t working with them or don’t understand what the strategy is,” Mr. Bates said.

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