'If anything happens, it's not suicide': Boeing whistleblower's prediction before death
'If anything happens, it's not suicide': Boeing whistleblower's prediction before death
A close family friend of John Barnett said he predicted he might wind up dead and that a story could surface that he killed himself.
I never thought I'd see the day when a respectable blue chip company like Boeing is publicly outed as ordering an assassination. They fucked up royally. The timing of it all is too eyebrow raising not to be noticed by the entirety of the airplane-using world. Top down criminal investigation. Now.
I kind of thought corporations aren't allowed to murder people but at this point I don't know anymore.
They're clearly allowed to do whatever the fuck they want.
I mean, there have been several huge instances of mass murder by corporations. Go look into the US’ history with strikebreaking and you’ll see just how bad it used to be. At least Boeing is trying to pretend it was a suicide, instead of just blatantly firebombing him in his own home.
I don't think they are allowed. But I think they do it.
Now the corpos who order planes see that boeing is willing to do anything in order to get the job done...
too big to fail. /s
well your first mistake was thinking Boeing was a respectable corporation (that ship sailed in 1997 when they dropped the "engineering first" priority in lieu of "business first")...
your second mistake is thinking any corporation is respectable ;-)
Boeing is a major part of the military industrial complex. They own the politicians in both parties, the regulators, and the courts. Laws don't apply to them.
when a whistleblower dies on the day of his deposition, you have to work really hard to convince me that it's suicide.
They could have threatened to fly his family on a 737 Max if he didn't kill himself
Definitely! But a 'friend of the family' is not really a perfect source.
Just saying, I bet Boeings lied more about things that caused humans to die than the friend of the family has so if its he said she said, I think she's got the superior credibility. She just doesn't have superior profits.
Doesn't matter, we've already got a rabble on.
Boeing rep: Tragically, it appears that Mr. Barnett was discussing suicide in the lead up to his death.
"We will be offering a stock buyback in his memory."
Sounds like an admittance of guilt to me. Nothing will happen, sadly.
hope Boeing get their ass handed this time.
They make airplanes tf is this mafia shit
They are also involved in the military and aerospace industry. They also practically only have a single competitor in the passenger plane manufacture industry (airbus). So they are rich and powerful and do not shy away from exerting their influence to protect their interests.
Welcome to capitalism, baby!
Odds echo in reality. The French thriller "Blackbox" featured a conspiracy around a new aircraft crashing taking inspiration of the MCAS related crashes.
Didn't used to be this way till the BAs took over
fuck McDonnell-Douglas
Planes crashed more back then. Statistically speaking, safety has still improved over time even after the McDonnell-Douglas merger. Maybe it could have improved faster but commenters in this thread are saying crazy hyperbolic shit like "complete disregard for human life" which just doesn't track with the actual accident rates. But conspiracy theories and corporate malfeasance sure do get a lot of clicks if you're a news site. I'm sure executives were, are, and will continue to be profit-oriented while pretending to be something else, otherwise their business goes under.
They are a megacorp, they have enough money to do what they want
When you have enough money you're effectively a god in every way except the omnipotently immortal part.
Correction: they make money
Wait until you hear about the people who make chocolate
They’re rich enough to easily hire a good hitman.
And have the motivation to silence this guy before the entire country is calling for Boeing to have their corporate charter revoked
Didn't stop coca cola or the banana companies
Wow. That is chilling and very damning of Boeing. Like really…Boeing is that dirty? Surely not?
Friendly reminder that Boeing is not a plucky airline that can't make safe airplanes, it's an AMERICAN MILITARY DEFENSE CONTRACTOR worth billions. If I you threaten that arrangement with slander like the truth and facts, they are good friends with people who kill for a living and completely unashamed in paying for their services.
it’s an AMERICAN MILITARY DEFENSE CONTRACTOR worth billions
Probably one reason why the FAA isn't immediately shutting Boeing's shit down, you know when doors fall off their planes mid-flight, and investigations uncover more problems.
Like really…Boeing is that dirty? Surely not?
I mean they were willing to knowingly keep producing unsafe air planes which lead to several crashes killing 100's. So yeah, I really wouldn't be surprised if they also do assassination to ensure their profit.
Also as stated elsewhere, they make world ending nuclear bombs delivery rockets. They’ve profited from the possible destruction of all of humanity.
Boeing is that dirty? Surely not?
Why not?
International profit chasing entities just wouldn't value profits over human life?
It is a corporations fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits over any other things. That obviously includes human lives.
Does a human life have a value to other humans? Yes.
Does a human have a value to a corporation? It has a value and a cost, if the cost is higher than the value of the human then it is a risk to the value of the company and can be liquidated.
If you want, take a deeper look into the *max events and you'll find that being dirty is the least surprise.
Why not? They killed multiple hundreds of people so far. Just one more.
I'm not any defender of corporations, by any means, but I'm not sure that I'm willing to take the word of a "close family friend" who "needed help one day" any more than some corporate HR; and "I don't care what they say, I know that Mitch didn't do that" isn't exactly a solid argument to be basing things on.
Edit: I seem to have missed this on my first read:
Jennifer said she thinks somebody "didn't like what he had to say" and wanted to "shut him up" without it coming back to anyone"..."That's why they made it look like a suicide,"
I'm never surprised to hear something bad about Boeing, but this is just a woman convinced with, on the face of it, no other proof than what's in her own head. Unless she's got a recording or document, the article's title could have been, "Family friend tells reporter a story"
And he said, 'No, I ain't scared, but if anything happens to me, it's not suicide.'
He pretty much said “I think something may happen to me and they will make it look like a suicide.”
Unless she's got a recording or document, the article's title could have been, "Family friend tells reporter a story"
Yeah, it won’t hold up in court, and neither would it if she had recorded this casual, intimate conversation between two old friends.
Maybe, though, it’s enough to get the coroner to take another look at his death.
I'm not any defender of corporations, by any means, but I'm not sure that I'm willing to take the word of a "close family friend" who "needed help one day" any more than some corporate HR;
You sure have a lot more faith in corporations than I do…
My brother in whatever, for your information that is called a "witness"
Epstein. Your argument is disproven
The feds: Doesn’t look like anything to me
And it still won't look like anything to them even after they find out the handgun wasn't registered to him. And after they find out the suicide note (pro tip: real suicides generally don't include a note) was written super-generically.
And after they find out the suicide note... was written super-generically.
To whom it may concern,
I cannot take it anymore. If I have a wife and/or kids, tell them that I love them.
Good bye cruel world,
[Don't forget to change this text to the assassinated target's name]
pro tip: real suicides generally don't include a note
The rate in the graph varies between 20 and 40 percent.
Nice reference! 🤜🤛
What feds, Boeing has been the only entity responsible for regulating Boeing for nearly two decades. I'm sure they'll find themselves not guilty.
I don't know whether or not he killed himself, and I strongly suspect he didn't, but I sure as hell know this warrants an intense and thorough investigation. All company and private emails of executives, with forensics to determine if anything was deleted. Long interrogations to see if alibis match up.
There isn't enough evidence to throw the book at Boeing, but there is enough to search every single little thing related to them.
There isn’t enough evidence to throw the book at Boeing, but there is enough to search every single little thing related to them.
What am I missing? What evidence is there at all that they did it? Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly highly suspicious that they were involved, but you have to have a lot more than suspicion.
if theyre killing witnesses, theyre too big to prosecute, and I think they should be shutdown and sold for parts
If they’re killing witnesses, they’re probably working with the government. This is America after all, where money is the ONLY thing that matters.
Can’t let a big business fail, that would communism.
I don't know if we want those parts
Or at least they're open to quid pro quo.
So the US government will not even investigate this because of the close ties / relationship with Boeing?
I swear to god, the US and its oligarchy is just russia "at home"
You are making that up, nobody said it won't be investigated and the case he was a whistle blower for isn't being stopped by this.
I do hope you're right.
I hope every single Boeing plane gets grounded until every single plane gets independently checked by a reputable 3rd party.
But my hopes are idealistic, and the real world is far from ideal.
The case isn't stopped but it's a lot less likely to succeed now.
And I'll believe there'll be an investigation when there is one.
The article doesn't say this, where did you get that info?
They made it up. I won't be surprised if it goes this way, but there's no indication that's how it is now.
We exported this in the 90’s. Russia learned it from America.🇺🇸
Nationalize Boeing
Seriously. Once we nationalize it and it starts operating like it used to, it would be a shining example of why nationalization works.
It's also why you're going to see an tsunami of useful idiots saying we shouldn't do it.
Then flush everyone from director up, and investigate middle management, and put people in that actually have some fucking ethics. Jesus H Christ.
Go further, nationalize the MIC. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend the United States doesn't need to manufacture arms for itself and it's allies, but we absolutely do not need thousands of useless C-suite middlemen making millions of dollars from the process. Boeing is just the canary in the coal mine, I would not be surprised if other frequent contractors have also significantly decreased their ability to produce useful goods in favor of growing their profit margins. Great for profits, but not exactly what you're looking for to protect troops.
Oh look he got Epsteined.
Can we popularize "Barnett didn't kill himself"?
I swear if I am ever a whistleblower I am going to hire someone for minimum wage to hang out in my hotel room while I sleep and they can play on their phone, eat burritos, and play video games until the trial is fully over. And also make sure they have the ability to livestream the moment something weird happens.
Also I don't know put a thousand or so videos on YouTube with email links to everyone I have ever known with me saying all the damaging stuff and that I am not suicidal.
$60 or so dollars a day is worth it to me to not get silenced like a fucking Russian critic.
Look, we all know he didn't off himself, but here's my issue with these stories where a friend or family member says that the person said they told them it won't be suicide:
If Barnett really said that, why not also set up a dead man's switch? If he was truly afraid that he had info so damming he'd be killed for it, then why not set it up so that the info still finds a way to come out even in the event of his death?
If anything, ensuring the info comes out one way or another might have even protected him.
He already published his information and was in the process of repeating it in front of a court.
His death prevented him from giving his information as sworn testimony which a dead man switch could not do.I believe that's not actually true at all. It can and has been used as sworn testimony.
The thing is, there's a difference between thinking a company will kill you, and THINKING a company will kill you.
Well because according to his quote he wasn't afraid. I don't think he thought the company he worked for for 30 years would do this. Seems he said this remark only in response to what she asked.
Not only that, but isn't a dying declaration specifically admissible as fact or something? I'm only vaguely recollecting this, so I'm likely wrong.
Yeah something is clicking in my head about it being a federal level hearsay exception. Where is a lawyer when you need one?
It would have been really nice to have some kind of automated testimony upload or something.
Have it in writing. "I have zero intention of killing myself and my life is great save for my horrendous former employer that should go straight to hell."
ANYTHING more substantial than "Y'know he told me once..."
Maybe his family was threatened?
Someone on lemmy said it yesterday. Those Boeing shits could have put him in a no-win. Tell him that if he drops it they will still sue him and if he continues they will also sue.
This was my thought. As terrible as it is.
Basically "We have a van outside your house. You have two options..."
Man, wish they could've gone into witness protection and testified from an undisclosed remote location or something...
Unless it really was suicide via blackmail/ extortion.
If you don't kill yourself were going to kill all your family and friends.
Give him videos of the surveillance on all of them to scare him.
Still seems more likely they did kill him, but that might be a reason for no Deadman switch
I'd wanna be in witness protection and unreachable if I was whistle-blower at that level just to avoid situations like that.
how many dead man switches have you setup?
Holy shit some Boeing motherfuckers better go TO BIG JAIL
If Corporations are People, I say Boeing should get the Death Penalty and be Nationalized.
They won't.
had* better go
Shit's getting real.
John Oliver better watch his back.
It's important to remember that whistleblowing is extremely stressful, so much that it's one of the main things the government talks about on their whistleblowing site:
Practice self-care and stress-reducing activities throughout your whistleblowing process. It is common to experience toxic forms of retaliation – from professional isolation to gaslighting (manipulating someone by psychological means into questioning their own sanity) – which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or even thoughts of harm.
Researchers have found the same thing, being a whistleblower is terrible for your mental health:
About 85% suffered from severe to very severe anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity and distrust, agoraphobia symptoms, and/or sleeping problems, and 48% reached clinical levels of these specific mental health problems. These specific mental health problems were much more prevalent than among the general population.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6604402/
In addition, "Half of Patients With Suicidal Thoughts Deny It"
Not only did approximately 50% of people with suicidal thoughts deny having those thoughts, roughly 50% of people who had died by suicide, and 30% of people who had attempted suicide had denied having suicidal ideation in the week or month beforehand.
Furthermore, in many cases, people who had disclosed in apps and on paper that they had thoughts of suicide then denied that they had suicidal ideation when questioned directly in face-to-face assessments or interviews. For example, in one study, nearly 60% of those who reported their suicidal ideation on an app then denied their suicidal ideation in a telephone interview less than 24 hours later.
https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2021.10.9
So, just because he denied he was suicidal doesn't mean that's necessarily true. He might have been trying to appear strong to everyone while suffering in silence.
This should definitely be investigated as possibly being murder. And, even if the investigation does determine that he shot himself, they should keep looking to see if he was being blackmailed or if he might have been pressured into suicide.
I just can't imagine an executive at Boeing going out and hiring a hit man. But, what I can imagine them doing is hiring a team of private investigators to go through this guy's entire life and dig up every bit of dirt on him. It could be they found something really embarrassing and were going to blackmail him with it. It could be that they found something innocent that they could frame as being awful, like to make him look like he was a child molester or something.
I just can’t imagine an executive at Boeing going out and hiring a hit man
Really? That's weird, I totally can. It's an exceptionally narrow-minded and short-sighted knee-jerk reaction to a perceived threat of one's executive career. Most coked-out executives already have a massive god complex once they get their MBA and are installed above the
prolesworkers. I can absolutely realistically imagine one Boeing executive getting angry enough and coked-out enough to just decide, "fuck it, I'm going to fix this problem for us before he threatens my career and reputation any more".The information you present about whistleblowing being stressful is fair. He may indeed have been driven to kill himself instead of being straight-up assassinated like others believe. I refuse, however, to give the benefit of doubt to a massive corporation who has already demonstrated a complete lack of regard for human life and an extremely poor track record of moral and ethical decision-making. This needs to be investigated under the assumption that a hit is an entirely possible reality. Unless you'd rather that nobody blows the whistle on anything in the future - you've already demonstrated that it's an incredibly stressful action. If there's the lingering remote possibility that you can be simply assassinated over it and everyone will look the other way, nobody will ever raise their voice again. The nature of his actions before his death demand a comprehensive and exhaustive investigation into if any person from Boeing had anything to do with it whatsoever, or whistleblowing will continue sliding into something only the insane consider.
Really? That’s weird, I totally can.
While Boeing executives may be criminals, they're pretty much exclusively white collar criminals. They went to business school, not the military. They come from rich households. They don't have gang or organized crime affiliations. How would they know anything about hiring hit men?
Hiring a firm to do PR and to dig up dirt on a whistleblower, sure, that's within their skillset. That's even something they can brag about in board meetings because it's legal. It's the kind of thing they can google, or have a secretary research for them. It doesn't matter if transcripts leak. But, hiring a hit man, how do they know they won't get caught -- and this time for the kind of crime where people actually get sent to real prisons?
This needs to be investigated under the assumption that a hit is an entirely possible reality.
Sure, they should work under the assumption that it was a very careful hitman who made it look like a suicide. They should be 10x more careful than they normally would if they even suspected it might be a suicide. But, I still think driving him to suicide is much more likely.
IMO, the kind of press this is getting is part of the reason I don't think it was a hit. If this were Russia, sure. A hit sends the message to anybody else that they better not think of doing the same thing. The press will tell whatever story the government wants. Even on social media nobody very few people will speak up in Russia. But, in the US, this death is going to draw so much more attention to Boeing. Just look at how many articles there are about the whistleblower's death vs. how many there were about him beforehand. Corporations are used to managing news cycles when it comes to legal cases and congressional hearings. Those are boring and don't tend to go viral. But a whistleblower dying as he was giving testimony, that's exciting, it's like the movies, so it's all everyone's going to talk about.
Unless he had even more damaging information that he somehow didn't give to anybody yet, despite the fact he had already been testifying, it seems like the damage his death does is much higher than the damage his testimony would have done.
Murder by proxy.
There's maybe an absurd theory no one has considered: He worried that the accusations weren't going to be taken seriously, so he killed himself in a relatively suspicious manner/timing, to make sure public trust in Boeing disappeared.
It seems unlikely because there was a lot of interest in the stuff he was testifying about, but it's possible.
Another site in which "accidentally" the GdpR cookie forms weirdly aren't scrollable so you can't reject them
It's not GDPR but the cookie law. Stop villanizing the GDPR.
I'm pretty sure the form is there exactly because GDPR needs it to be.
Also I'm not villanising it, I'm villanising the corporations who only pretend to comply.
How does GDPR affect EU cookie law?
Recital 30 of the General Data Protection Regulation considers cookies as part of personal data. It requires websites and web publishers to obtain valid consent when collecting personal data from users. Therefore, the GDPR and Cookie Law work in tandem in the European Union
People in this situation might consider putting themselves under video surveillance.
Like Epstein was
And mentioning on social media so it's public/informing journalists so they can make it public beforehand that you don't plan on killing yourself.
The trouble with that is someone might say you DID plan to kill yourself, and tried to frame Boeing for your own death by telling people you weren't suicidal. Thus it's preferable to leave video evidence, that could also help catch the culprits.
It still leaves the possibility that you yourself hired a hit squad to kill you. Alex Murdaugh and Jussie Smollett both did things like that. Only for a beating in Smollett's case, but Murdaugh actually wanted to be fatally shot, leaving an insurance policy behind.
I know right. Exactly my thoughts. If you are a whistleblower, install secret camers in your house and always keep a recorder (audio/video) in your pocket or chest.
Although in a few years this is obsolete. AI ftw.
I would be going to pretty great lengths to ensure I didn't get Epsteined or, if I did, the mfers behind it got theirs. I'd be sending hand written letters to every goddamn person knew that I wasn't suicidal.
And I would be really careful about my opsec. Oh, you thought I was at that motel? Fuck you pricks, I ditched the rental, took a bus and switched five times, changed clothes twice and snuck to a culvert to sleep, you fucking corpo assassins. Good luck with that. .!..
Or always stay in sight of two other people and eat and drink only from sealed packages purchased from random grocery stores.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that he did commit suicide. The next question I would ask is "why would he do that"?
You don't have to give bastards the benefit of the doubt. That's how they win, by taking advantage of your desire for fairness when they have none of their own.
When airplanes crash!.....at that point the whistleblower had passed away in what looked like a suicide. But how did Boeing manage to pull that off? Join us for the next hour as we explain the science behind involuntary assisted suicide! We'll be interviewing putin corp's CEO Putin, who is an expert in these sort of things but too old to die by hanging.
NOVA got dark this week.
It's too bad he didn't write a short letter saying the same thing and give it to her for safekeeping. As of right now all we have is her word. I'm hopeful that she'll testify.
Makes me wonder, how much does a professional hitman pay troll factories for white washing the crime with "but how do you know it wasn't a suicide", specially the ones that are equally professional about it not being flagrant? How much does it compare to cases in Russia for people suiciding out of windows with multiple gunshots?
When something isn't clearly black and white, without the facts and investigative research, continuing to discuss it usually makes it end up becoming a 50-50% grey area that grossly distorts as much as a completely black and white presumption would. In those cases, the initial "gut feeling" impression and the general education and awareness of a person involved may end up corresponding more to the reality, specially in cases actively trying to suppress the truth.
"Boeing", a non-living fictional mythos that has been accepted as a "person" so that the industrial revolution could be fueled, did not kill him. But there were plenty of psychopaths with power and influence who would have been affected by his deposition. some who've also been spearheading expansion into countries where dealing with and coming to compromises with its lowest ethical lowlifes (some of them also being potential or existing customers) would have been a necessity.
Im having trouble opening this article, it says something about a "client side error" but in text that is almost that same color as the background and is hard to read. Anyone else having this or know how I can fix it?
abcnews4.com 'If anything happens, it's not suicide': Boeing whistleblower's prediction before death Anne Emerson 3–4 minutes
John Barnett's family friend Jennifer doesn't think the Boeing whistleblower committed suicide in Charleston. In fact, she says he predicted what may happen to him days before he left for his deposition. March 14, 2024. (Provided-FILE, WCIV)
CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — A close family friend of John Barnett said he predicted he might wind up dead and that a story could surface that he killed himself.
But at the time, he told her not to believe it.
"I know that he did not commit suicide," said Jennifer, a friend of Barnett's. "There's no way."
Jennifer said they talked about this exact scenario playing out. However, now, his words seem like a premonition he told her directly not to believe.
"I know John because his mom and my mom are best friends," Jennifer said. "Over the years, get-togethers, birthdays, celebrations and whatnot. We've all got together and talked."
READ MORE: "Mystery lingers around Boeing whistleblower's death at Charleston hotel."
When Jennifer needed help one day, Barnett came by to see her. They talked about his upcoming deposition in Charleston. Jennifer knew Barnett filed an extremely damaging complaint against Boeing. He said the aerospace giant retaliated against him when he blew the whistle on unsafe practices.
For more than 30 years, he was a quality manager. He'd recently retired and moved back to Louisiana to look after his mom.
"He wasn't concerned about safety because I asked him," Jennifer said. "I said, 'Aren't you scared?' And he said, 'No, I ain't scared, but if anything happens to me, it's not suicide.'"
Jennifer added: "I know that he did not commit suicide. There's no way. He loved life too much. He loved his family too much. He loved his brothers too much to put them through what they're going through right now."
Jennifer said she thinks somebody "didn't like what he had to say" and wanted to "shut him up" without it coming back to anyone.
READ MORE: "'John was brave': Boeing whistleblower's lawyer responds to news of his death."
"That's why they made it look like a suicide," Jennifer said.
The last time Jennifer saw Barnett was at her father's funeral in late February. He was one of the pallbearers. Sometimes family and friends referred to him by his middle name – Mitch.
"I think everybody is in disbelief and can't believe it," Jennifer said. "I don't care what they say, I know that Mitch didn't do that."
Just because Barnett is dead doesn't mean the case won't move forward.
His attorney said they're still prepared to go to trial in June.
News 4 reached out to Boeing following Barnett's death. They provided the following statement:
"We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
READ MORE: "Boeing whistleblower dies in Charleston, Charleston County Coroner's Office confirms."
oh sick, thank you lol
I can't get past the cookie notice and the phone - which is what I'm using now - is stuttering. Had to close the page.
Don't worry, corporations are people. Surely Boeing will get capital punishment.
You promise? I mean, it should be an option on the table...
A good follow-up to this story, worth the watch.
From the video...
"As I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, 'This is the best witness I've ever seen'".
Unfortunately this is the exact type of shit you'd say when you're battling with suicidal ideation.
Hey look! Boeing just gave the Biden Admin a HUGE W! All they have to do is investigate and punish the people at the top!
Whoops! Nevermind! I guess we'll just continue saying we AREN'T Trump!
TF is the president supposed to do here?
With an executive order, he can investigate anything he wants.
Are you under the impression that the evidence would point to murder but the government wouldn't investigate that? Obviously it will be investigated. The "people at the top" would be prosecuted if there was evidence they were involved, and not prosecuted if there is no evidence. That is what we want from the government.
You can't read one headline, assume you know exactly who did exactly what illegal thing, and then immediately declare conspiracy because the evidence doesn't currently prove your made up claims.