Records show feds used ultra-right radio host for years
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Last updated: Sunday November 29, 2009, 9:21 AM
BY MIKE KELLY AND PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
They called him "Valhalla."

But it was more than a nickname.

For more than five years, Hal Turner of North Bergen lived a double life.

The public knew him as an ultra-right-wing radio talk show host and
Internet blogger with an audience of neo-Nazis and white supremacists
attracted to his scorched-earth racism and bare-knuckles bashing of public
figures. But to the FBI, and its expanding domestic counter-terror
intelligence operations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Turner was
"Valhalla" — his code name as an informant who spied on his own
controversial followers.

Turner's clandestine past was confirmed this past summer when he was
jailed on charges that he made threats on his blog against three federal
judges in Chicago. In court after his arrest, federal prosecutors
acknowledged Turner's FBI ties but downplayed his importance and even
described him as "unproductive."

But an investigation by The Record — based on government documents,
e-mails, court records and almost 20 hours of jailhouse interviews with
Turner — shows that federal authorities made frequent use of Turner in its
battle against domestic terrorism.

As Turner took to his radio show and blog to say that those who opposed
his extremist views deserve to die, he received thousands of dollars from
the FBI to report on such groups as the Aryan Nations and the white
supremacist National Alliance, and even a member of the Blue Eyed Devils
skinhead punk band. Later, he was sent undercover to Brazil where he
reported a plot to send non-military supplies to anti-American Iraqi
resistance fighters. Sometimes he signed "Valhalla" on his FBI payment
receipts instead of his own name.

His dual life of shock jock and informant offers a window into the murky
realm of domestic intelligence in the years after the Sept. 11 terror
attacks — in particular, the difficult choices for the FBI in penetrating
controversial fringe groups with equally controversial informants.

In interviews, conducted before Turner was released on bail, he said the
FBI coached him to make racist, anti-Semitic and other threatening
statements and now he feels double-crossed by the bureau after his arrest.
The documents reviewed by The Record, however, show repeated instances of
federal agents admonishing Turner for his extremism.

Federal prosecutors in Newark and Chicago declined to respond to Turner's
claims, as did FBI officials. "We do not comment on matters before the
courts and will not address Mr. Turner's allegations in the press," said
the FBI's Weysan Dun, who runs the bureau's Newark field office.

Turner's "Valhalla" life will likely be on display this week when he is
scheduled to go on trial for his alleged blog threats against three
federal appeals court judges in Chicago who upheld a law banning handguns.
The trial, originally set for Chicago, was switched to Brooklyn, with a
judge flying in from Louisiana.

The trial may have its share of political intrigue. Turner's defense
attorney, Michael Orozco, said he plans to subpoena Governor-elect Chris
Christie to testify about whether he advised the FBI about Turner while
Christie was U.S. attorney in Newark. On Friday, Orozco filed a motion to
dismiss the case, accusing the government of "outrageous conduct."

But the center of the court battle will likely be the story of Hal Turner
and his FBI connections, which began in 2003 with the Newark-based Joint
Terrorism Task Force, and continued on and off until this year.

Rumors of Turner's FBI work surfaced two years ago after unknown Internet
hackers electronically broke into his Web site and found e-mails between
Turner and an FBI agent. Turner never acknowledged his FBI role until
after his arrest in June — and then with a mix of anger and chagrin.

"Imagine my surprise," he wrote in one of several letters from jail to The
Record, "when agents from the very FBI that trained and paid me came to my
house to arrest me."

In a memo only two years earlier, the FBI said Turner "has proven highly
reliable and is in a unique position to provide vital information on
multiple subversive domestic organizations." The memo went on to say that
Turner's "statistical accomplishments include over 100 subjects
identified, over 10 acts of violence prevented and multiple subjects
arrested."

"I was not some street snitch," Turner said in one of several lengthy
interviews at the Hudson County Jail, where he was kept until the terms of
his bail were worked out in October — terms that prevented him from
talking to reporters after his release. "I was a deep undercover
intelligence operative."

Misgivings on both sides

Whatever his role, one thing is clear: The relationship between Turner and
the FBI often was rocky, with both sides cutting ties several times.

In March 2005, Turner abruptly quit. In a letter to his FBI handlers, he
cited a "complete failure" by the agency "to achieve the goals for which I
began the relationship," the "dismal lack of arrests," the failure to
track down a "threat to kill me and my family" and "exploitation" by the
FBI "to interfere with content of my Internet Web site."

By June, however, Turner was again on the FBI payroll. The FBI, meanwhile,
harbored its own doubts about Turner.

Five days after Turner's March 2005 letter, an internal FBI memo
summarized rising concerns that his rhetoric was too controversial and
possibly dangerous.

"Is he a big mouth? Yes," the memo said. "Does he say really deplorable
things? Yes. Is he a physical threat to anyone? I don't think so."

Records show the FBI continued this kind of questioning throughout its
connection to Turner — valuing his ties to right-wing hate groups, but
also worrying that his audience might follow up on his violence rhetoric.

In a July 2007 memo, Turner's primary FBI handler, Special Agent Stephen
Haug, wrote that Turner "will continue to be admonished in the strongest
possible terms and on a periodic basis about his rhetoric and the
potential of it inciting acts of violence."

Haug went on to say that Turner would be "instructed to utilize his
celebrity status to insure he continues to remind those who follow his
rhetoric that such rhetoric is not intended to incite violence."

"In balance," Haug wrote, "this source's value outweighs the discomfort
associated with source's rhetoric. Source's unique access provides
important intelligence which, if lost, would be irreplaceable."

Turner, meanwhile, often tried to assure the FBI that his shock jock
rhetoric was not serious. "The audience loves the rip-roaring radio
psycho," he wrote in one e-mail to the FBI. "They literally throw money at
it. Just be confident that the personality you hear (or hear about) on
radio is not real life. I have zero intention of doing anything stupid."

Nonetheless, Turner's statements were closely watched.

In February 2008, in the midst of the presidential primary season, Turner
attracted the attention of federal officials when he turned against
then-Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

"I'm starting to come to the realization that it may be up to a sole
person, acting alone, to make certain this guy is never allowed to hold
the most powerful office in the world," Turner wrote on his Web site. He
later removed the statement.

But later that year, court records show that he contacted federal
authorities to say that he had heard of a possible assassination plot by
white supremacists against the president-elect.

"I didn't like Barack Obama," Turner explained in an interview. "But he
won the election."

Seven months after the possible threat to Obama, Turner was in FBI
handcuffs — for allegedly threatening the Chicago judges.

"Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be
killed," Turner wrote on his blog on June 2. "Their blood will replenish
the tree of liberty."

Turner also posted photos of the judges, their work phone numbers and
office addresses as well as a map of the courthouse that pointed out
"anti-truck bomb barriers."

"The word 'deserve' is just an opinion," Turner later told The Record. As
for posting the photos of the judges, he added: "I can't tell you to this
day how sorry I am."

Even if he wins his federal case, Turner's legal problems will not be
over. In June, Connecticut authorities charged Turner with inciting
violence against state officials who supported a proposed state law to
give Roman Catholic parishioners greater control over church finances.

In each case, Turner contends his words are protected as free speech under
the First Amendment. Turner's attorney, Orozco, adds that other federal
prosecutors routinely ignored his outlandish statements. "He has made
other controversial remarks about judges, none of which have ever been
prosecuted," wrote Orozco in a legal brief.

"I never intended for anybody to feel threatened," Turner said.

Longing to be heard

Whatever his intentions, it remains unclear who the real Hal Turner is.

A fraud? A serious threat to homeland security? A white supremacist? A
loyal citizen trying to help the FBI? A radio showman trying to build an
audience — and income — with shocking statements?

After he was arrested by FBI agents in June, Turner was sent on a journey
that took him to jails in Newark, Oklahoma and Chicago — often in solitary
confinement. By late September, he was transferred back to New Jersey and
sent to the Hudson County Jail in Kearny. In all, he spent 119 days behind
bars.

In the interviews at the Hudson County Jail, Turner offered many glimpses
of his personality and motivation.

"My country needed me," he said when asked why he accepted the FBI's offer
in June 2003 to become an informant. "I'm a loyal, patriotic decent
American citizen."

But why did he say — or hint — that some judges and other officials should
be killed? Turner blames the FBI, saying that while agents never said he
could threaten judges, they coached him on the limits of what he could
say. As a result, Turner said he felt he had wide latitude.

"I was given specific instructions," he said. "Here, I am in prison,
betrayed."

In one of his more controversial statements, Turner gloated over the
murder of the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago in 2005.
But Turner described his rhetoric as fake, arguing he hoped it "would
solidify my anti-government credentials" among ultra-right-wing groups he
was spying on.

As for hanging out with neo-Nazis and skinheads, Turner said, "That's not
me. It never has been."

Raised in Ridgefield Park, the 47-year-old Turner labored more than a
decade in a variety of positions with several moving-van companies. In
1988, while working for a moving company in Atlanta, Turner was arrested
on a drug possession charge. In interviews, he said he had a cocaine
addiction at the time and checked into a rehab program.

By the early 1990s, Turner moved to North Bergen and worked as a real
estate agent. Within a few years, however, he began to dabble in politics,
trying to beef up the Republican Party in overwhelmingly Democratic Hudson
County. He also was a campaign manager in New Jersey for Republican
presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.

Politics seemed to offer Turner something he never realized he had — a
voice and a need to speak out on hot topics. Now, however, several close
associates question whether that voice is authentic or just the work of
someone looking for the limelight.

In 1997, when Ramapo College Finance Professor Murray Sabrin ran for
governor on a libertarian platform, he hired Turner to manage his
campaign. Turner was a frequent caller on WABC's popular talk radio shows
with Bob Grant and Sean Hannity — "Hal from North Bergen," as he came to
be known.

Turner surely had a conservative flair, especially on such issues as
abortion and immigration. But Sabrin noticed a complete shift after Turner
started his own talk radio show. In particular, Sabrin, who is Jewish,
found some of Turner's remarks to be anti-Semitic.

"People have a public face and a private face," said Sabrin. "Everything
that he is doing now is a complete 180-degree shift. It's totally opposite
from what I knew. I don't know where this is coming from. I certainly
wouldn't have tolerated it."

For several years, the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil
rights group, has regularly monitored Turner's radio broadcasts and blog.
Indeed, the center was one of the first organizations to raise questions
that Turner might be an FBI informant.

Hearing now that Turner admits to being an informant, the center's
director of research, Heidi Beirich, was especially critical of the FBI.
"We've never seen anything like this with informants. It's essentially
idiotic on the part of the FBI. Anybody who spent two seconds looking at
Hal Turner's Web site would know he is a wild hare," she said.

Indeed, Turner's own recounting of his life with the FBI does not always
mirror what records show he did.

Turner, for example, says the FBI asked him to participate in a mission to
plug leaks of information inside the Department of Justice to a variety of
groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti Defamation
League. Turner also says the FBI asked him to specifically criticize such
African-American leaders as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

"I was supposed to be a counterbalance to Sharpton," Turner said.

Officially, the FBI declined comment on those unproven stories by Turner.
The documents bear no trace of those operations.

Expedition to Brazil

Unofficially, FBI and other federal officials expressed a mix of dismay
and outright anger when told of Turner's claims of being coached to make
provocative statements.

"Absurd," said one. Another added: "And pigs will fly beginning with the
next full moon. It never happened."

During interviews with The Record, Turner was at times unclear on some
details. FBI records indicate, for example, that he did not become an
informant until June 2003; Turner originally said he was recruited by
federal agents in 2002, but later said he was mistaken.

Along with Haug of the FBI, his other regular contact was Leonard
Nerbetski, a New Jersey State Police detective assigned to the FBI's Joint
Terrorism Task Force.

Requests to interview Haug and Nerbetski were turned town by the FBI and
by the state police.

In an early communication, Turner reported to the FBI about a meeting in
Elmwood Park by the National Alliance. A few months after that, FBI
records show that Turner was reaching out to several national leaders of
the alliance.

FBI memos indicate that the bureau had appropriated as much as $100,000
for Turner's work as an informant.

"It was good money," said Turner, who would not say how much he was
ultimately paid by the FBI.

Turner said he was earning about $15,000 a month from his suddenly popular
radio show and blog.

As 2004 wore on, Turner found himself reporting to the FBI about a
possible theft of evidence in a Bergen County drug case and about an
attempt to set up a chapter of the Aryan Nations in northern New Jersey.

A year later, with the FBI paying for his visa and passport renewal,
Turner embarked on his most ambitious mission — to confer with a wealthy
white supremacist in Brazil who was considering making a $1 million
donation to his American counterparts.

While in Brazil, Turner also reported meeting a World War II German
Luftwaffe flying ace and linking up with a representative of the Brazilian
Arab Society, who discussed a plan to ship $10 million in consumer goods
to anti-American Iraqi resistance fighters.

After Turner returned to New Jersey, the records show that the FBI
investigated the Arab Society representative and even reached out to U.S.
officials in Brazil for help in monitoring his activities. But it's not
clear if the $10 million shipment was attempted.

The $1 million donation also never materialized, records show. The
Brazilian benefactor backed out of the deal when an American white
supremacist did not accompany Turner on the trip.

Records indicate the FBI wanted Turner to return to Brazil to spy on
white-supremacist training there. But Turner never went. While in Brazil,
Turner said, he carried a gun for protection, which was not authorized by
the FBI.

Only a few weeks after returning to the United States from Brazil, Turner
again found controversy. In a radio broadcast, he targeted
African-Americans.

"A full day of violence against blacks would be a really nice thing," he
said.

Turner went on to call for "lynchings, church burnings, drive-by shootings
and bombings to put these subhuman animals back in their place," according
to a report complied by the Anti-Defamation League.

The episode illustrates the complicated relationship between the FBI and
Turner. Despite Turner's racist radio rhetoric, the FBI also valued his
undercover work — and was apparently willing to take a risk with him again
— and pay him, too.

For example, a July 2005 memo by the FBI said Turner had been paid $10,365
in the previous fiscal year and that he "provided information which
continues to be highly accurate and sensitive."

Turner continued to reach out intermittently to the FBI — with tips
including a possible KKK murder plot — until June 2, 2009, the day he
posted the alleged threats on his blog about the Chicago judges.

In an e-mail that day to the FBI, Turner says he has heard reports that
agents had interviewed skinheads and others about him.

"Am I unapproachable?" Turner asked in the e-mail. "Geez, I'd think by now
I would have proved myself. It's not like I'm gonna go postal or
anything."

Three weeks later, Turner was arrested.

Four months after that, Turner, unshaven and wearing frayed green prison
garb and fumbling with a loose tooth, sat in an interview room at the
Hudson County Jail and pondered his journey — from shock jock to FBI
informant to inmate charged with a serious federal crime.

"I can't believe this is happening to me," he said.

E-mail: and









Find this article at:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/crim...for_years.html

On 11/29/09 18:59 , wrote:
Records show feds used ultra-right radio host for years
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Last updated: Sunday November 29, 2009, 9:21 AM
BY MIKE KELLY AND PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
They called him "Valhalla."

But it was more than a nickname.

For more than five years, Hal Turner of North Bergen lived a double life.



WeeeEEEEeeelll... That would go a long way to explaining a couple
of incidents on his broadcast involving a member of this newsgroup.




http://www.northjersey.com/news/crim...for_years.html

Joisey wimmins are Cute.WebTV has links to all 57 (50)
U.S.States.Metinks I will click on New Jersey and flirt with them
wimmins.
cuhulin

On Nov 29, 7:59*pm, wrote:
Records show feds used ultra-right radio host for years
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Last updated: Sunday November 29, 2009, 9:21 AM
BY MIKE KELLY AND PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
They called him "Valhalla."

But it was more than a nickname.

For more than five years, Hal Turner of North Bergen lived a double life.

The public knew him as an ultra-right-wing radio talk show host and
Internet blogger with an audience of neo-Nazis and white supremacists
attracted to his scorched-earth racism and bare-knuckles bashing of public
figures. But to the FBI, and its expanding domestic counter-terror
intelligence operations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Turner was
"Valhalla" — his code name as an informant who spied on his own
controversial followers.




Forget the details but there was a propagandist for Nazi Germany who
turned out to be an English agent. Tehre was some debate as to
whether he did more damage in his role as a Nazi than his work for the
English made up for.

In the Vietnam war days, it was not uncommon for someone to stand up
at a public meeting and advocate violence and have whispers go through
the crowd that this was a government plant. i'm not sure how many (if
any) were really government plants and how many were just whack. I'm
guessing some of both.

Mick

D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 11/29/09 18:59 , wrote:
Records show feds used ultra-right radio host for years
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Last updated: Sunday November 29, 2009, 9:21 AM
BY MIKE KELLY AND PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
They called him "Valhalla."

But it was more than a nickname.

For more than five years, Hal Turner of North Bergen lived a double life.



WeeeEEEEeeelll... That would go a long way to explaining a couple of
incidents on his broadcast involving a member of this newsgroup.




http://www.northjersey.com/news/crim...for_years.html



Gee-whiz Peter, he did it for the money. I'm shocked! i just bet
he will have a fun time in jail.

Drifter...

On 11/30/09 10:57 , Drifter wrote:
D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 11/29/09 18:59 , wrote:
Records show feds used ultra-right radio host for years
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Last updated: Sunday November 29, 2009, 9:21 AM
BY MIKE KELLY AND PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITERS
They called him "Valhalla."

But it was more than a nickname.

For more than five years, Hal Turner of North Bergen lived a double
life.



WeeeEEEEeeelll... That would go a long way to explaining a couple of
incidents on his broadcast involving a member of this newsgroup.




http://www.northjersey.com/news/crim...for_years.html



Gee-whiz Peter, he did it for the money. I'm shocked!


Aren't you, though?

This guy begged for money on SW, the internet and in e-mails and
newsgroup postings every chance he got.

He was in Real Estate in New Jersey for a while. No shortage of
cash there.

Got thousands of our tax dollars from FBI as well? Damn. I'm in
the wrong business.




i just bet
he will have a fun time in jail.



LOL! Ya think?

Military Hardware Movements Into California! Video
www.stevequayle.com/index1.html
cuhulin

www.dailypaul.com/node/116992

Metinks I prefer to stay right here in the backwater hick town of
Jacksonnnnn,Me see see pee pee eye!
cuhulin

In article ,
says...
Military Hardware Movements Into California! Video
www.stevequayle.com/index1.html
cuhulin



LOL, it's a clip of Canadian military vehicles being transported across
Canada. Why does that upset/interest you anyway? Notice how they edited
it before you can get a good look at the locomotive? That seems to be a
common thing done to videos by some people for reasons readily apparent.
It almost never, ever works. Too many people have too good a memory for
it to fly. And the people trying to pass it off for something it's not
are too dumb.

Besides, there are military vehicles on trains all the time. Means
nothing. I've seem trains of tanks and stuff dozens and dozens of times
over the years. I might have even taken a couple pics. This time of
year, it happens a lot, since the fall is prime wargames season.
--

BDK..
Leader of the nonexistent paid shills.
Non Jew Jew Club founding member.
Former number one Kook Magnet, title passed to Iarnrod.

In article ,
says...
www.dailypaul.com/node/116992

Metinks I prefer to stay right here in the backwater hick town of
Jacksonnnnn,Me see see pee pee eye!
cuhulin



Wouldn't want you to leave Bugtussle and maybe learn something. That
video is totally ridiculous...
--

BDK..
Leader of the nonexistent paid shills.
Non Jew Jew Club founding member.
Former number one Kook Magnet, title passed to Iarnrod.