Paper: Internet Host Really Was Undercover Fed Agent

Hal Turner

Internet talk show host HAL TURNER, facing charges of making terrorist threats against three federal judges in CHICAGO, has claimed that he was set up and was really working as an undercover agent for the FBI; now the BERGEN RECORD reports that its investigation has turned up evidence confirming that TURNER was indeed working for the FBI.

The paper's MIKE KELLY and PETER J. SAMPSON report that TURNER was spying on his own right wing extremist followers under the code name "Valhalla". At one point, the paper says, the agency sent TURNER to BRAZIL to report on a plot to send non-military supplies to Iraqi "resistance fighters" battling American troops. An FBI memo obtained by the RECORD says that TURNER "has proven highly reliable and is in a unique position to provide vital information on multiple subversive domestic organizations ... (his) statistical accomplishments include over 100 subjects identified, over 10 acts of violence prevented and multiple subjects arrested."

TURNER and the agency butted heads several times, with TURNER at one point quitting and then being reinstated.

"The audience loves the rip-roaring radio psycho," TURNER wrote in an e-mail to the FBI in an attempt to assuage fears that his rhetoric might indicate intent to act on his own part. "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." But he was charged after he responded to the three judge panel's ruling on handguns by posting on JUNE 2nd, along with the judges' pictures and office locations, "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed. Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty."

TURNER is set to face trial in BROOKLYN this week on the threat charges. He also faces separate charges in CONNECTICUT for allegedly inciting violence against state officials.

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