Alex Constantine - December 1, 2009
Was Sean Hannity's old friend, flatulent-racist-radio-mouth Hal "Valhalla" Turner, actually an "informant," as the FBI maintains, or a neo-nazi propagandist, recruiter and agent provocateur? If he was only gathering information on white supremacists, why did he issue death threats to the judiciary? ...
Hal Turner says he feels betrayed by the FBI after spying on white supremacists. He now is facing charges of making threats against judges.
northjersey.com | November 29, 2009
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.
1992: Serves as the North Jersey coordinator for Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign.
1994: Organizes a rally in Trenton, attended by members of the white supremacist Nationalist Movement, in support of WABC radio host Bob Grant.
1996: On Curtis Sliwa’s radio show, reveals the name of a sex offender who had moved to Englewood, thus violating the confidentiality restrictions of Megan’s Law.
1997: Manages the New Jersey gubernatorial campaign of libertarian Murray Sabrin.
2000: Enters elective politics and comes in last in a three-way primary race for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Bob Menendez.
2002: Begins broadcasting daily radio show; speaks at rally of the Aryan Nations in north-central Pennsylvania.
2003: Recruited by the FBI as confidential informant “Valhalla”; attends National Alliance meeting in Elmwood Park and its leadership conference in West Virginia.
2004: Provides information on the National Alliance, Aryan Nations and Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, as well as on a white supremacist plotting to bribe a judge and steal the evidence in his cocaine trial in Bergen County.
2005: Designated an extra-territorial source by FBI headquarters, travels to São Paulo, Brazil, and meets a noted white supremacist who wanted to donate up to $1 million to the American National Alliance. He also reportedly meets a member of the Brazilian Arab Society who proposes a venture to ship U.S. consumer goods to the Iraqi resistance.
2006: Travels to rallies around the country and warns FBI about pending attacks on two white supremacists suspected of being informers, and a television news reporter.
2007: Citing serious control problems, the FBI’s Detroit office closes Turner as a confidential informant after he refuses to call off a “Rally Against Black Gang Terrorism” he organized in Kalamazoo, Mich. “While source’s closing may negatively impact the timeliness of future receipt of information concerning potential extremists, this information is not so valuable as to outweigh source’s uncooperative and renegade behavior.” It is not the end of his relationship with the FBI.
2008: Hackers break into Turner’s computers and post an exchange of e-mails between him and his FBI handlers. He is warned to close down his show and Web site or other e-mails would be made public.
2009: Turner is arrested in separate cases for allegedly posting threats against Connecticut lawmakers and three federal judges in Chicago.
Sources: Record archives, government documents
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Records_show_feds_used_ultra-right_radio_host_for_years.html