We’ve all heard about right-wing radio wingnut and notorious neo-nazi Hal Turner getting arrested yesterday afternoon, but when I clicked on some links to flesh out the story, things got a whole lot more twisted than expected. Almost Ludlum-esque in the “nothing is as it seems” department.
Now, it’s not like Turner has suddenly upped his ‘usual’ rhetoric or anything. He’s been trying hard to incite violence among his certifiable fan club for years. He often calls for bombings, assassinations and open armed rebellion. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (which keeps close tabs on the haters), Turner may also be on the payroll of the FBI. SPLC’s Mark Potok wrote in the Spring 2008 Intelligence Report that…
On Jan. 1, unidentified hackers electronically confronted Turner in the forum of his website for “The Hal Turner Show.” After a heated exchange, they told turner that they had successfully hacked into his E-mails and found correspondence with an FBI agent who is apparently Turner’s handler. Then they posted an alleged July 7 E-mail to the agent in which Turner transmits a death threat sent in to his site that targeted Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.). “Once again,” Turner writes his FBI handler, “my fierce rhetoric has served to flush out a possible crazy.” In what is allegedly a portion of another of his E-mails, Turner discusses the money he is paid.