HUDSON COUNTY — The Record of Hackensack produced a doozy of an article today in its Sunday paper. They reviewed federal records and found that North Bergen-based white supremacist radio DJ Hal Turner was paid by the FBI to report on certain supremacist groups, and even to head to Brazil to help with their battle against Iraqi resistance fighters.
Turner was arrested this year for allegedly making veiled threats against federal judges. But all the while, he was serving as an informant paid by the feds, according to the Record.
Read it in their own words:
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.