FBI's arrest of Hannity pal Hal Turner has been a long time coming
[Photo h/t
Well, we've known for some time that Patrick Fitzgerald doesn't mess around. Just ask Rod Blagejovich and Scooter Libby. Yesterday Hal Turner, Sean Hannity's erswhile friend, got the same lesson:
CHICAGO—Hal Turner, an intermittent internet radio talk show host and blogger, was arrested today by FBI agents at his home in North Bergen, N.J., on a federal complaint filed in Chicago alleging that he made internet postings threatening to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb.
Internet postings on June 2 and 3 proclaimed “outrage” over the June 2, 2009, handgun decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer, of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, further stating, among other things: “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.” The postings included photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location.
Turner, 47, of North Bergen, N.J., was arrested this morning after FBI agents went to his residence to execute a search warrant. He was charged with threatening to assault and murder three federal judges with intent to retaliate against them for performing official duties in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago. He is scheduled to have an initial court appearance at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Shipp in U.S. District Court in Newark.
“We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who announced the charges with Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Amanda Terkel at Think Progress has more details.
Turner was already facing charges in Connecticut for similar threats issued to state officials there.
There is at least a touch of irony here: Turner's previous threats involving Judge Lefkow were referenced in these posts. Turner wrote:
“Apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit court didn’t get the hint after those killings. It appears another lesson is needed.”
Some of us wondered if Turner hadn't crossed the line into issuing real threats back in 2005. Now it appears the FBI has decided he has.
This is welcome news, but it's probably long overdue.
Now if only the FBI would take threats against abortion-clinic doctors every bit as seriously.
they even admitted it's mission impossible at this point.
Sean Hannity too?
absolutely
then get weiner, el druggo and the rest of the evil wingnut talkers
jail cell, with a few gang bangers.
with Big Bertha and Bubba
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
Rumor has it that Bill O'Reilly is taking a long vacation to any country without an extridition treaty with the U.S.
in the mugshot.
Another Horst Wessel wannabe.
One hopes the difference is between a party apparatchik running the justice dept, and someone genuinely trying to uphold the ideals the office is founded upon.
If that were the case there would be plenty of bankers going to prison and investigation into the chimp's war crimes.
Take your racists comments elsewhere.
FBI doesn't investigate death threats when they are made by Republicans.
See Michael 'Savage' Weiner.
Hal Turner used the worst 'intent' in his 'kill the Connecticut lawmakers' blogpost, so they reluctantly had to do something about that. If he had never said 'intent', then he would have been scott free.
Believe me, they don't want to have to arrest their operatives*, but sometimes the Feebs are forced to do it, if not just to save some shred of credibility.
* Hal Turner has claimed on several occasions to be a Confidential Informant for the FBI.
known to blackmail people into being informants, and I suspect getting dirt on Turner wasn't too hard. It seems to be fairly widely knows that Turner is closeted. Anyone know?
and hannity comming out of a closet a few weeks ago!
republicanism is a mental illness!
What kind of jail sentence does he face if convicted? Anyone know?
x
Next up, the Hal Turner Show on the Fox Propaganda Network.
Isn't that where all the lunatics go...?
Bully O'Reilly, Shithead Hannity, the scary and sick Glen Beck, the
friend of Todd and Sarah, Greta Van Sustren...they should eventually all end up together in the same loonie bin.
Woody McBreairty
so maybe they will bring him on board.
They should put them all in a house together and make it a reality TV Show. Considering the entire cast are egotistical, shameless, hate mongering bullshit artists, the drama is inevitable.
Didn't she threaten the life of a member of the SCOTUS?
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
They need to knock on her door before she takes off on her broom.
NOBODY 2012
One of the most important things we need to do in order to stop corporate fascism in this country, is to pry the media levers out of the hands of the rightwing lunatic fringe.
These kooks have no morals, no brains, no sense of decency, and in many places no audience. But there they are, everyday - spewing their insane bullshit on every other goddamned radio station.
One hundred years from now, people in universities will study this period in time as a prime example of why the Fairness Doctrine had to be reinstated - and made part of the constitution.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
See Futurama.
These people are stark raving mad!
No honesty, no honor, no integrity, no morals, just greed and the ability to remain unashamed of the lies and stupid remarks they make.
republicanism is a mental illness!
threats to Obama, not so much
Some stuff you can't make up!
It wouldn't be so serious if they were black judges.
republicans still believe a black man is only 3/5ths of a person.
republicanism is a mental illness!
took the words right out of my mouth.
NOBODY 2012
Do you want your gum back?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
You'll find yourself so far back in jail, they'll be telegraphing your beans to you.
is different from Bill O'Reilly, how? Use of the word "intent or whatever aside, what he did is no different than what O'Reilly did to Doctor Tiller. I want to know why we don't have a picture of Billo holding up the little plaque.
for Rupert Murdoch, which makes him doubly hard to arrest. The laws apply differently to those people, you know.
But if you have a lot of money justice is a little more equal for you.
Remember whan OJ had money?
Now you see what has happened to him when his money ran out?
That is justice in America! Or republican justice where money equals free speech!
republicanism is a mental illness!
the fuck out of the country. seize all his assets in the US, and shut down fox news, and arrest EVERYONE that works for him. Top to fuckin bottom.
That's what I would do if I had the authority. Declare murdoch an enemy of the state, and act accordingly.
think about it...murdoch is bankrolling an organization that is anti-American.
expresses your take on things pretty well. Not uncommon down through history though. But the Marxist inspired mass murdering generally ensues shortly after the activity you've described.
You sound just as bad as everyone on the right who called antiwar protesters "unamerican" and "terrorists".
Only an idiot, with questionable intent, is going to broadcast his intent to commit a capital crime against a federal official. I have to wonder whether his intentions are valid, or whether he is trying to incite someone else to actually do it? We have far too many psychos willing to 'do God's work'. Then guys like Hannity, Limburger, Coultergeist, etc, will wash their hands of the affair and claim personal innocence.
Notwithstanding the First Amendment, I personally believe they are guilty co-conspiring in the crime itself. BTW (David): It was nice to see your picture and interview. Now I can recognize you walking down the streets.
than the husband or wife who attempts to hire someone to kill a spouse. He may not have ever planned on doing this deed himself, but with posting the addresses, personal information and room numbers of the judges, stating they should be killed, he was clearly attempting to get some unhinged listener to do something.
As the law has always stated, freedom of speech does not include a right to yell fire in a crowded theatre.
Perhaps this will slow down the likes of Michael Savage and Glenn Beck by giving their lawyers food for thought.
Too bad he's not one of kind.
I would be willing to bet that if you met this punk in a dark alley unarmed, he would probably soil himself and cry like a baby after crawling into the fetal position.
Either that, or he would offer you $20 dollars if he could fallate you, so you wouldn't beat him up.
Because everyone knows how menacing liberals can look.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
looking at the size of this guys jaws would you want him to " chomp " on you , know your enemy this guy is not someone who would blow you , rather someone who would blow you away .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
I said "unarmed," and I didn't mention wanting anything from this psycho, except maybe for him to join a ritual suicide society.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
TRUE!
Maybe... it was Chicago, not "real America?"
To redirect federal resources from the fight against terrorism to investigating and arresting your dumb ass threats?
“Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.”
Yeah that's it,they need to be KILLED.
You fucking nutcase.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
I wonder if it ever dawned on him that these judges decided the way they did, because they didn't want anymore innocent people killed by psychotic wackjobs with guns?
Oh, never mind.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Hal is most likely CIA. Hackers hacked his server some time ago, and found an email from him to the FBI essentially saying that he was sending them (the FBI) the kooks who corresponded with him.
"Allegations that Turner acts as an informant to the FBI surfaced after unidentified hackers claimed on Turner's website's forums that they had read email correspondence between him and an FBI agent, apparently his handler.[35] This led to a discussion on a neo-Nazi website on January 10, 2008, in which Turner revealed he was quitting political work, was ending his radio show and that he was separating "from the 'pro-White' movement".[35] Both the FBI and Turner declined to comment on the matter.[35] The Southern Poverty Law Center later reported that they had "revealed... that Turner was an FBI informant"[36] and the Anti-Defamation League reported that "a neo-Nazi Website had posted material reportedly found by the hackers, including alleged exchanges between himself and law enforcement agents that indicated that Turner had been providing information to them.""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Turner
good info.
Now, if they can only find a reason to arrest Wiener Savage....
billo , beck , and who else ?
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
It's the shiny object that distracts from the real issues.
Torture cover up? Insurance companies writing our health plan? Bankers stealing hundreds of billions?
Who cares?
There's a
left wing terroristright wing bogeyman out there.Don't look behind the curtain. Focus on the WAR!
Bill O'Reilly works it from the Right.
But we'd be idiots to assume that corporate interests wouldn't work it from the Left as well.
It's the same game. Feel like being a sucker another time around?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I despise the Foxengruppe and its wannabes as much as anyone, but there is a First Amendment line here. I imagine more than one person commenting here made comments about our recent White House Occupant of a similar nature, albeit not on the radio. And frankly, I don't care about off the wall comments like this, nor am I totally confident in having our federal police arresting people for making them. J. Edgar Hoover, not W, was the closest we ever came to a dictator.
I think our clearest constitutional position is that no one has the right to use the public airwaves to incite violence. We, not Rupert Murdoch, own those airwaves, despite all that is done to obscure that. We have the right to throw off the air those who promote crimes, including murder of judges, abortion providers, etc. That's a pretty basic "community standard" that most Americans would agree with, and we should be fighting for it.
In 1971, the corporate media simply stopped talking about SDS, the Panther Party, etc. The support for those groups dried up to a large extent. I'm not comparing the politics of the two -- I was in SDS -- but just pointing out that our media, esp. TV, has a huge amplifying impact. Yes, without Fox we would still have thousands of racist psychopaths, but they would no longer be a coherent national force being given marching orders on the air.
http://www.user.shentel.net/llyates
I remember the SDS , and CORE , SNIC , BP , ETC , . So what do you suggest we do , I vote and urge all to do the same . I do not believe " we change the system from the inside " , that is a cop out ( or a buy/throw out ) even then they where not prepared to be what it would take to be radical .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
Making threats and posting people's names and addresses on Internet sites as potential targets for some nut job should be illegal. It's clearly a form of intimidation and is dangerous.
is not turn around fair play ? .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
No. Not if by turn around you mean adopting the same tactics. If his speech does amount to inciting violence, then he is guilty of a crime and should be prosecuted, within the confines of the law. Vigilantism doesn't fix anything.
A while back it was reported that Hal Turner was offering for sale his archive of recorded off air phone chats with him and Hannity, supposedly for $1 million.
I would assume somebody friendly to Hannity/Faux bought them and destroyed them, as that story vanished and nothing more was heard of those tapes, or nobody could be bothered to buy them...
Now assuming certain celeb faces on TV are in the employ of TLAs, and also theres a pecking order of usefulness, maybe the FBI have arrested Turner and would be ransacking his lair to get those recordings buried.
Another thing to wonder about is the use of Fitzgerald, he is top tier celeb/political federal attorney type, not somebody they would use/waste on a minor case.
Turner after being hacked and 'outed' as maybe a TLA asset is now only useful for this exact purpose, to serve as a message to others who cross the line !
Popcorn time.
Oh, Michael "Savage" Weiner, they're warming up an orange jumpsuit and bracelets for ya! Start practicing your frogmarch, it's a little different than the goose-step they taught you boys at Reichsmarshall Murdoch's Bund meetings.....
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
Now this moron is having a little chat with the authorities. Are Hannity, O'Reilly and Beck next? (crosses fingers)
NOBODY 2012
progressives should address any discussion about hannity to include;
“the man supports terrorists, we know this as a fact so how can you take that man seriously when he claims he is some kind of patriot?…when that person gives advice you know it is not going to be in the best interest of our country, he pals around with terrorists and thinks they are wonderful people”
Hal Turner has been going off the rails, what with his failing audience and popularity. I suppose he was watching how Coulter and the hater super celebs were getting all the publicity, and had to compete with them in outrageous...
I wonder how long he will have that fascist smirk on his face once he gets traded for a pack of Marlboro's inside the lock-up.
"Squeal like a pig!"
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
I'm sorry, but I don't see anal rape as the proper punishment for criminals.
I pity the cellie who will get stuck with the putz.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
According to the chart behind him, this twerp isn't even 5' 6" in height. Could this be a case of short man anger?
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Not that there is anything wrong with being short. However, both him and Michael Weiner (don't call him Savage please) are on the short end of things. Rush Limbaugh is no towering statue either... maybe we're seeing a "short man" syndrome being manifested with these pervs? That may have been compounded with other "hidden" shortcomings...
Let's hope Hannratty is next.
Maybe the Dishonorable Senator Cornyn from Texas will be one of this dudes character witnesses.
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